By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Ad showing corpse holding a hamburger. (PCRM ad)
McDonald’s Corp. is the target of a new television commercial set to air in Washington, D.C., Thursday that blames the burger giant for heart disease.
In the commercial, produced by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a woman weeps over a dead man lying in a morgue. In his hand is a hamburger. At the end, the golden arches appear over his feet, followed by the words, “I was lovin’ it,” a play on McDonald’s longtime ad slogan, “I’m lovin’ it.” A voiceover says, “High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian.” Get the full story »
Sep. 13, 2010 at 1:03 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Internet,
Litigation,
Retail
By Reuters
A Manhattan federal judge on Monday dismissed Tiffany & Co.’s 6-year-old lawsuit accusing eBay Inc. of allowing the online sale of counterfeit jewelry bearing its name.
U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan on Monday rejected Tiffany’s false advertising claim against eBay. Get the full story »
Sep. 2, 2010 at 4:15 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Design,
Media,
Newspapers
By Tower Ticker
Crain’s Chicago Business has named Michael Arndt its new managing editor, replacing Brandon Copple, who left in June for a similar role at Groupon.com. Arndt most recently was Chicago-based editor for innovation and design coverage at Bloomberg Businessweek, a role he assumed with BusinessWeek before that magazine’s acquisition by Bloomberg last year. A senior correspondent in the Chicago bureau, he also served as editor-in-chief of BW Chicago, BusinessWeek’s experiment with a local monthly supplement, which ended after seven months in June 2008.
Aug. 27, 2010 at 7:25 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
By Associated Press
Review Web site Yelp said it is testing out “Yelp Deals” — large discounts at local businesses that site users can buy on one day only. The move appears patterned after sites such as Groupon have gotten extremely popular by combining social media with the power of group buying, offering shoppers daily deals on products and services in their communities. Get the full story »
Aug. 26, 2010 at 2:42 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Internet,
Media,
Radio,
Sports,
TV
By Tower Ticker
Former Chicago Sun-Times star sports columnist Jay Mariotti, has not spoken publicly about his weekend arrest in Los Angeles on suspicion of felony domestic assault. And it doesn’t appear he will be saying much of anything on his usual turf, ESPN or AOL’s Fanhouse site, at least for a while.
Mariotti will be sidelined next week from his regular role as panelist on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” perhaps longer, it was learned Thursday. AOL Fanhouse, for which Mariotti has been a columnist since January 2009, has suspended him pending its own investigation.
Aug. 24, 2010 at 12:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Government,
Internet
By Associated Press
State attorneys general nationwide are demanding that Craigslist remove its adult services section because they say the site cannot adequately block potentially illegal ads.
Attorneys general from 17 states, including Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri, announced Tuesday that they have sent a joint letter calling on the classified advertising site to get rid of its adult services category. Get the full story »
Aug. 24, 2010 at 11:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food,
Restaurants
By Emily Bryson York
McDonald’s has named Steve Easterbrook as its global chief brand officer. Easterbrook takes the newly-created position September 1, after serving as president and chief executive of McDonald’s United Kingdom and president of Europe’s Northern division.
Easterbrook will be taking over the responsibilities of Mary Dillon, who vacated the role of global chief marketing officer in May, to become CEO of U.S. Cellular. In his role, he will report to president and chief operating officer Don Thompson. Get the full story »
Aug. 24, 2010 at 6:52 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food,
Packaged foods
By Associated Press
PepsiCo Inc. is hoping to revive its Quaker division, headquartered in Chicago, with new types of cereal, a reformulation of its instant oatmeal and a new marketing campaign.
The brand’s trademark hot and cold cereals have been hurting in the down economy as people shift away from name brands to save money. They’re also not eating as much breakfast, said Quaker President Jaya Kumar. So the company is adding whole grains, removing sugar and focusing on the healthy aspects of breakfast to link its brands to the first meal of the day. Get the full story »
Aug. 20, 2010 at 10:09 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Internet,
Retail
By Wailin Wong
Daily deal site Groupon reported Friday that it sold 445,000 vouchers for retailer Gap, bringing in $11 million in revenue for the Chicago-based company’s first-ever nationwide promotion.
Groupon typically splits revenue down the middle with its participating merchants. The company declined to disclose how it divided the $11 million from Thursday’s sale. The coupon offered $50 in Gap merchandise for $25, and demand was so high that Groupon’s servers experienced technical difficulties on Thursday morning. Get the full story »
Aug. 17, 2010 at 11:43 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Jobs/employment
From the Evansville Courier & Press
Glenview-based nutrition company Mead Johnson plans to move about 50 marketing and sales jobs currently in Evansville, Ind., to its Illinois location.
Aug. 17, 2010 at 6:05 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media,
TV
By Associated Press
If you’ve never time-shifted a prime-time television series — watched it later on a DVR, over the Internet or ordered it on demand — you’re now in the minority.
A survey of viewers conducted on the eve of the new fall season quantifies what has become commonplace in millions of American homes: People are putting themselves in charge of their own TV schedule. Sixty-two percent of viewers across the country interviewed in a poll conducted for the nation’s largest cable company, Comcast Corp., said they have used time-shifting technology. Six in 10 people said they owned a digital video recorder. Get the full story »
Aug. 13, 2010 at 3:18 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Litigation
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
The locally owned maker of Hefty trash bags this week filed a lawsuit alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition against rival bag maker Glad Products Co.
In the suit, Pactiv Corp., based in Lake Forest, said that for 17 years it has used the word “basics” on its bags and its stylized mark was trademarked in September 1993. The company charged that Glad is using the word “basic” in connection with its own trash bags, creating confusion in the consumer’s mind between the two brands. Get the full story »
By Los Angeles Times
Twitter made it official Thursday when it rolled out its own “Tweet” button.
This is one in a series of moves to assume control of features that could help further propel the popularity of the service.
TweetMeme built the popular “Retweet” button, which Web sites install to encourage visitors to share links with one click. The button had generated 750 million impressions a day, according to TweetMeme founder Nick Halstead. Twitter is licensing some of the technology TweetMeme developed and TweetMeme will shift to a new product called Datasift.
