We love this ad for the new Axe/Lynx manfume Temptation, brought to you by VegaOlmosPonce of Argentina. It almost made me want to rush out and buy a can of the stuff until I started to worry that it might give me that terrifying permagrin and staring eyes as well. Also, how do you convince other people that those stains are just melting chocolate and not something more embarrassing...? Anyway, great ad, and congratulations to Unilever for neatly side-stepping that whole Dove/Axe feminism/sexism debate by making this ad about chocolate not sex.

Toshiba has begun a major new marketing campaign in the UK to promote its all-round technical excellence. (Don't mention the high definition DVD war anyone). The campaign was recently upgraded from radio to TV, and here's the rather lovely ad produced by Grey London. (Grey London again? An ad of the week for two consecutive weeks? That must be justification for a quick high five over in Hatton Garden). 

You may not yet have caught up with the extravagant ads BBDO New York produced for recruitment site Monster.com. There are several in the series. Just to be different we're going to pick "Slots" as our favourite, although the general mood is a bit sombre. You might also want to look at Daybreak which has been the choice of most other pundits.

Finally, a preview of a little of what you can expect in or after the NFL Super Bowl in just over a week's time. As usual this annual clash will be one of the highlights of the advertising calendar, combining a huge sports event with the year's single biggest marketing platform. This year's expected audience is estimated at more than 92 million. Advance buzz is already high. The network host for 2008 is Fox, which has already broken records, not just for the speed with which it sold its inventory but also the price achieved. Last October, Fox let it be known that it had already sold 90% of the commercial space surrounding the game. (Usually ads are still being sold days before). Now the rumour machine claims that the network was able to charge a best-ever $2.7m for each slot. That's equivalent to $90,000 per second. Who said the 30-second spot was dead?

Biggest spender is Anheuser-Busch which is believed to have purchased no less than seven ads this year, all of which will be for Bud Light or Budweiser. Here's one of them, by DDB New York, which was given a sneak preview during the pay-offs. An eighth ad, a so-called "secret spot", will be sent by multimedia text message immediately after the game to the wireless phones of viewers who supply their details on Bud's various websites. Among the other advertisers, car company Hyundai had purchased two slots, but caused more than a few ripples in the marketplace when it said it might pull out. It subsequently changed its mind (see here for AgencySpy's take on the apparent cause of this change of heart). 

Also Unilever has outraged some over-sensitive corners of the industry by overlooking its roster agencies to pick French design agency Desgrippes Gobe to create its Super Bowl spot to launch Sunsilk shampoo. There has also been eager anticipation over the planned return of Victoria's Secret, which will run its first Super Bowl ad since 1999. Other brands coming up to bat (oops! Mixed metaphor alert!) this year include Audi, Bridgestone, CareerBuilder, Cars.com, Coca-Cola Classic, FedEx, Garmin, Gatorade, GoDaddy, Pepsi-Cola, Planters, Salesgenie, Tide to Go, Toyota and Under Armour. We will of course bring you the best of these in two weeks and that's almost guaranteed to include Victoria’s Secret... 

In the news this past week: Advertisers

After several months of evasion, UK brewer Scottish & Newcastle finally agreed to open talks with Carlsberg and Heineken regarding their joint takeover offer. The European giants' first bid for S&N was declined last October, as was a slightly higher offer in December. However, Carlsberg and Heineken agreed last week to raise their conditional bid a third time to £8 per share, which values the British company at around £7.8bn. That won them access to S&N's books, and a formal announcement is now expected tomorrow (Friday). However there were reports in the Financial Times earlier this week that the negotiations may have encountered turbulence because of the way the UK brewer allocates its profits between different regions. Even so, our bet is that the deal will go ahead and that S&N will be broken up.

General Motors retained its position as the world's biggest automobile manufacturer by a whisker, despite widespread speculation that it would be overtaken by Toyota when the final numbers came in. In the end it's a virtual tie for the #1 position. GM announced total worldwide vehicle sales for 2007 of 9,369,524 cars and trucks, fractionally ahead of Toyota's 9,366,000.

French retail giant Carrefour announced a shakeup of its executive committee, with several senior officers swapping jobs. This is expected to presage a major restructuring of the group's operations in France, which are just struggling back to growth after several years of stagnation. In particular, the group is expected to announce a rebranding of its long-established Champion supermarket chain, which currently lags behind rival Leclerc. Currently the Carrefour brand is used in France only for the group's hypermarkets, but last year its Champion chain in Spain was successfully renamed Carrefour Express. The man responsible for that process, Gilles Petit, was this week named as France's new country manager.

Procter & Gamble announced plans to spin off Folgers, America's best-selling coffee brand, to shareholders at some point later this year. The group has been expected for some time to divest its remaining food and beverages products. (The only other significant brand is Pringles). By spinning off the $2bn Folgers unit to shareholders it will avoid the large tax bill that would have arisen on a trade sale. However Folgers is unlikely to remain independent for long. Nestle and Kraft will most likely be among the future bidders for the standalone business.

EBay president & CEO Meg Whitman, widely credited for the transformation of an obscure collectors' swap-meet into a global phenomenon, announced she will retire in March. John Donahoe, who currently heads up the site's Marketplaces unit, was tagged as her successor. The growth of eBay since Whitman took over in 1998 has been spectacular, with revenues soaring from $86m that year to almost $7.7bn in 2007. The 51 year-old Whitman hasn't done too badly herself. Forbes magazine estimates that she has accumulated a personal fortune of around $1.4bn in the process.

L'Oreal has agreed a E1.15bn deal with luxury and retail group PPR to acquire YSL Beauté, the division which controls a small but important group of fragrance and cosmetics brands. The biggest is the extensive Yves St Laurent perfume range. Other key franchises include Boucheron, Roger & Gallet, Stella McCartney, Oscar de la Renta and Ermenegildo Zegna. (The notable absence of course is Gucci. Although PPR owns the Gucci fashion business, the fragrance license is held by P&G). Once completed, the deal will significantly expand L'Oreal's weighty cosmetics division, which already includes heavy hitters like Polo Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Lancome and Cacharel. 

In the news this past week: Agencies

In an extraordinary new initiative, Publicis Group has agreed an unorthodox global alliance with search giant Google which could result in job swaps for "possibly hundreds" of employees from both companies. Under plans outlined by Publicis CEO Maurice Levy and Google's CEO Larry Schmidt, staff from Google and staff from Publicis and its various subsidiary networks will exchange jobs for periods lasting as long as a year. The ultimate goal of the project, said Levy, is to "accelerate the ability of technology to make advertising more effective." Few concrete details have yet been given as to how the partnership might play out in reality, but in simple terms Google will share its technological know-how in exchange for Publicis Group's media planning and analytical expertise. The plans are being jointly coordinated by David Kenny, chairman & CEO of Publicis subsidiary Digitas, along with Google's Tim Armstrong, currently president of advertising & commerce in North America, and Penry Price, director of North American sales.

WPP's Wunderman network, best-known for its direct marketing, further strengthened its digital offering with the acquisition of Hong Kong i-shop Agenda, widely regarded as one of the interactive jewels of the region, despite strong competition from other potential buyers. Wunderman has added a string of interactive agencies to its portfolio in recent years. 

It was a quiet week for account assignments. However StrawberryFrog's New York office joined the roster for Frito-Lay with responsibility for new healthy snack True North; French boutique FFL took the global account for Mumm champagne; and Kia Motors handed its global corporate media to OMD, although other agencies will continue to handle some regional work. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

Rupert Murdoch's oldest son Lachlan is intent on establishing his own media empire, outside his father's control. Lachlan Murdoch resigned abruptly as a senior executive of News Corporation in 2005, reportedly after a clash of opinions with Murdoch Sr. That decision left younger brother James as heir apparent to the News empire. After two years maintaining a low profile back in Australia, Lachlan this week re-established his presence in the industry by joining forces with old friend James Packer to make a A$3.3bn bid for the country's second-largest media conglomerate, Consolidated Media Holdings. Quoted on the Australian Stock Exchange, that business was created by James Packer's father, the media tycoon Kerry Packer. If the deal is approved by CMH's shareholders, the company will be privately owned and operated by the two second-generation tycoons. CMH has a controlling interest in Australia's Nine TV network and ACP Magazines, and is News Corp's main partner in cable businesses Foxtel and Fox Sports. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands