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Our favourite ads this week: 

Argentina is fast developing a vibrant creative community to match those in the US, UK and France. Unilever has been among the first major marketers to take note of that fact. This latest spot for Lux, Neon Girl, now running globally, comes from independent Buenos Aires agency Santo, and is a stunner. Inventive, original, and definitely on our list as one of the best for the year to-date. Take the time to watch it more than once to get the full benefit of its wealth of detail. More from Santo in this space next week. 

HP continues to hit all the right buttons with its series of "personal" ads by Goodby Silverstein. The latest featured celebrity is fashion designer Vera Wang. The ad takes a superbly animated trawl through the contents of her PC. 

Digital effects are great, but there's nothing like doing it for real. Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney produced a stunning ad for Toohey's beer last year featuring a full-size medieval trebuchet. The follow-up features 30 giant balloon men, getting down to Tom Jones in a Sydney suburb. An infectiously enjoyable ad, which will almost certainly make you want to throw a street party right now! 

Finally, three elegant and mouth-watering spots for Lurpak butter from Wieden & Kennedy London. This one is Mushroom, but have a look at Bread and Potato as well.

In the news this week: Advertisers & Media

Toyota overtook General Motors for the first time ever to become the world's biggest carmaker. For the first quarter of 2007, Toyota's worldwide unit sales rose 9% to 2.35m cars and trucks, compared to 2.26m units for GM. Despite strong growth in international markets, GM's North American sales remain under considerable pressure.

A bidding war has broken out for Dutch banking group ABN Amro. The company had been in exclusive negotiations with Barclays of the UK for some time, and the two groups finally agreed terms at the start of the week. Under this all-share plan, Barclays offered a price of E36.25 for each ABN Amro share. The two businesses would merge to form one of the world's five biggest banks and its #1 institutional asset manager. But the Dutch group's US subsidiary, LaSalle Bank of Boston, would be sold to Bank of America for $21bn. A few days later, a rival bid was tabled by a consortium comprising Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander of Spain and Fortis of Belgium. This bid raised the share offer to E39 per share, payable in cash not shares, but is almost certainly conditional on termination of the sale of LaSalle. The consortium is believed to favour a break-up of ABN Amro: RBS wants to acquire LaSalle; Santander would absorb the Dutch group's business in Latin America, and its Netherlands operations would become part of Fortis.

In another major deal, pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca announced the acquisition of US biotech developer MedImmune, which specialises in drugs and vaccines made from genetically engineered versions of human proteins. Its most significant current product is the inhalable flu vaccine FluMist, and it has an number of other promising compounds in long-term development. Sales were just $1.5bn in 2006, but AstraZeneca has agreed a purchase price of $15.6bn, which also represents a near-55% premium to the smaller company's current share price. It was said to have fought off intense competition from rival bidders including Eli Lilly and Merck. A key advantage to the new breed of biotech firms is that their products are very hard for generic manufacturers to copy, making them an attractive add-on for traditional pharma companies wrestling with patent expiry on their chemical products.

Meanwhile, after a brief tussle with a rival bidder, private equity group KKR and investor Stefano Pessina succeeded in acquiring healthcare retail and wholesale group Alliance Boots, with an increased offer of £11.1bn. The deal is Europe's biggest ever private buyout of a public company. Pessina was already the biggest shareholder in Boots with a 15% stake, as a result of its 2005 merger with his own Alliance UniChem group.

Drinks giant Diageo was said by the Financial Times to be plotting a move into the lager business. Currently the group specialises in spirits, which comprise by far the largest part of its portfolio. Beer is represented primarily by Guinness, and a small collection of regional products. However, the group is said to have been involved in long-running talks with SABMiller to launch a joint bid for British group Scottish & Newcastle. According to the FT's sources, the two buyers would like to split S&N between them. Diageo would take control of the UK business, currently the country's #1 brewer with brands such as Foster's, Kronenbourg and John Smith's. SABMiller has its eye on S&N's half-share in Baltic Beverages Holdings, Russia's biggest brewer, as well as the its interests in India and China. S&N's Brasseries Kronenbourg division in France would potentially be sold. Diageo and SABMiller have both denied the talks. 

In the news this week: Agencies

Omnicom posted strong figures for the first quarter of 2007, with revenues and earnings up 11% and 10% respectively. Exchange rate fluctuations contributed to that performance, with international revenues boosted by 15% by the weakening dollar. For a similar reason, the strengthening pound took the sparkle out of WPP's 1Q performance, with revenues more or less unchanged on the same period a year ago.

Having acquired a near-50% shareholding in UK independent Clemmow Hornby Inge last week, WPP has also bolstered its portfolio in Spain with the purchase of Tapsa, a leading creative agency which was for many years affiliated to FCB until it regained its independence last year.

Several major media reviews launched this week: Visa, Wrigley and Estee Lauder all called global pitches, putting combined billings totalling almost $700m up for grabs. As had been widely expected, Nike transferred part of its creative advertising account in the US to Crispin Porter & Bogusky. Although W&K keeps the bulk of the business, CPB is now responsible for the Nike running range, as well as the Nike + and Nike ID sub-brands. In other creative appointments, Havas held onto part of the Volvo Cars account. The North American account transfers to Arnold, who will partner with fast-expanding micro-network Nitro in Europe. Euro RSCG holds onto the Asia Pacific account for the time being. Weight Watchers clubs appointed McCann in the US. 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

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