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Please note: the Adbrands Weekly Update will skip a week next week, and returns on November 1st.

Our favourite ads this week: 

This week: sex, cartoon violence and New York, three subjects which go together quite well, I think. First up is the new ad by Bartle Bogle Hegarty for the city of New York's tourism bureau. The film has provoked a certain amount of discontent among some New Yorkers, who feel its presentation of the city is too kitschy and sentimental. Nevertheless, it's an intriguingly soft-centred approach, not quite what you'd expect. Equally unexpected is the blood n' guts in this splendidly twisted spot by BETC Euro RSCG Paris for 13eme rue, the French cable crime channel. "Here comes Gali the alligator/He's a puppet decimator..." It's how I would make a kids' TV show as well. 

Now for the sex. Talking asses is an extraordinary ad for online data service Webcargo by Canadian agency Bleublancrouge. A very handsome set of asses they are too, though what they have to do with an online data service is anyone's guess. Who cares. It's an ad you're certain to remember (even if you don't remember who it's for). Is it really possible to smoke through your butt? Where on earth do you exhale? And finally, a lovely government-sponsored health warning from DDB Sydney, which shows what could happen to your "little fella" (and, guys, you know who I mean) if you don't look after him. Poor little chap.

In the news this past week: Advertisers & Media

Following up last week's merger announcement from Molson Coors and SABMiller in the US, British brewer Scottish & Newcastle is preparing to defend itself against a formal takeover bid from Carlsberg and Heineken. The Danish and Dutch brewers were reported to have contacted S&N senior management this week to forewarn them of the friendly offer, which is expected next week. Carlsberg is already S&N's partner in the successful Baltic Beverages Holdings joint venture, now Russia's #1 brewer. If the takeover succeeds, S&N would be broken up. Carlsberg would take full control of Baltic as well as S&N's French subsidiary Kronenbourg and its operations in Greece. Heineken would assume control of S&N's core UK operations, as well as interests in Portugal and Finland. Carlsberg and Heineken's offer could well prompt other companies to join the fray. Diageo is known to be considering an enhancement of its own beer business, currently limited to Guinness. US giant Anheuser-Busch is another possible bidder.

Nielsen Media Research released the first data from its commercials-monitoring service in the US, now known as C3 ratings (so-called because they calculate audience for the live ad break as well as for its playback on a digital video recorder for up to three days after broadcast). According to the figures, for the week of Sept 24th, audience for live ad breaks across the main five networks was, on average, around 3% lower than for the programmes in which they appeared. Viewers left the room, flipped channels or did something else till the programme came back on. Audiences aged 25-54 were the least likely to skip breaks, generating an average decline of only 1% in viewing figures. For over 50 year-olds, the figures fell by an average of 5%. In general, both advertisers and the networks were pleased with these results, which were broadly in line with expectations. Many had feared an even greater drop-off in viewers during ad breaks. However, skipping was far more common when programmes were watched post-broadcast on DVR. In this case, the level of skipping was much higher, with as much as 20% of audience fast-forwarding through ad breaks. In general the skipping percentage was higher in top-rated mass-market shows such as Survivor or Grey's Anatomy than in niche or cult fare like The Office or My Name Is Earl. For example, in the case of Grey's, around 6% of the 18-49 age group missed the ad breaks for the live airing, and 16% skipped them when watching on DVR.

Meanwhile, General Electric is reported to be once again actively mulling the sale of its NBC Universal entertainment subsidiary. The business has long underperformed other GE divisions, and NBC is still struggling to regain its position as the US #1 network. However, according to insiders, no decision will be made until after the 2008 Olympics, for which NBC holds US broadcast rights.

Coca-Cola announced an alliance with Italian coffee roaster Illy to jointly develop a range of ready-to-drink coffees for the US and other markets. The partnership is designed to combat the extraordinarily successful joint venture between PepsiCo and Starbucks which markets a ready-to-drink Frappuccino product. That drink, a huge hit in the US, is to launch into China and other markets early next year. Coca-Cola is already the leading marketer of RTD coffees in Japan (with its Georgia brand), but until recently was prevented from marketing coffee products in other countries because of an agreement with Nestle. Meanwhile PepsiCo upped the ante in the sports drinks sector, which it already dominates, with the launch of Gatorade Tiger, under a license from superstar golfer Tiger Woods. It is Woods' first venture into sports beverages, but he is already one of the world's highest-profile product endorsers. Golfweek magazine estimated that securing his services would have cost PepsiCo around $100m for a five-year contract. 

Always a man with an eye for opportunity, Richard Branson has inserted himself into the affairs of struggling British bank Northern Rock by saying that he is considering a bid for the business, backed by private equity investment. Under Branson's plan, Northern Rock would retain its public listing, and would absorb Virgin's personal finance subsidiary, Virgin Money. The company would adopt the Virgin Money name, and would be run by the latter's CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia. Branson's backers include US insurance giant AIG, and a fund run by Sir George Mathewson, a former chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland. Virgin is one of several bidders who have submitted a formal indication of interest to Northern Rock's board, but it is his involvement which has of course dominated the news coverage. Opinion is divided on how serious Branson's intentions are. Several commentators have questioned how, even with heavyweight backers, he could fund Rock's huge mortgage commitments, what he would do with its retail network and whether Jayne-Anne Gadhia is up to the challenge of running a PLC. This has led to suggestions that the real carrot for Branson here is not pulling off the deal, but capturing the headlines in his favourite role of defender of the public interest.

In the news this past week: Agencies

There appears to be some confusion over what exactly is happening to Motorola's advertising account. The trade press reported early in the week that the troubled mobile handset giant had reinstated Ogilvy & Mather as its global agency of record, ousting BBDO, which has handled projects in several markets including Europe. However according to chief marketing officer Ken "Casey" Keller, interviewed yesterday in the WSJ, BBDO remains the company's chosen global network for business-to-business communications. "On the business-to-consumer side," he said, "we're in a process of getting to a longer-term partnership structure. Right now Ogilvy & Mather does all our work in Latin America and Asia. We have been using them in the last several months in North America. So if Ogilvy & Mather turned out to be our global agency of record for our network, that would be great. But we still need real, good creative stimulus from several different creative teams. Some are O&M, maybe some from other couple of agencies that we developed relationships with. Our network decision will be made in the next 30 to 60 days. But we're not to the point we're making the final decision yet on exactly which agencies we're going to use."  The group was also reported earlier this week to be "moving towards" appointing MindShare as its global media agency. In response to that story, Carat, which currently handles US media, resigned from the account. 

Otherwise it was a generally quiet week for account assignments, apart from a handful of large appointments in the US. Carmichael Lynch picked up the creative and media accounts for Subaru without a pitch (from DDB). The Washington Mutual bank (known as WaMu) handed its business to TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles (from Leo Burnett). For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

As always, if you haven't already done so, please confirm your subscription to the free Adbrands Weekly Update by clicking here or on the link at the foot of this email. Thank you for your assistance! 


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands