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Our favourite ads this week: 

Christmas is coming and retailers in the UK have been unshackling their chequebooks in pursuit of some celebrity pixie dust to sprinkle on their marketing. The biggest of the Big Guns so far are Tesco and Marks & Spencer. We can't decide which of the two campaigns we prefer. Tesco has inked a mutually beneficial pact with the Spice Girls who have some selling of their own to do, what with the upcoming reunion tour and greatest hits album. Perhaps the biggest surprise of this ad is that the girls turn out to be not bad at all at comedy. (How times have changed since Spiceworld: The Movie!). Surely a light-hearted seasonal TV special must also be in the offing. Marks & Spencer tries to top last year's Shirley Bassey-meets-Bond spectacular with Christmas Belles. It has its own girlpower line-up, featuring several of its regular spokesmodels as well as Lizzie (Mick's kid) Jagger, Laura (Mrs David) Bailey, and also a much-much-too-thin Antonio Banderas in the role of "Him". The Tesco ad is by Red Brick Road; M&S by RKCR/Y&R.

The ripples cast into the pond by Cadbury's drumming gorilla viral continue to spread. Following the frankly disappointing Peperami pastiche that was doing the rounds two weeks ago comes this much more satisfying (in so many ways) tribute from Wonderbra. Golly, that thing really does give support, doesn't it. Two cups of joy indeed. (Incidentally, we can't seem to track down who was responsible for the film - somebody email us and we'll namecheck the guilty parties next week).

Finally, two shattering public safety announcements from the Canadian government's Workplace Safety & Insurance Board. We're used to in-your-face shock effects in this sort of ad, but I'm not sure any other campaign that I've ever seen has quite the same impact as this series. Most of you will be able to handle the ad for safety in shops, but I'd advise only the very bravest to watch this one for safety in the kitchen, which is guaranteed to haunt you for days. Both ads are running on Canadian TV after the 8pm watershed. Plaudits to DraftFCB Toronto, who developed the campaign.

In the news this past week: Advertisers & Media

Pharmaceutical giant Merck negotiated to settle the outstanding lawsuits it faces over its arthritis drug Vioxx with a fund totalling $4.85bn. That deal is widely considered a victory for the company - some observers originally forecast that Merck's total exposure could go as high as $50bn. However, the drug group has from the start taken an aggressive stance regarding its legal position. It avoided the option of settling out of court with plaintiffs, gambling instead that its long-term reputation as a healthcare business would be better served by free and open discussion of the issues before a judge. That has proved the right move. Out of 16 cases which have so far reached judgement, Merck has only lost 5, and won the other 11. Now it is offering all the remaining plaintiffs some form of payout, averaging $200,000 per claim, but with a higher payment in cases where there is a proof of a heart attack or stroke that might have been triggered by Vioxx. Though this amount is much lower than claimants might have received in a successful court case, Merck's legal record to-date shows that a plaintiff victory is no sure bet.

Australia was this week named as the world's top country brand for the second consecutive year. The Country Brand Index is jointly compiled by FutureBrand and Weber Shandwick from interviews with international travellers regarding the different strengths and weaknesses of individual countries. Areas covered include Best Country To Do Business In (2007 winner: the US), Best Country For Authenticity (2007 winner: New Zealand), Best Country for Rest & Relaxation (2007 winner: the Maldives) and so on. Sitting behind Australia in the overall top five were the US, UK, France and Italy. The index also identified Croatia, China and the United Arab Emirates as the top three "rising stars", which are likely to become major tourist destinations within the next five years. See the CBI website for the full results.

IBM mounted the biggest acquisition in its history this week with a $5bn offer for Cognos, a Canadian developer which specialises in business intelligence and performance management software. That deal is expected to bring to an end several years of intense consolidation within the enterprise software industry, in which a string of smaller companies have been picked off by giants SAP, Oracle and IBM.

Constellation Brands, already the world's biggest wine company, is to get bigger still with the acquisition of a small but significant wine portfolio owned by rival drinks group Fortune Brands. The portfolio is centred around super-premium Californian wine label Clos du Bois, supported by Geyser Peak, Wild Horse and Canyon Road premium wines. Constellation is paying $885m for the business.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Continuing the steady drift back towards reintegration of the different marketing disciplines unbundled by advertising agencies during the 1990s, Publicis Group announced a new model for its Leo Burnett network. From January, that agency is to be more closely integrated with sister media network Starcom MediaVest and interactive group Digitas under a shared umbrella name: The Insight Factory. Leo Burnett has already partially reabsorbed marketing services network Arc Worldwide - those two businesses now share a single management team although they retain separate branding. Under the Insight Factory's "open architecture model", Burnett, Starcom and Digitas will also continue to operate as separate brands, but shared clients (which include GM's Buick-Pontiac-GMC group) will be handled centrally by a single manager, who will co-ordinate the resources of all three agency networks as a separate profit centre.

Omnicom again dominated the Gunn Report ranking of the world's most creative agencies for 2007. BBDO was the most awarded network this year, the 5th time it has taken that accolade. TBWA\Chiat\Day was the most awarded agency, and TBWA Worldwide was the #3 network. DDB was the #4 network globally and the #1 in Europe, while its London outpost was the #3 agency. In the eight years since the launch of the Gunn Report rankings, there is only one year in which an Omnicom agency hasn't captured the #1 position. Saatchi & Saatchi were the #2 network this year, and Saatchi New York the #2 agency. The most awarded ads were Fallon's " Paint" for Sony in the broadcast category; R/GA's Nike+ campaign in interactive; and, breaking the Anglo-American domination of the prizes, an ad by Leo Burnett Bangkok for Clima Bicycle Locks in print.

Omnicom has begun to assemble a new global interactive network under the umbrella of Redurban, a Dutch digital shop it acquired earlier this year. This new network already has an office in Dallas, in the form of local shop Virion, spun out of Tribal DDB; and has representation in New York and London, also via DDB. Ultimately, however, Redurban is expected to operate wholly independently of any of Omnicom's main existing creative agency networks.

In account assignments, Doner resigned Blockbuster Video because of a dramatic reduction in client spend; Initiative USA added planning duties on Kao brands including Jergens and John Frieda (it already handled buying); Dyson brought its UK creative account inhouse (from VCCP); and Starcom took on consolidated media for Tele2 across Europe. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands