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Our favourite ads this week: 

This week's highest-profile new ad is the charming Play-Doh by Fallon London for Sony's Bravia TV range. The spot was a considerable technical challenge, shot on the streets of New York and involving the work of 40 stop-motion animators. It's a lovely spot, but its launch has been significantly undermined by accusations that the central conceit of brightly coloured bunnies running amok in New York had been entirely lifted from a painting by artists Kozue and Dan Kitchens, who work under the name Kozyndan. They claim they were contacted two years ago by the ad's production house Passion Pictures, and were asked to supply examples of their work, but then heard nothing more. Sony and Fallon have both strongly denied that the idea for the ad was nicked, but there are undeniable similarities between Kozyndan's painting and Fallon's ad... Make up your own mind: see part of the painting here and more about Kozyndan here.  

Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles is responsible for two great new ads for Toyota's Tundra and Tacoma pick-ups, and they're so different in style that I can't resist featuring both of them. First up is this epic stunt showing off the car's braking power and acceleration, both just powerful enough to save the driver from being transformed into metal-coated pizza. Even cooler is this viral clip which borrows the style, terminology and ethos of the hugely popular World of Warcraft online gaming portal to earn maximum points. The nerdo voiceovers for the three would-be warriors are spot on. "Did you see me lay down the law? I am the LAWGIVER!" Totally awesome.

Also, a great Australian ad for Foster's Group's Pure Blonde beer. (Have you ever noticed how beer ads are always guaranteed to bring out the very best in Australian ad agencies?). This one, Pure Place, is by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. 

Finally, I urge you try out the new viral campaign (above) promoting Dexter, a cable show on America's Showtime network about a forensic detective who moonlights as a serial killer. The show's marketing has already stirred up some controversy with its blood-spattered trailers, but this web-based campaign opens a whole new can of evil worms. The show's site at Sliceoflifetv.com allows you to build a fake news report in which you can nominate someone you know as the killer's next victim. The report is then emailed to your unwitting target, who most probably passes out when he or she sees the footage, which includes a message daubed in blood on a wall naming them. It's horribly cruel but undeniably brilliant. London-based digital agency Ralph is responsible for the campaign. (See also this great blog entry by the New York Times Louise Story about the campaign).

In the news this past week: Advertisers & Media

Further consolidation is underway in the global beer market. Global giant SABMiller announced plans to merge its brewing business in the US with that of Molson Coors to create a stronger competitor to local giant Anheuser-Busch. The deal, which is expected to complete early next year, will combine the US #2 brewer Miller with #3 Coors. SABMiller and Molson Coors are to have equal voting stakes in the enlarged business, which will have a combined market share of around 29% (Anheuser has 48%), and sales of approximately $6.6bn. As a result, the domestic market will become in effect a two-horse race. The next largest single competitor is Heineken, with local share of just 4%.

The iconic Campbell's Soup brand is to disappear from the UK's supermarket shelves in Spring 2008. The US-based Campbell Soup Company sold its entire UK and Irish business to Premier Foods in 2006, transferring the Oxo, Batchelors and Homepride brand portfolios as well as a license to market Campbell's familiar red-and-white tinned condensed soups. However permission to use the Campbell's name is due to expire in summer 2008. As a result, from this month, tins of Campbell's soup will start to carry the strapline "soon to be Batchelors", before officially adopting the Batchelors brand name in March next year. After that point they will carry a new strapline of "Formerly Campbell's. Same great taste" until the license finally expires mid-year. Campbell's itself is prohibited from marketing soups in the UK under its own name again until 2013.

Cadbury Schweppes cancelled plans for a trade sale of its North American beverages business and instead is to push ahead with a spin-off to shareholders, scheduled for Spring 2008. The company has also been in preliminary talks with the charitable trust which controls US confectionery giant Hershey. Hershey already has links with Cadbury, and produces several of the British company's chocolate brands in the US under license. However, the company's profits have been under intense pressure this year, and the trust is thought to want to structure a deal to boost performance without unduly diluting its own shareholding. Last week, Hershey's CEO Rick Lenny resigned, apparently in frustration over the interference of the trust in the business.

Online advertising spend continues to soar. According to the latest research from the IAB and Pricewaterhousecoopers, online spend in the US broke the $5bn barrier for the first time in Q2 2007, up more than 25% on the year before and by around 65% on the same quarter in 2005. The full year figure is likely to end up in excess of $20bn. Search accounted for 41% of all spend. In the UK the online spend for the first half of 2007 was £1.3bn, up 41% on the same period in 2006. Paid search accounted for 57% of total spend. And according to new figures from US researcher ComScore, Google continues to dominate the global search market. Of the 61 billion internet searches carried out around the world in August 2007, more than 60% - or 37.1 billion inquiries in all - were made using Google. Yahoo was the #2 provider with around 14% share, followed by Chinese-language site Baidu with 5%, Microsoft's MSN and other sites with 3.5%, and Korea's MHN with 3.3%. The Asia-Pacific region made the most searches, coming in at 20.3 billion, followed by Europe with 18 billion, North America with 16 billion and Latin America with 4.7 billion.

The Hearst Corporation has become the apparent favourite to acquire the UK consumer magazine portfolio of struggling giant EMAP, which is currently engaged in breaking itself up. Hearst is already the owner of the UK's third-largest magazine publisher NatMags. The acquisition of EMAP would make it #2 just behind Time Warner's IPC. Hearst is reported to have made an indicative offer of £700m for EMAP's consumer publishing division. The group's business publishing, exhibitions and radio operations are also up for sale. Another media giant, NBC Universal, further swelled its portfolio of US cable assets with a $925m deal to acquire Oxygen Media, the independently owned entertainment network for women. Earlier this year, NBC also acquired women-oriented web portal iVillage.

Management problems at #3 US mobile carrier Sprint Nextel reached a crescendo this week with the resignation of chairman & CEO Gary Forsee. The company has not yet named a successor, but CFO Paul Saleh will step in as acting chief executive for the time being. Forsee had been under pressure from shareholders for some time over the company's poor recent financial performance and declining subscriber numbers. Sprint Nextel is forecast to report a net loss of almost 340,000 contract subscribers in its 3Q results, due at the beginning of November. Meanwhile, Andrew Witty was named as the next CEO of GlaxoSmithKline. He will replace JP Garnier in May 2008, becoming the group's youngest-ever head at 44.

As expected, US computer manufacturer Gateway announced plans to buy its European counterpart Packard Bell. Gateway is itself in the process of being acquired by the Taiwanese company Acer in a consolidation which will push the combined group into the position of the world's #3 PC manufacturer, ahead of Chinese rival Lenovo. Barclays' offer for Dutch bank ABN Amro was declined by the latter's shareholders in favour of the rival consortium bid from Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Fortis. 

Chrysler narrowly averted a full strike at its US factories last night, pulling a last minute agreement out of the bag in its talks with the United Auto Workers labour union. Some workers had already walked out yesterday afternoon, when the talks' original 11am deadline was breached. Full details aren't yet available but the terms of the agreement are thought broadly to resemble the pact finalised with General Motors last week and approved by GM's workforce yesterday.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Fast-expanding marketing group Nitro has agreed a deal to acquire Cummins & Partners, one of Australia's  best-known independent agencies. Nitro is to take an immediate 50% holding in Cummins, and will buy the remaining shares over the next two years. Although its roots are in Australia and China, Nitro has rapidly established a significant global network since 2002, with the support of now-global clients such as Mars and Unilever. 

In the US, Starcom MediaVest Group has relaunched its second-string media brand StarLink as a digital media specialist, under the new name of Spark Communications.

You win some, you lose some. After their capture of Mattel's global media last week, Carat was put on notice by three other clients this week. Hyundai is weighing up options for its US media on the Hyundai and Kia brands; and Walt Disney and WeightWatchers both called reviews of their pan-European account. Carat is defending in each case. In UK creative assignments, commercial broadcaster ITV appointed Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and the Conservative Party named Euro RSCG. Also BT confirmed a review of its UK media. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands