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We can't get Cadbury's Caramilk here in Britain (it used to be sold as Caramac) but it's the company's top-seller in Canada, its status underpinned by a long-running campaign which revolves around the secret of how they put the caramel inside the chocolate. Here's the latest incarnation, a delightfully silly illustration of the process as told through the language of modern dance. Saatchi & Saatchi New York did the honours. 

Chicago Lake Liquor is a low-priced liquor store in South Minneapolis, but is located downtown in a mainly African-American and Hispanic neighbourhood. Here's a set of three amusing spots from local indie Brew Creative. Politically correct? No, of course not, but funny nonetheless. 

Australian agency The Campaign Palace are responsible for this blackly comic spot for Panasonic's ultra-tough Lumix cameras. Great idea.

And finally, Mother looks like it's getting nicely settled in on the Stella Artois account. Here's a neat spot for new variant Stella Artois Legere. The campaign may not have the period charm of Lowe's classic spots, but manages to riff on another set of Gallic stereotypes to great effect. Lovely production values by the way. "Legere", in case you didn't know, means "light". Thankfully, brewer AB InBev and Mother have kept the original French word, so that we are spared the absurdity of the first ad in Mother's campaign, for Stella Artois 4%, in which a French speaker was depicted asking for a "Stella Artois Four, s'il vous plait" instead of a "Quatre".

In the news this past week: Advertisers

Chrysler was finally cleared to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday, after an ultra-quick restructuring which lasted just 40 days. The process would have been even faster had it not been for a legal challenge from a group of pension funds in the state of Indiana who objected to what they called the strong-arm tactics of the US government. The Supreme Court's initial decision on Monday to delay Chrysler's restructuring while it considered the funds' case sent shockwaves through the industry. A delay of even as much as a week would have risked an unravelling of the crucial takeover of Chrysler by Fiat. In the end, however, the Supreme Court lifted its stay of execution the following morning, allowing the deal to go through. Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne was named last night as the new joint CEO of both Chrysler and Fiat, with Jim Press promoted to deputy CEO at the US company. 

General Motors finally found a buyer for its Saturn car brand after months of uncertainty over the future of the business. Saturn's brands, parts and distribution operations are to be acquired by Penske Automotive, America's second largest dealership group, and also the sole importer of Daimler's Smart vehicles. However the group will not take over manufacturing. Instead, owner Jim Penske plans to outsource production of new vehicles to other companies, including the new GM and Renault of France. No price was disclosed. Meanwhile, doubts began to emerge over whether the deal announced last week for the sale of Hummer to Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer Tengzhong will be completed. The fate of Pontiac and Saab, GM's other two up-for-sale brands, has yet to be resolved. Meanwhile, Ed Whitacre Jr was named as the new chairman of GM. He will take up the role as soon as GM exits Chapter 11, anticipated for late summer. Whitacre was previously the driving force behind SBC, the regional telecoms group which under his lead metamorphosed into what is now AT&T. 

Procter & Gamble named Bob McDonald as its new CEO & president, taking over from AG Lafley, who remains chairman. The appointment came as no surprise, although the timing was a little sudden. Lafley had been expected to wait until next year to step down. However, McDonald's succession had been widely anticipated following the resignation of fellow vice chairman Susan Arnold earlier this year. McDonald promised further streamlining of P&G's structure and cost-base, including the removal of management layers to create just seven levels between himself and entry-level employees (from around nine layers currently). 

P&G also announced the withdrawal of its celebrated cosmetics brand Max Factor from the US market. The range, which markets itself as "the make-up used by professional make-up artists", has a reasonably strong international profile but is overshadowed in the US by P&G's much larger mid-market brand Cover Girl. Max Factor will still be sold in other territories. The brand was one of the pioneers in the global cosmetics industry. Its founder Maximillian Faktorwicz originally worked for the Russian Ballet in Moscow before coming to Hollywood in the 1910s, where he established a reputation as one of the industry's best-known make-up artists, creating the look of several leading stars including Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Joan Crawford. He is credited with many innovations, including the first use of the word "make-up" as a noun rather than a verb, the first non-theatrical pancake foundation, and first lip gloss.

In other management appointments, Andy Hornby, former chief executive of British banking group HBOS prior to its takeover by Lloyds, resurfaced in the role of chief executive at Alliance Boots, the pharmaceutical and healthcare retailer and wholesaler. It is new position, reporting to Alliance Boots' executive chairman and controlling shareholder Stefano Pessina. In the US, Esther Lee, former chief creative officer at Coca-Cola and CEO of Euro RSCG North America, was appointed as the new SVP brand marketing & advertising at AT&T.

Several leading banks in the US and UK have begun repaying bailout funds supplied by their respective governments. In the US, the Treasury gave ten banks permission to repay a total of around $68bn in loans. The biggest refund will be made by JP Morgan Chase, which is replaying $25bn. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are each paying $10bn, and the rest comes from a collection of more specialised or regional businesses. However three other major lenders, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, do not yet have the go ahead to start paying off their debts. First, they must complete the recapitalisation of their balance sheets to fix the weaknesses indicated by recent stress tests. 

In the UK, Lloyds Banking Group paid £2.3bn to redeem preference shares held by the government. The state's 43% holding in Lloyds remains unchanged, but the bank will no longer be required to pay the high annual dividend due on those shares. Separately, the group announced a reorganisation of its brand portfolio. It will maintain Cheltenham & Gloucester as a distinct brand within its portfolio, but C&G's standalone retail network, comprising around 160 branches around the country, is to be shuttered. In future all of C&G's mortgage business will be transacted through Lloyds branches.

German retail group Arcandor filed for insolvency after months of talks to find a route out of its economic troubles. These culminated in an unsuccessful plea to the German government to provide financial assistance. There are three arms to the group. Its most prestigious subsidiary is the Karstadt department store chain, which could now be merged with rival Kaufhof, controlled by the Metro Group. Another division, Primondo, is one of Europe's largest mail order retailers, mainly under the Quelle name. It is expected to go up for sale, and could also be acquired by a rival, such as Otto. The third arm to Arcandor is the travel agency giant Thomas Cook, in which the German company has a majority stake. This is unlikely to be serious affected by the insolvency claim since it operates independently from Arcandor's retail interests. The parent group's shareholding in Thomas Cook had already been pledged to its bankers as security against its borrowings. The most likely eventual buyer is thought to be rival German retail and travel group Rewe. 

In the news this past week: Agencies

The Grey network announced a change of name for its French office. This has been known since 2001 as Callegari Berville Grey, after the two men who took over management of the agency following the Grey Group's acquisition of their independent shop. However Pierre Berville left the business in 2006, and Pierre Callegari retired at the end of last year. As a result, the agency will now adopt the simplified name of Grey Paris.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky is to establish its first European creative hub following the acquisition of Swedish digital agency Daddy. That unit, located in the city of Gothenburg, will become Crispin Porter Bogusky Europe, and will coordinate the operations of the agency's existing service offices in the UK, Spain and Germany.

TBWA announced plans to consolidate all its various UK units under the shared umbrella brand of TBWA\Media Arts. In addition to the main agency the group also controls several specialised subsidiaries in the UK such as the local arm of Agency.com, Tequila and Stream. These will retain their existing identities for now but will be more closely integrated with the central advertising agency. TBWA already uses the Media Arts banner in several other territories, including the US and Japan. 

William Eccleshare has resigned as executive chairman of BBDO's EMEA region in order to take up the role of president & CEO at Clear Channel International, the outdoor and radio media group. His replacement has yet to be named.

It was a quiet week for account assignments. UK-based insurer RSA (formerly Royal Sun & Alliance) placed its global media with Starcom. GlaxoSmithKline appointed Rapp to handle direct & digital for its global Alli and anti-smoking brands. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

British pay-TV broadcaster Setanta was struggling on the brink of bankruptcy this week as it struggled to raise capital to plug a looming funding crisis. However the Ireland-based company is understood to have secured some sort of lifeline midweek, and employees were told on Wednesday that there was no immediate risk of administration. The business, which specialises in sports coverage, has been Sky's main rival in the battle for rights to broadcast Premier League football matches. In 2006, it secured a three-year contract covering 46 games, but earlier this year, was outbid by Sky in the renewal of that deal, and had its allocation cut in half, casting considerable doubt over whether it will be able to retain subscribers. Currently Setanta has about 1.2m direct subscribers, but needs 1.9m to break even. It is also struggling to raise cash to pay off imminent bills, including a £30m payment to the Premier League due next week. In a separate development, the head of BT Vision, the pay-TV arm of telecoms giant BT, announced his resignation. Although Dan Marks said this was for personal reasons, he took the opportunity to call for regulatory change in the sector. "What is happening to Setanta is a pretty good example of the challenges that are faced by everybody in this marketplace which is so profoundly dominated by Sky." 

Cocking a snook at doomsayers who forecast a meltdown in America's magazine industry, family-owned Swedish group Bonnier has acquired a collection of five specialist titles from Hachette Filipacchi, including American Photo, Boating and Sound & Vision. The bulk of Bonnier's business in the US was created from the acquisition of Time Inc's leisure portfolio in 2007, and was bolstered late last year by the bolt-on of Working Mother and Scuba Diving. Further purchases are likely. Group CEO Jonas Bonnier told the FT that he expects existing large publishers to continue to divest non-core magazines "and I think we will be one of the few strategic buyers". 

Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who acquired London evening newspaper the Evening Standard earlier this year, was said today to be close to completion of a deal to acquire daily broadsheet The Independent and its Sunday edition. The Independent already works out of the same offices as the Standard in West London. Meanwhile the New York Times is understood to have put its subsidiary paper the Boston Globe up for sale. Any deal is likely to be complicated by the recent failure of talks with that paper's union over a package of job and salary cuts.

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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