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Kraft has resurrected "La Photocopieuse", an award-winning ad produced by Euro RSCG BETC in 2005 for Lu's Mikado biscuit brand. Kraft bought the brand in 2007 and recently began importing the snacks into the UK, which is why the ad has been brought out of retirement. Brits have apparently been a little shocked by the spot. So much so, that the case was referred to the Advertising Standards Authority, who after consideration ruled that the ad is acceptable because it is only being aired late at night. And it's funny. (The same joke was, ahem, "adapted" several times by an unknown Thai agency on behalf of Double-A copier paper. See here for the one running in Hong Kong). We sincerely hope that Kraft will see fit to relaunch some of BETC's other ads for Mikado, and especially the Star Wars one in which two office nerds pretend their Mikado sticks are light sabres. See that ad here.

Intel has launched a big new marketing campaign in the US under the banner "Sponsors of Tomorrow", demonstrating how their view of the world is rather different from the one we ordinary consumers share, and celebrating the Intel ideas and people who have contributed to modern technology. This is the best of the TV ads: "our rock stars aren't like your rock stars". See also the accompanying spot, Oops. It's a great piece of work from independent US agency Venables Bell, who seem to be firing on all cylinders just now. Is that really Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB? A nice performance if it is. He could have a new career ahead of him...

CLM BBDO of France has responsibility for the pan-European Pepsi campaign, and this spot is rather special. Not the sentiment of the ad, which is somewhat naive, though perfectly in tune with the target audience. But the concept and execution are really first-class, and quite memorable. (Of course, we were hoping for a deflating punchline - like perhaps finding that the kid can't actually play a note - but then that really wouldn't have helped sell the product, would it).  

And finally, another rather wonderful spot for H&M, promoting the new limited edition collection by designer Matthew Williamson. H&M's surreal ads, produced by inhouse unit Red Room, are always a delight, but this one plays with a new riff, using sourced movie dialogue. It's a nice touch and one we haven't seen used quite like this before. Director Johan Renck, a music video veteran, adds his special touch.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

The scale of the current crisis in the global auto industry was demonstrated in full year figures for Toyota. Not even  "the car in front" can find enough buyers in the current environment. Sales for the year fell by almost 22%, resulting in the first annual loss in Toyota's history, totalling Y437bn or around $4.3bn. In the last three months alone the group suffered one of the biggest quarterly losses of any Japanese company, or more than $7.7bn, wiping out the previous nine months' income. The group is projecting a further 20% fall in sales in the current fiscal year, and even deeper operating losses of around Y850bn. Sony too reported steep losses for the year, as had been expected, with a deficit of around $1bn.

US telecoms giant Verizon announced plans to divest fixed line operations in more than half of the US states it currently supplies in order to concentrate on higher margin broadband or wireless services. Local operations in 14 thinly populated states including Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Carolinas are being sold to Frontier Communications, a company which specialises in rural connections. Verizon will continue to serve its larger business customers in the divested areas, but will focus its attention on more densely populated urban markets. Despite the removal of a huge part of its fixed line footprint as a result of the sale, the number of Verizon's local line connections will drop by less than 15% from 35m lines to around 30m. In a similar strategy, regional US telecoms company Qwest launched a new marketing campaign this week which aims to reposition the business as a broadband supplier rathert han a traditional phone company. 

An opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal this week warned that Ford Motor Company's current financial health compared to its main Detroit rivals could actually be to its disadvantage. A prudent decision to mortgage its factories and real estate portfolio three years ago gave Ford almost $24bn of cash with which to cushion it against the current crisis. As a result, it has not needed to resort to financial assistance from the US government, whereas Chrysler is now in bankruptcy protection and General Motors is almost certain to follow in a couple of weeks. The end result is that Ford will almost certainly regain the title of America's biggest car company for the first time in more than 80 years. However it will also still be sitting on $26bn of secured debt, whereas almost all of the debt currently weighing down GM and Chrysler will be washed away by Chapter 11. As a result, argues journalist Paul Ingrassia, "Ford is like a homeowner who planned prudently and can pay his mortgage, while his spendthrift neighbours get their mortgage reduced by some new federal program. Ford executives are probably fretting about this, but there isn't much that can be done. They already have exchanged some of their debt for equity, and might do more of that. But the bottom line is that we live in a world where wisdom can be punished and where foolishness can be rewarded."

There were signs of fresh friction between senior managers at Volkswagen and Porsche despite last week's news that they had agreed to merge. That development appeared to signal a truce between Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche, and his cousin Ferdinand Piech, chairman of the very much larger Volkswagen group. Porsche has spent the last three years engaged in a creeping takeover of the larger group, but the economic downturn has dealt those plans a severe blow. Now Piech is in the driving seat, and is clearly enjoying the opportunity to twist the knife at his cousin's expense. He suggested this week that the merged group was likely to adopt the name Auto Union, a throwback to the German group formed during the Great Depression around Volkswagen's Audi marque. Also Piech said that he favoured his own protege, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, to lead the business. He said he didn't expect Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking to accept a "lowly" role in the combined company. Piech also publicly criticised Porsche's CFO for the apparent manipulation of stock markets which allowed the sports car company to accumulate a stake in its much larger rival so easily. Porsche is already under investigation by Germany's financial regulator for its actions.

European regulators issued computer chip manufacturer Intel with an unprecedented E1.06bn ($1.45bn) fine, following a prolonged investigation into allegations that the tech giant had abused its market position. The EU supported allegations from rival chip maker AMD that Intel had given substantial rebates to several computer manufacturers on condition they source all or almost all their components from Intel, and delay the launch of any AMD-based machines. It also found that the company had paid Germany's biggest electronics retailer Media Markt to sell only Intel-based computers in its stores. Intel CEO Paul Otellini vowed to appeal against the fine and denied that any harm had been done to consumers or competitors. However, Intel has already lost similar investigations by regulators in Japan and Korea. The penalties for those breaches were far less wounding. In this case, though, the EU was obviously determined to make an example out of Intel, as it has in the past with Microsoft. "Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," said senior regulator Neelie Kroes. "If we smell that there is something rotten in the state, we act." The fine is more than twice the E497m Microsoft was fined for monopoly violations in 2004, although the software company was slapped with a further E899m penalty last year for not complying with the EU's original ruling.

Luxury group LVMH is close to acquiring a large minority stake in Edun, the fashion company launched by rock singer Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. The business specialises in apparel manufactured in developing countries including India, Peru, Kenya and Uganda, and made from organic fair trade cotton. LVMH is expected to acquire as much as 49% of the business and will assist with manufacturing and distribution.

In the news this past week: Agencies

Following in the footsteps of Toyota and Sony, Japanese marketing giant Dentsu reported a grim set of figures for its most recent financial year. Billings fell more than 8% to the equivalent of around $18.8bn, while revenues were down 9% to the equivalent of $3.1bn. The biggest shock, however, came from the group's investment portfolio which generated steep losses as a result of the economic downturn. That resulted in a net loss for the group of Y20.5bn ($203m), Dentsu's first annual loss in its 100-year history. Dentsu doesn't expect a quick end to the current downturn. It forecast a further 13% fall in billings for the current year, although it expects to report a small profit.

Publicis Groupe announced a restructuring of its senior management team. Olivier Fleurot was appointed as CEO of the group's public relations and event management units, including MS&L, Publicis Consultants and Publicis Events. Fleurot was previously executive chairman of the Publicis Worldwide advertising network. Publicis Worldwide COO Richard Pinder will take over sole command of the network, and will join the group's P12 management committee. 

Over at Ogilvy & Mather, longtime group vice chairman Steve Hayden was appointed to the role of chief creative officer for North America, in a bid to beef up the agency's local output. Later this month, Ogilvy is set to move from its current HQ on 8th Avenue in New York to a refurbished candy factory at 636 11th Ave, on Manhattan's West Side. In a separate development, Phil Cowdell replaced Scott Neslund as CEO of the North American division of media network Mindshare. 

Leading US independent Doner has become embroiled in an embarrassing row with former creative chief John DeCerchio over the latter's retirement payout. According to Advertising Age, when DeCerchio retired in March 2008, he agreed to sell back his 32% shareholding in Doner for deferred compensation with a total value of $55m payable over ten years. Just over a year after his departure, he claims to have received considerably less than the correct proportionate amount, and has issued a lawsuit in pursuit of the money he believes he is owed. That dispute comes on top of a string of other woes for Doner, including a series of account losses as well as a sharp decrease in spend by key client Mazda.

Despite the positive reception accorded its last Super Bowl ad campaign, job site CareerBuilder.com has dropped agency Wieden & Kennedy, and is instead launching a competition for ordinary consumers to submit their own ads. The winning entry will earn its maker $100,000 and will be shown during next year's Super Bowl, said the group. It hired Wieden two years ago after dropping previous agency Cramer Krasselt. According to industry insiders, CareerBuilder called a review in 2007 because the ad CK had produced for that year's Super Bowl, depicting office workers in gladiatorial combat, failed to grab a top ranking in USA Today's Ad Meter poll. Outraged, CK refused to participate in the review and resigned the business. In an unusually outspoken criticism of his former client, CK CEO Peter Krivkovich explained to Ad Age that "there are a few times in your life when you have to tell someone to fuck off and mean it." Wieden was rather more polite about the latest dismissal, wishing CareerBuilder well and hoping to be able to work with them again in the future.

WPP has retained the marketing business for Land Rover, currently shared between Y&R worldwide for advertising, Wunderman for direct and digital, and Mindshare for media. However the group will now create a dedicated unit to manage the business, under the banner name Team Land Rover, which will house strategic and creative teams from all three agency networks. In other assignments, Gucci is said to be considering consolidation of its European media, currently split between several different agencies on a country by country basis. Incumbents include Mindshare and MPG. Pernod Ricard hired Publicis London to supervise global creative for Malibu rum; the US Navy reappointed Campbell-Ewald to its recruitment advertising account; VF assigned London-based Elvis to handle pan-European marketing for Wrangler jeans; in the US, TGI Friday's placed advertising and digital with a Publicis team. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

The US broadcast industry is set to go into overdrive next week with the launch of its annual sales fair, generally known as Upfront, where the networks present their new shows to marketers in the hope of nailing down advertising commitments for the Fall/Winter season. This year's market is likely to be one of the toughest in recent memory, with many big advertisers scaling down spend, or even absent altogether. Most industry observers are expecting this year's total commitments to be down by as much as 20%, marking the first significant fall since 2001. Investment analysts at Barclays Capital forecast a total bag of $7.4bn, while UBS put the figure at a worryingly low $6.7bn. Last year's total weighed in at around $9.2bn. NBC is expected to be hardest hit, according to Barclays, with sales predicted to fall by 20%, followed by 18% for Fox and 14% for ABC. CBS is forecast to see the smallest drop off, down 10%. 

A partnership between struggling UK broadcaster Channel 4 and the BBC looks increasingly likely. State-owned but commercially funded Channel 4 has been involved in negotiations with several potential partners as it looks for a way to offset a sharp decline in advertising revenues. One possible route was a sale to commercial rival Five, owned by Bertelsmann. However that plan is strongly opposed by Channel 4's management team, who are keen to strike a deal instead with BBC Worldwide, the division responsible for the BBC's programme sales and commercial spin-offs. Those negotiations appear to have gone well and BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith outlined the possible structure of such a partnership to a parliamentary committee this week. For now, the two companies are discussing only a merger of parts of their respective businesses. The proposed joint venture would house Channel 4's digital TV channels, Film4 and More4, as well as the BBC's non-branded TV assets, such as its 50% holding in UKTV and its 60% stake in DVD publisher 2Entertain. It is also likely to bid for the outstanding shares in both those businesses. Meanwhile ITV emphasized the fragile state of the UK commercial TV market with 1Q results that demonstrated a 15% decline in ad income for the first three months of the year. The company vowed to cut another £40m in costs.

Entertainment industry entrepreneur David Geffen was reported to be weighing up a rescue plan for what is arguably America's most prestigious newspaper, The New York Times, struggling with falling ad sales and debt repayments. According to Fortune magazine, Geffen made an offer to acquire a near-20% stake held by investment fund Harbinger Capital Partners. His original bid was rebuffed but he is said to remain interested. The newspaper group is still controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, but they were recently forced to borrow $250m from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim in order to meet a pressing bond repayment. It is thought that they might be willing to consider a suitable partner in the business, and Geffen appears set on presenting himself as just that man. He is best-known as the founder of Geffen Records, which he sold to MCA Universal in the 1980s for around $700m. More recently he was one of the three co-founders of the DreamWorks SKG movie studio. 

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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