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The Coca-Cola Company has run afoul of the UK's advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), over Mother London's "Cactus Kid" campaign for its still soft drink Oasis. Heavily indebted to cult 1970s movies such as Badlands (the young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as killer kids on the run), the ads depict a trailer park teenager who runs away from home after getting pregnant by her boyfriend "Cactus Kid", who's green and covered in spikes. Mother really went to town on the ads. But "Oi, Mother, No," says the ASA after more than 30 complaints were received over the TV ads, which are deemed to encourage underage sex and teenage pregnancy. The ads "must not be broadcast again in their current form," ruled the ASA. Actually, we at Adbrands don't think the campaign is that great, but we like a bit of rebellion so, WTF (as teenagers say), here's the movie-style trailer. More clips viewable here.

The new Tourism Australia campaign launched this week, in time to tie in with the new Nicole Kidman blockbuster weepathon, also called Australia. Like the movie, the ads are directed by Baz Luhrmann and are predictably striking and beautifully shot. No sign of Kidman or co-star Hugh Jackman here, just ordinary working stiffs who get out from under the hammer to go walkabout down under. Rather lovely. DDB Australia is responsible.

Commercials are obviously the new movies. Every big name director wants to get their fair share. Here are the Farrelly brothers (There's Something About Mary, The Heartbreak Kid etc) taking a turn both behind and in front of the cameras on behalf of Goodby Silverstein and Sprint for a movie theater pre-roll reminder to turn off your phone. Like it. And wouldn't mind seeing Happy The Hedgehog either. 

And finally, just to what your appetite for the first news story below, here's an ad from the new StrawberryFrog for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. It needs no further explanation. You can see another spot, "Crazy", here.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

Bailout? What Bailout? Far from bringing a level of stability to the high seas of the financial markets, Hank Paulson's rescue plan was more or less ignored by investors, whose guiding instinct appeared to be sell first, ask questions later. Markets plunged, recovered a little, then plunged some more, and then some more again. It was enough to make even the hardiest of voyagers seasick. Meanwhile European governments broke ranks with each other to launch bank bailouts or nationalisations of their own or to guarantee private savings. Anything in fact that would persuade savers not to withdraw their bank deposits in favour of a much safer haven under the mattress or in a biscuit jar. In Europe, the Dutch government tore up an earlier cross-border agreement with Belgium and Luxembourg to part-privatise struggling bank Fortis, and instead took full control of its operations in the Netherlands. The original plan to take a 49% stake was scuppered by the refusal of any other bidder to take on Fortis' only part-digested ABN Amro subsidiary, as well as the collapse of a pre-agreed deal to sell parts of Fortis to Chinese insurer Ping An. The Dutch government's unilateral move left the Belgium and Luxembourg stuck with what to do with their parts of this business. Luckily, they were able to find a willing buyer in BNP Paribas, which agreed to acquire the rest of the group for E14.5bn. 

In the US, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were at legal loggerheads after the latter nipped in on Thursday evening to trump Citi's offer to acquire most of failing lender Wachovia. Citi has threatened a $60bn lawsuit to block the steal. The two sides are in negotiations on a settlement, most likely a break-up of the business. In Germany, the E35bn rescue of lender Hypo Real Estate by a consortium of other banks collapsed when accountants discovered an additional E15bn hole in Hypo's books. The consortium pulled out, forcing the government step in with E50bn of emergency funds. In all the frenzy, did anyone even notice that the US Fed handed over another $37bn to AIG, on top of the $85bn it wolfed down two weeks ago? Meanwhile, Iceland's entire banking industry was nationalised to avoid a complete meltdown in that tiny nation's overextended economy. The repercussions from these developments hit numerous other connected banks, especially UniCredit in Italy, which has heavy exposure to Hypo, and RBS in the UK, which could be hammered with a lawsuit from the Dutch government in relation to ABN Amro. Meanwhile HBOS, still struggling to keep its takeover by Lloyds TSB on track, agreed to sell its main international subsidiary Australia's BankWest to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for a bargain basement price of around £1bn. Only three months ago that asset was being valued at over £3bn.

Thankfully, there was some other news this week. BlackBerry unveiled what it hopes will be its iPhone-killer. The new BlackBerry Storm handset features a touchscreen, a la iPhone, but this touchscreen is "clickable" - its virtual touch buttons respond with a distinct click when fingered, providing more satisfactory control. It will be exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. Nokia's first touchscreen smartphone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, also launches this month in selected markets. Only the UK, however, will also get the launch of the company's Comes With Music service, which gives purchasers of selected phones unlimited access to music downloads for a full year. Other countries will join the party during 2009. 

Now here's a surprise. According to this year's Nation Brands Index, jointly produced by Simon Anholt and research consultancy Gfk Roper, the world's #1 nation brand is Germany. The index is compiled from the responses of 20,000 interviewees from 20 countries on subjects such as Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism and Immigration & Investment. Within those categories, France was identified as the leading Culture Brand; Italy as the #1 Tourism Brand; Canada as both the foremost People Brand and the leading Immigration/Investment Brand; Switzerland as the main Governance Brand; and Japan as Exports Brand. Oddly enough, Germany's highest individual category result was #3 in the Exports ranking; and yet it was still the overall #1. The other top 10 countries were France, the UK, Canada, Japan, Italy, US, Switzerland, Australia and Sweden. (Readers with good memories will remember that a rival study, FutureBrand/Weber Shandwick's annual Country Brand Index, selected Australia as its leading nation in November last year).

Global restaurant group Yum! announced its intention to rebrand the UK arm of its worldwide Pizza Hut chain as Pasta Hut. If that decision proves popular with customers, Pizza Hut subsidiaries in other countries could follow suit. The surprise move is designed to highlight nutritional changes to its menu and the introduction of a range of pasta dishes to accompany its pizzas. According to UK CEO Alasdair Murdoch, “We’re doing it to try to attract customers who probably haven’t been for a few years.” The reaction so far from marketers has been resoundingly negative. Marketing magazine called the name-change "puerile". 

Despite the bloodbath in the financial markets, there were still some takeover deals being cut. Drug company Bristol Myers-Squibb conceded defeat in the battle for ImClone Systems, the developer of cancer treatment Erbitux. BMS, which already held a minority stake in ImClone, had offered to take full control, but was trumped by a higher bid from Eli Lilly worth around $6.5bn. BMS will retain co-marketing rights to Erbitux in the US. Meanwhile online auction giant eBay announced the acquisition of online payment firm Bill Me Later, a rival to its own Paypal subsidiary, for $945m as well as two Danish classified websites for $390m. However those deals coincided with a 10% cut in eBay's staffing levels, which will result in the loss of about 1,000 jobs.

In marketing appointments, Dominic Chambers, formerly head of UK brand at Vodafone, was named as European marketing director for LG. Matt Barwell is the new European marketing director for Diageo. InBev named the men who will head up its operations in North America following completion of the Anheuser-Busch InBev merger. Louis Fernando Edmond, currently CEO of AmBev in Latin America will be North American CEO. Dave Peacock, previously VP, marketing at Anheuser-Busch was named as president of the merged company.

In the news this past week: Agencies

WPP sealed its takeover of TNS. After months of stonewalling, the TNS board finally caved in on Tuesday and agreed to recommend WPP's bid. The reason for the apparent U-turn was the drip-effect of individual shareholders pledging to accept Sir Martin Sorrell's offer. By Monday, WPP had already raised its effective holding to almost 61%, putting any remaining shareholders in a somewhat precarious position. Better to take the money and run. As a result of the board's grudging recommendation, acceptances had risen to almost 82% by Wednesday afternoon. Said Sorrell, "We are delighted to be a step closer to welcoming such a fine company with strong people, clients and brands that will enhance our client offering." 

Sorrell must be pleased to get that out of the way in time for his court hearing this week in London. This relates to Sorrell's lawsuit against Marco Benatti, formerly WPP's country manager for Italy. WPP is suing Benatti for breach of "fiduciary duty". During his employment by WPP, Benatti arranged for the group to acquire Italian advertising agency Media Club for $30m, without declaring that he himself already held a significant shareholding in the company. As a result of the acquisition, he not only took the benefits from the sale of his shares, but also a reward bonus from WPP. Benatti, in return, is suing for unfair dismissal. He claims he was sacked because he fell out with another WPP Italy executive, Daniel Weber, with whom Sorrell was romantically involved. Last year, Sorrell and Weber sued Benatti and an accomplice for creating and distributing a smutty Photoshopped image of them bearing the legend "the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo". Benatti agreed to pay damages over that allegation without admitting his involvement.

ZenithOptimedia made a further cut to its forecasts of advertising expenditure. It now expects global spend for 2008 to be only 4.3% higher than last year, down from the 6.6% forecast in June. Growth for Western Europe and the US was halved to just 1.6% and 1.8% respectively. ZO expects global growth of 4% next year, although the anticipated increase for the US alone was slashed to just 0.9%. The agency expects almost two-thirds of worldwide growth in ad spending to come from developing markets over the next few years. Barclays Capital this week forecast that US advertising spend for 2008 would fall 3.6% this year to $284bn, despite the lift provided by the presidential election. Next year it predicts a further fall of 5.5%.  

Mindshare has absorbed London-based communications planning agency Michaelides & Bednash. According to Campaign, no money changed hands in the deal. However, M&B's founders, George Michaelides and Graham Bednash, will now head Mindshare's global Invention division, responsible for creative output in digital content, programming, sponsorship and planning. Meanwhile, Interpublic announced plans to fold the London office of its direct/digital network Rivet into the local office of Lowe in order to maintain its grip on key client Nokia. Rivet currently handles Nokia's sponsorship and trade marketing business. 

In account assignments, Crispin Porter & Bogusky was awarded creative for Old Navy; Agency.com let it be known that it had joined Nike's digital roster; and French supermarket group Auchan called a creative review out of BBDO. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here.

In the news this past week: Media

Mobile operator Orange is pushing aggressively into the cable TV market in its home market of France. Earlier this year it acquired rights to broadcast French football matches, and this week it launched a collection of five branded movie channels to compete directly with leading pay channel Canal+. All services are available by monthly subscription, and can be viewed on Orange mobiles or via Orange broadband on a computer or TV.

News Corporation acquired the minority shareholding in mobile entertainment division Jamba for around $200m. The business, which trades under the Jamster name in the US and UK, is best known for ringtones and games for mobile phones. The company became notorious in 2005 for the hugely successful (and just as hugely irritating) Crazy Frog ringtone. News Corp acquired a 51% stake in 2006 from owners VeriSign. It is buying VeriSign's remaining shares for around $200m.

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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