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You may have noticed that we were experiencing problems with the search feature in the Profiles site at the end of last week and beginning of this week. I'm pleased to say that this outage has now been resolved by our search service provider, SiteLevel, and we were able to restore normal search on Wednesday morning. I do apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused some subscribers - thank you for your patience.

Our favourite ads this week: 

You're probably still recovering from those scary/shocking Canadian public service announcements we featured here last week. So no nasty ads this time, just silly humour and good-looking girls. We're very fond of the new US ad for Kia Motors, conceived by indie shop Davidandgoliath. It's astonishing what a long cultural shelf-life the 1980s movie Flashdance has enjoyed. On average at least one new ad every month seems to make some visual reference to it, and especially that water-splash image. (Only two weeks ago, we featured a new Orangina ad with a similar, though less tongue-in-cheek, routine). A round of applause, please, for the lead in this Kia ad, who turns in a splendidly ludicrous performance. But boos and hisses for the extras playing the customers, who couldn't keep their own feet still. The new ad from Grey London for Beechams cold remedy, entitled The Battle of Brian, mines a similarly silly vein, although the humour here is more Pythonesque than pastiche. Quite an epic, in fact, and a sign that the creative revival at Grey is continuing.

So much for humour; bring on the girls. BBH has a new ad out for Baileys liqueur, which proves once again the enduring fascination of watching, well, almost anything in slow motion. Lovely ad, and a nice choice of music. Finally, how could we not resist bringing you this promo ad for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which airs in the US on CBS on Dec 4th? The delicious Heidi Klum reveals an equally lovely comic talent. 

In the news this past week: Advertisers & Media

Amazon unveiled what it hopes will become the future of the printed word this week. The Amazon Kindle is the company's debut in the world of electronic book readers. Weighing just over 10 ounces (less than most paperbacks) it downloads its data quickly and wirelessly through Sprint's mobile phone network (rather than using less reliable wifi connections) and can hold around 200 books at a time, as well as newspaper content through partnerships with The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Time, among others. Books, however, are key to the reader. "Our vision," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the launch, "is to have every book that has ever been in print available in less than 60 seconds." Despite a hefty $399 price tag, the device sold out within minutes of appearing on the Amazon website. For more on the Kindle see here.

Meanwhile, the launch of Apple's iPhone in Germany and France has been complicated by laws in those countries which prevent exclusive deals of the sort preferred by Apple. In the US, for example, the iPhone is only available on the AT&T network, and buyers who attempted to unlock their phones for use on rival networks had them automatically disabled by a wireless software update. Apple negotiated similar exclusive partnerships with O2 in the UK, T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France. T-Mobile launched the iPhone exclusively at the beginning of November. However, a lawsuit brought by Vodafone highlighted the fact that Germany's competition laws prohibit such exclusivity, and T-Mobile has been ordered to open the phones up to other networks. As a result, although the main offer is a E399 phone with a two-year T-Mobile contract, the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary has also begun selling unlocked network-free iPhones for E999. The company is appealing against this ruling. The phone goes on-sale in France next week, three weeks later than expected because of delays caused by this legal wrinkle, and Orange is expected to offer the same prices for locked and unlocked phones. 

Nike appears to be suffering a change of heart over its strategy to develop satellite brands for sale through mass discount outlets. The footwear giant acquired discount brand Starter in 2004, and used it as a doorway into Wal-Mart, where Nike was not otherwise available. Since then Nike's Starter has effectively become one of the retailer's in-house footwear and apparel brands. This year, Nike inked a similar deal with PayLess ShoeSource for another discount brand, Tailwind. However that strategy now seems to be in turnaround. Nike this week sold Starter to private-label manufacturer Iconix, which also makes Joe Boxer for Sears and Candie's for Kohl's. It confirmed in an investment presentation that its other discount brands are also under review. Nike CFO Donald Blair described the value segment as "a business that did not play to our strengths".

With investors already jittery as a result of the credit squeeze, not even another strong set of figures from Starbucks was enough to prevent a sudden mark-down in that company's share price. For the year ending September 2007, the coffee retailer reported annual sales up more than 20% (for the tenth consecutive year) and net income up 19%. In 4Q alone, Starbucks generated a 35% increase in revenues and a 22% hike in profits. But the news that, despite the increases, the company had witnessed a fall in US customer traffic was enough to trigger a 9% slide in Starbucks share price. To mitigate against any further decline in traffic, Starbucks this month launched its first ever TV ad campaign.

As expected, Kraft arranged the transfer of its substantial Post cereals division to private label competitor Ralcorp. Brands leaving the Kraft portfolio include Honey Bunches of Oats, Shredded Wheat and Grape Nuts. The deal was structured for tax reasons as an all-share spin-off, so Kraft shareholders will end up with a substantial holding in an enlarged Ralcorp. The effective value of the deal was $2.6bn. Meanwhile, SABMiller announced an agreement to acquire family-owned Dutch premium brewer Grolsch for E816m. Deutsche Telekom was said to have opened exploratory talks with US-based IT services group EDS to discuss the feasibility of a takeover. 

Google's planned $3.1bn acquisition of ad sales network DoubleClick could be at risk. European regulators have begun a full investigation after a preliminary assessment agreed that the deal could raise monopoly concerns. No decision is expected until April 2008. The takeover is also being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission. Two senior figures from the Senate's antitrust judicial panel have already expressed their "grave concern" and urged a thorough investigation.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Leading US multicultural agency GlobalHue announced that it would split into four separate businesses. Currently, GlobalHue is the only major multicultural shop which offers marketing services targeting all three of the country's main minority groups. Now it will spin off separate units, although the new agencies will continue to share centralised back office services provided by the holding company. The three principal units of the new business will be GlobalHue African American, GlobalHue Latino and GlobalHue Asian Pacific Islander. A fourth unit, GlobalHue Next, will target what the group described as a general multicultural market. Don Coleman remains group chairman & CEO.

Elsewhere in the multicultural sector, General Motors announced a complete overhaul of the assignments for its African American and Hispanic marketing. GM is transferring multicultural duties for several of its brands back to their general market agencies, notably Leo Burnett and Modernista. The main losers are African American agency Carol H Williams and Hispanic shops Vigilante and Accent Marketing.

McCann Erickson's hold on its flagship Microsoft account could be at risk. The software group called a pitch for a new consumer assignment with billings of around $50m, or a sixth of Microsoft's current US spend. McCann is taking part in the review, but faces strong competition from rivals said to include Fallon, JWT and Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

In other account assignments, Bank of America called a review of its media, out of OMD's Prometheus division; Jenny Craig weight-loss centers appointed Y&R Los Angeles; and Hotels.com appointed TBWA\New York. 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