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A Nestle SA subsidiary has agreed to drop advertising claims that its children’s drink Boost Kid Essentials prevents colds and flu, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.
The FTC, which pursues deceptive advertising, took issue with claims that BOOST prevented colds and flu by strengthening the immune system, focusing on advertisements for a drink sold with a straw embedded with probiotic bacteria. Get the full story »
Kmart is launching a new program where online reviews of video games will be displayed on store shelves, an initiative aimed at building ties between the chain’s online and in-store gaming fans.
Kmart, owned by Sears Holding Corp., announced the feature on its KmartGamer blog and in a live chat with gaming enthusiasts via Twitter. Get the full story »
Kleenex is hoping to bolster summer sales with packages that resemble wedges of fruit and look more at home on a picnic table than a nightstand.
The A-frame packages, featuring fruits including watermelon, oranges and limes, have been rolled out to all major retailers this summer.
“This keeps the category relevant during this time of year,” said Craig Smith, brand director of Kleenex, a Kimberly-Clark brand. Smith said that with the fruit packaging test run last summer, “we saw close to 100 percent incrementality,” meaning sales of the novelty box did not cannibalize sales of standard Kleenex boxes. Get the full story »
Mitchell C. Berk has been named chief executive of Hilco Consumer Capital LLC, a brand management firm with Polaroid, Sharper Image and Halston among its clients.
Berk takes over from interim CEO Eric Kaup, who is general counsel for parent, Northbrook-based Hilco Trading. Get the full story »
Sandwich chain Cosi Inc. said Thursday that revenue at established stores rose 5.5 percent in June as expanded marketing efforts boosted customer traffic. This figure is considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health as it measures performance at stores open at least a year, stripping away the impact of new or closed sites. Cosi measures performance at locations open more than 15 months.
From Bloomberg News | McDonald’s marketing team is studying how minority tastes can influence mainstream preferences as part of an effort to encourage middle-class whites to buy smoothies and snack wraps as avidly as they consume hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll.
Dylan Maki, 4, of Evanston, plays with his Happy Meal toy outside of the McDonald's at Navy Pier on July 7, 2010. (William DeShazer/Chicago Tribune)
McDonald’s defended its Happy Meals on Wednesday against claims by a consumer advocacy group, with McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner saying that “Happy Meals are a fun treat, with right-sized, quality food choices.”
Skinner’s letter addressing this issue comes a week after the Center for Science in the Public Interest sent a letter to McDonald’s threatening to sue if the company didn’t stop using toys to market Happy Meals to young children.
“By advertising that Happy Meals include toys, McDonald’s unfairly and deceptively markets directly to children,” the letter stated. Get the full story »
Chewing gum maker W.M. Wrigley Jr. has agreed to pay as much as $7 million and change how it markets and labels its Eclipse gum to settle a lawsuit that alleged its ads were misleading, attorneys for the plaintiffs said Tuesday.
Consumers sued Wrigley last year in federal court arguing the subsidiary of privately held Mars Inc. made misleading advertising claims about the germ-killing properties of Eclipse. The ads said a new ingredient — magnolia bark extract — kills the germs that cause bad breath while competing gums merely mask bad breath.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Thursday called on the Los Angeles Times to stop selling advertising sections designed to resemble news sections, saying that the ads hurt the paper’s credibility. The supervisors sent a letter to Sam Zell, chairman of the Tribune Co., which owns The Times (and also publishes the Chicago Tribune.) The letter came the same day the paper published a four-page ad for Universal Studios that wrapped around LATExtra, the newspaper’s breaking news section.
Popular online video service Hulu on Tuesday will announce the launch a preview of an ad-supported subscription service that will offer top broadcast shows in high definition to be viewed from a plethora of devices, including Internet-connected TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles, as well as portable devices such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone.
A Washington-based consumer advocacy group threatened to sue McDonald’s Tuesday, charging that the fast food chain “unfairly and deceptively” markets toys to children through its Happy Meals.
“McDonald’s marketing has the effect of conscripting America’s children into an unpaid drone army of word-of-mouth marketers, causing them to nag their parents to bring them to McDonald’s,” Stephen Gardner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest wrote to the heads of the chain in a letter announcing the lawsuit.
Get the full story »
Because it will be her final year in broadcast daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey’s syndicator believes it can wring gold from her silver anniversary season. CBS Television Distribution is seeking bigger price hikes for national ads than other top syndicated shows for the coming 2010-11 season, according to Broadcasting & Cable.
From Crain’s Chicago Business | PR diva Margie Korshak is in danger of losing her Hancock Center office digs. Golub Realty Services began eviction procedures last week. A suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court charges that Korshak has not paid rent since June 2009.
Read the full story: chicagobusiness.com
From Business Insider | Chicago-based ad agency Energy BBDO worked in conjuction with production company DumbDumb to create the first “branded content” commercial with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett — the characters from Fox’s old show
“Arrested Development.”
Get the full story: businessinsider.com.
