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There's more on the Olympics below, but as a taster, here is the superb ad Wieden & Kennedy produced to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nike's "Just Do It" slogan: a flash-cut montage of great sporting moments and heroes from two decades which tied in neatly with what was almost certainly the most compelling Olympic Games in recent memory.

One of the ad highlights of recent weeks on UK television was the extended ad break sponsored by the British Heart Foundation which aired exclusively on ITV on August 10th. The film, "Watch your own heart attack" by Grey London, occupied an entire two-minute prime-time ad slot during drama series Midsomer Murders. Widely promoted the week before, many viewers changed channels specially to see the spot, which featured actor Steven Berkoff. According to viewing stats, Midsomer Murders averaged a 6.1m audience across its two-hour running time, but in the five minutes between 9.15pm and 9.20pm when the ad aired, audiences rose to 6.5m.

We like "Onion Peel", the new Levi's spot by Cutwater. As regular readers of this mailing already know, we're suckers for slo-mo here at Adbrands, but also for ads that run sdrawkcaB. Previously, Cutwater had produced a number of virals for the denim king, but this and an accompanying spot, "Knockout", are their first traditional ads on the account. Watch out, BBH.

And finally, Bob Garfield of Advertising Age hated it, but we think the new United Airlines campaign by Barrie D'Rozario Murphy is lovely. There are five ads in the series, all commissioned from different animators. The best of the lot is probably this one, "Heart", but you should definitely check out the others as well, especially, Two Worlds. Three more can be found on United's YouTube page here along with a "making of" short.

In the news this past two weeks: the Olympics

The dominant news story of the past two weeks has undoubtedly been the Beijing Olympics, which defied early fears about pollution, human rights protests and doping scandals to be a spectacular success. There were many highlights, not least the awe-inspiring opening ceremony, the record-breaking performances of Michael Phelps and sprinter Usain Bolt among others, and a best-ever performance by Team GB (hooray!) which bodes well for 2012. In media and marketing terms, there were several other significant winners:

US broadcast network NBC proved that its decision to air an unprecedented 3,600 hours of coverage was justified. Notching up more than 214m viewers over the fortnight, the 2008 Games became the most watched event in US television history, overtaking even the homegrown 1996 Games in Atlanta (which was viewed by a total of 209m Americans). The opening ceremony alone gave NBC its largest nightly audience since the final episode of Friends four years ago, and after that it averaged around 30m viewers per night, far beyond expectations. Despite concerns upfront over declining advertising expenditure, the network claims to have generated well over $1bn in advertising revenue from its coverage, a significant increase on 2004. NBC CEO Jeff Zucker said the figures were a clear sign of the continuing power of network television in an increasingly fragmented media world: “What this proves is that the pipes still work. If you put on programming that’s compelling enough for the audience they’ll show up.” It was also a ringing endorsement of NBC's multimedia strategy in which content was also distributed via a dedicated website as well as on other cable strands and mobile channels. "Online programming of the games in no way cannibalised network television," said Zucker, "and probably helped drive viewership on air."

Among the various sportswear manufacturers involved in one way or another in the Olympics, it was undoubtedly the smaller brands, notably Speedo, Puma and the company owned by China's most celebrated athlete, gymnast Li Ning, who triumphed over global giants Nike and Adidas. In the opening ceremony, Li Ning was himself featured as the final torchbearer, making a spectacular virtual sprint around the upper rim of the Olympic stadium while suspended hundreds of feet in the air. Although he was in fact wearing the official torchbearer's uniform supplied by Adidas, most of the Chinese audience assumed he was wearing his own-name sportswear brand, the #3 seller in China. 

Nike too suffered a blow when one of its top athletes, hurdler Liu Xiang, was forced to drop out of his signature event because of injury. However, Nike was quick to turn that reverse, and the accompanying anguish of the Chinese people over the withdrawal of one of their best-loved sportsmen, to its advantage, rushing out a new ad a day later. A huge picture of Xiang's face was accompanied by copy which rhapsodised: "Love competition. Love risking your pride. Love winning it back. Love giving it everything you’ve got. Love the glory. Love the pain. Love sport even when it breaks your heart."

Speedo gained huge prominence from its sponsorship of multiple medal-winner Michael Phelps and other swimmers. An astonishing 24 of the first 25 gold medals in swimming events went to athletes wearing Speedo, and the company's streamlined LZR Racer full-body suits were the subject of numerous media profiles. Even Nike admitted the superior performance of the LZR suits: it wrote to its own sponsored swimmers granting them official permission to wear the rival manufacturer's outfit. Other sponsors who felt the glow from their association with Phelps included Kelloggs, Omega, PowerBar, AT&T, even Johnson & Johnson, who signed up his mum Debbie to appear in a campaign for Johnson's Baby products. Similarly, the previously unknown Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt gave a huge lift to his sponsor Puma with his three gold medals. After winning the 200m final, he took off his golden Puma running shoes and held them up to his face, ensuring that they appeared in hundreds of news photos beamed around the world (see here for an example).

In the news this past two weeks: Advertisers

In other news, singer Beyoncé was at the centre of an international media frenzy over the subject of doctored fashion images. A new ad for L'Oreal's Feria hair colour made its debut in American Elle, featuring a strangely light-skinned image of the singer, who is of course black (or in fact, half black, half Creole). This sparked off a global debate on the subject of the fashion industry's often-alleged nervousness over using black models. Many commentators accusing L'Oreal of deliberately whitening Beyoncé to appeal to a broader audience. Others pointed out that the same ad running in African-American magazine Essence were noticeably darker than the ones in Elle (see here). L'Oreal, however, issued a firm denial: "It is categorically untrue that L'Oreal Paris altered Miss Knowles's features or skin-tone in the campaign for Feria hair colour". Beyoncé herself remained silent on the controversy; some commentators claim that she has herself seemed to appear paler-skinned in person in recent public appearances. The whole brouhaha came in the wake of two other recent "fashion fakery" media frenzies. Earlier this year, a debate arose over whether the Dove "Real Beauty" ads had been retouched (they had not), as a result of misinterpretation of comments from a well-known photographic artist. In 2007, L'Oreal was forced to withdraw ads for its Telescopic mascara after it admitted that model/actress Penelope Cruz's appearance had been enhanced using fake lashes. 

According to new figures from market monitor Strategy Analytics, LG overtook Korean rival Samsung to become the #2 handset manufacturer in the US in 2Q 2008, sitting behind Motorola. Blackberry was in fourth place, ahead of Nokia, the global #1 but still languishing in 5th place in the US.

Responding to the rapid consolidation of the global airline industry, Germany's Lufthansa formally expressed its interest in acquiring the Austrian government's controlling stake in national carrier Austrian Airlines.

Some significant new appointments among senior marketing directors. Former AT&T marketer Wendy Clark was appointed as SVP, integrated marketing communications at Coca-Cola. At PepsiCo, Dave Burwick was named as chief marketing officer for PepsiCo North America beverages, a new unit which will encompass the company's carbonated drinks as well as Gatorade. He replaces Cie Nicholson who left earlier this year. Maureen McGuire stepped down as group CMO at Sears Holdings and was replaced by Richard Gerstein. 

Japanese drinks and food group Kirin established itself as the dominant force in the Australian dairy sector with the acquisition, through existing local subsidiary National Foods, of the #2 producer Dairy Farmers. The merged company will control a variety of leading brands including Pura milk, Berri juice, Dairy Farmers milk and yoghurt and Cracker Barrel cheese. Kirin is also being touted as one of the most likely bidders for the Australian soft drinks operations of Cadbury, which could go up for sale later this year. All of the former Cadbury Schweppes group's other worldwide drinks operations have already been divested. 

Wal-Mart is being bullish about Marketside, the new chain of small upscale grocery stores it will debut next month. The new format, says Wal-Mart, will target “the needs of a time-starved, higher-income consumer that is interested in convenience and premium fresh, natural and organic offerings”. It is the retail behemoth's first new format since the Neighborhood Markets introduced a decade ago. It is widely considered to be a defensive move designed to blunt competition from Tesco's Fresh & Easy, which now operates around 60 grocery outlets in California, Nevada and Arizona. Despite a low-key launch of just 10 stores, Wal-Mart says it expects big things from Marketside, forecasting that the network could eventually reach more than 1,000 stores, with annual sales of $10bn to $15bn.

Following up stories that the three major US auto manufacturers were making heavy cuts in marketing spend, the WSJ reported that General Motors had asked its various marketing agencies to cut their fees by as much as 20%. Or rather, as a spokesman preferred to put it, the company had "asked our agency partners to work with us to eliminate low-value work and find creative solutions to go to market more efficiently". The auto giant also pulled out of a deal to advertise during next month's Emmy awards broadcast and is likely to sit out the February 2009 Oscars as well. 

A large feature in the New York Times examined the strategy of Time Warner's new CEO Jeff Bewkes. Encouraged by the huge success of the Dark Knight movie, now the second most successful movie of all time behind Titanic, Bewkes is shifting the media giant's focus to concentrate on content creation rather than delivery. According to the NYT, the group's future will revolve around three key pillars of the Warner Bros movie studio, and cable networks Turner and HBO. To support those units, Time Warner has also held internal discussions regarding largescale acquisitions, such as NBC Universal, if that business is put up for sale by current owner GE. Meanwhile, other existing divisions of Time Warner are already being divested. The group's cable system is set to be spun off later this year; and there are continuing discussions to merge AOL's content business into a joint venture with another internet group, most probably Yahoo or Microsoft. Liberty Media's John Malone, now the owner of satellite broadcaster DirecTV is said to be interested in taking on what is left of AOL's US dial-up division. The future of magazine publisher Time Inc is less certain. However according to the NYT that business, which controls US brands Time, People and Sports Illustrated as well as UK publisher IPC Media, could be scaled down to just a handful of its most profitable titles.

In the news this past two weeks: Agencies

WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell is close to victory in his pursuit of research group TNS. Rival bidder Gfk admitted it had been unable to secure sufficient funding to beat WPP's £1.1bn offer and pulled out of negotiations. However, TNS itself is still playing hard to get. It says the WPP bid is undervalued. CEO David Lowden called on his shareholders to "seek a higher price from WPP or ... continue to support management in continuing to operate as we are". At the same time, according to Advertising Age, the famously acquisitive Sorrell was also reported to have entered discussions with Microsoft to acquire digital agency Avenue A | Razorfish, possibly in part-exchange for the Open AdStream unit of his own 24/7 Real Media. 

Lowe London astonished the industry by resigning the business of one of its flagship UK clients, Stella Artois lager. It has worked for the brand for a quarter of a century, producing a string of memorable French-themed ads under the "Reassuringly expensive" banner. However, the relationship between the agency and brandowner InBev has reportedly become increasingly strained over the last two or three years. The final straw appears to have been InBev's decision to put the account for a new Stella variant up for pitch. The business was eventually placed two weeks ago, not with Lowe, but with rival Mother. As a result, Lowe took the decision to drop the whole account, which could also now move to Mother. Lowe's possibly rash decision prompted a number of commentators to express their concern over the future of the steadily shrinking network, and especially its London office, which now has only two significant local clients to round out internationally aligned accounts. "Has Lowe lost its soul without Stella?" asked Campaign.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for Mother. Today, it was reported to have captured the pan-European account to relaunch Diet Coke/Coke Light, a piece of business worth around £35m in billings. However, the agency did lose its last piece of the UK Orange account, following the transfer of the so-called "gold spot" cinema campaigns to the mobile operator's main creative agency Fallon. Mother's ads, featuring obnoxious marketing director Mr Dresden and his assistant as well as a galaxy of minor film stars, have anchored cinema advertising breaks in the UK since the early 2000s. Two more Mother-generated ads will run before the beginning of 2009 when the account officially transfers. 

Also in the UK, AMV BBDO announced plans to merge standalone direct marketing subsidiary Craik Jones into its larger sister agency Proximity London. Craik Jones has been struggling for the past year to withstand a series of account losses.

Meanwhile Bacardi decided to suspend its global creative review pending the arrival of incoming CEO Seamus McBride. However, it's only a temporary reprieve, and the full review is expected to go ahead at the end of the year, with Y&R defending against challengers McCann, Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. In other appointments, Adidas placed global digital with 180 Amsterdam; luxury fashion group Hermes called a review of pan-Euro media out of Vizeum, and denim manufacturer Diesel shifted regional creative from Marcel Paris to Swedish agency Farfar; Outback Steakhouse and Princess Cruises both called for creative pitches in the US, and drug company Novartis shifted all its media from Mindshare to Mediaedge:CIA; UK mortgage lender Halifax reappointed DLKW. 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

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