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Our favourite ads this week: 

We really like the new Wake Up People campaign for Diet Pepsi Max from BBDO New York. Notice how contagious yawns can be - I defy you not to stifle a big stretch yourself while watching. Goodby Silverstein have unveiled another rebranding for mobile carrier Sprint. It's an elegant concept, neatly executed. M&C Saatchi have engineered a complete overhaul of the old-fashioned sales-and-sofas image of MFI furniture stores with a great new series of ads. They are all very good, but we particularly like this one, Toilet Seat. However our personal favourite this week (possibly also this year so far) is this Bud Light viral, produced by DDB Chicago. ****ing awesome, indeed!

In the news this week: Advertisers & Media

Around 1,000 US outlets of convenience store chain 7-Eleven have undergone extensive remodelling to mark the beginning of a month-long promotion for The Simpsons Movie, which opens at the end of July. The outlets have been given a complete set of new fixtures and interior and exterior signage to turn them into real-life counterparts of Kwik-E-Mart, the run-down store which is a regular feature of virtually every episode of the cult TV cartoon show. Even the ATMs have been remodelled to carry the logo of the First Bank of Springfield. The stores will also feature full-size cutouts of selected characters from the series (including store manager Apu), and stock a range of specially produced food products from the show including Krusty-Os cereal and Buzz Cola. The only familiar icon missing will be Duff beer - a tie-in was considered unsuitable because of the film's predominantly under-age audience. Full marks to 7-Eleven for getting into the spirit of the promotion, which is being managed by Omnicom's FreshWorks group, led by the Tracy Locke Partnership. 

Apple launched its iPhone in the US last Friday. Demand for the device was intense, despite the high ticket price, with around 525,000 phones being snapped up by Monday morning. The phone itself is priced at $499 and customers must sign a two-year AT&T contract with a monthly service charge of between $60 and $100. Take-up was also overshadowed by initial problems activating new users' service. AT&T has an exclusive deal to offer the iPhone to its customers, and Apple is forging similar arrangements with single operators in other markets. The iPhone will launch in the UK, France and Germany later this year, but other European and Asian markets will have to wait till 2008. No contracts have yet been signed but O2, the UK's biggest service by users, is expected to clinch the deal for the UK, with Orange and T-Mobile likely to get the iPhone in France and Germany respectively.

Meanwhile, AT&T strengthened its national US network by agreeing to buy Dobson Communications, the parent to the Cellular One regional mobile network, for $5.1bn. The bolt-on will strengthen AT&T's service in 17 mainly rural states including Alaska, and adds a further 1.6m subscribers to its books.

Neuf Cegetel, the fixed line telecoms group in which Vivendi's SFR is the majority shareholder, has moved into second place behind France Telecom among the country's leading broadband suppliers. The group has swelled its books considerably this year, buying first AOL's French broadband subsidiary, and now the local operations of Deutsche Telekom's T-Online, the former Club Internet ISP.

Discover Financial Services, previously the credit card and consumer finance subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, was spun off to shareholders as an independent company this week. Although it trails well behind rivals such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express, many commentators are tipping Discover for rapid growth - or acquisition by a rival. Until recently limited to the North American market, Discover established a UK arm at the end of last year with the purchase of local credit card issuer Goldfish.

UK supermarket giant Tesco has moved into yet another new sector, introducing an online property sales market as an offshoot to its general grocery and goods e-commerce service. The new site allows homeowners to offer their homes for sale for a flat fee of just £199.

Vincent Bolloré has joined the wrestling match over ownership of France's two leading business newspapers. LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault is currently negotiating to acquire Les Echos, the sister paper to the Financial Times. If he is successful he is expected to sell its smaller loss-making rival La Tribune, which he already owns. Staff at Les Echos have been vocal about their objections to being sold to Arnault, while La Tribune's team has been equally forthright about their fears for their own future if they are cut loose. Both newspapers have held strikes to publicise their concerns. Bolloré, who already has several other interests in French media to go with his controlling stakes in both Havas and Aegis, has offered to buy whichever of the two papers may be in need of a more appreciative owner.

Kraft has made a E5.3bn offer to acquire the European biscuits and crackers division of French food and beverage group Danone. Kraft's Nabisco division is already the worldwide #1 in cookies and crackers; while Danone is currently #2 with brands including LU, Petit Déjeuner, Mikado and Tuc. The deal has been endorsed by Danone's board, but because of France's extreme political sensitivity over the sale of national assets, the company is seeking the approval of French regulators, as well as Danone's shareholders and employees. Both groups emphasised that the business would continue to operate as a separate company based in France, under its existing management team. The deal does not include the Bagley and Britannia biscuit businesses in Latin America and India respectively, which Danone plans to retain for the time being.

In other deals, Canada's largest telecoms and media group, Bell Canada, is going private in a buyout led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan investment fund, backed by two private equity groups. The price tag is close to $50bn in cash and debt, making this the biggest buyout in corporate history. So far. Meanwhile, Virgin Media, the struggling UK cable group, is also up for sale, with private equity group Carlyle among the first bidders with a conditional offer which could be worth as much as £12bn. Hilton Hotels has agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Group for around $26bn. 

In the news this week: Agencies

Publicis and Havas each announced new ventures beyond their traditional areas of operation. Publicis Groupe is the senior partner in a joint venture with technology group Dassault Systems. The new entity, 3DSWYM, will develop three-dimensional web-based "experiences" to promote consumer brands. Havas has launched Celebrities Consulting as a specialist unit within its media division. The company will broker sponsorship and endorsement deals between brands and entertainment and sports celebrities. Separately Publicis acquired independent Italian media agency Muraglia, Calzolari & Associates, which will be renamed MC&A MediaVest, operating separately from the group's existing Starcom MediaVest office.

Johnson & Johnson announced new homes for the creative accounts transferred out of Interpublic last week. Band-Aid and Reach toothbrushes both move to JWT; BBDO gets StayFree sanitary products and MoniStat; Mother is awarded KY Jelly. The group is expected to announce the results of its global media review in the next few days. However, Universal McCann has been tipped to take over most of the Asia Pacific region from stablemate Initiative, although OMD will keep China. 

Wieden & Kennedy's London outpost scored yet another fantastic week, with its confirmation as the lead creative agency on the global Nokia account. The mobile phone giant has yet to finalise details of which global network will be responsible for what it calls distribution, in other words local translation and implementation of W&K's creative. W&K also picked up creative responsibility for Visa's £100m sponsorship of the Fifa World Cup. In other account news, BMW handed global creative for its motorcycles division to 180 Amsterdam, although regional implementation will still be handled by local agencies. New York State Lottery reappointed DDB; Orangina moved creative for France from Draft FCB to Fred Farid Lambert. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands