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We like the production values in this new ad for Volkswagen from DDB Barcelona, which maintains that brand's strong advertising credentials. Check out past glories by DDB and other agencies on our newly updated VW brand profile.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk is now made in the UK and Ireland entirely from Fairtrade cocoa beans, most of which are sourced in Ghana. To celebrate its relationship with its Ghanaian farmers, Cadbury commissioned this entertaining five-minute epic from Fallon London. Zingolo, my friend!

We're back with cars again for a new US ad for LG mobile phones, which provides an extremely clever spin on the idea of drive-in movies. What a clever idea, executed perfectly by Y&R New York.

And finally, a sentimental and silly ad for Australian beer Pure Blonde, from Clemenger BBDO. Good punchline. Take note of that blue smudge on the dove's head by the way. It's significant.

In the news this past week: Advertisers

Interbrand published its 2009 ranking of the world's top 100 brands. Widely regarded as one of the three most influential business rankings, the index celebrates its first decade this year. Impressively, Coca-Cola retains the #1 spot, a position it has held onto doggedly for every one of the past 10 years. It is the only one of the top 20 brands to have not changed its place since 2000. Among this year's top 100, the biggest climbers in value were dotcoms Google and Amazon, with valuations up 25% and 22% respectively. There were also double-digit increases for Zara, Nestle, Apple, H&M, Ikea, Danone and Wrigley. Most of the biggest falls were in financial services, including UBS (down 50%), Citi (down 49%) and American Express (down 32%), but also Harley-Davidson (down 43%). The highest new entrant was Lancome, making its debut at #91. There were also new entries for Burger King, Adobe, Puma, Burberry, Polo Ralph Lauren and Campbell's. They replaced departing brands Merrill Lynch, AIG, ING, Motorola, Hennessy, Marriott and Fedex. See the full report here.

Sportswear rivals Adidas and Puma agreed a truce after a bitter decades-long war. The companies were founded after World War II by brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler, former business partners who fell out bitterly for unknown personal reasons, and then spent the rest of their lives as fierce rivals. As a result, the small town of Herzogenaurach in northern Bavaria where both brothers established their companies has been equally divided ever since. The sportswear giants are the biggest employers in town, with the result that one half of the residents wear Adidas kit and the other half wears Puma. Consequently Herzogenaurach has a nickname as the "town of the bent necks", because the first thing strangers do when they meet is check out each other's shoes. Each company even has its own bars, shops and football team. And it is over a game of football that the two companies agreed to bury their rivalry on Monday, fielding two teams each made up of a mixture of Adidas and Puma employees. CEOs Herbert Hainer and Jochen Zeitz played on the same team, as a striker and goalkeeper respectively, and won the match 7-5.

Separately, Puma's ad agency Droga5 took the wraps off a new website and iPhone app designed to cheer up nervous shareholders. The Puma Index offers a sexy interactive spin on the DOW, DAX and S&P/ASX 200 stock markets. Playing alongside each market graph is a video. When the market goes down the male and female models’ clothes come off to reveal their Puma Bodywear underwear. When the market recovers, back go the Puma clothes. See the promotional video here. Unfortunately the timing is not ideal - most markets are currently on an upswing. Time for another crash we say!

There were several significant marketing or marketing-related moves this week. Unilever veteran Kevin George was named as chief marketing officer of Beam Global Spirits & Wine, replacing Rory Finlay. Burger King's chief marketing officer Russ Klein has taken a temporary leave of absence for unspecified personal reasons. In an email to franchisees, CEO John Chidsey wished Klein a "speedy return". Mike Kappitt, SVP business intelligence, stepped in as interim CMO. PepsiCo said Michael White, group vice chairman and head of international operations, will retire at the end of the year. His role will be split between Zein Abdalla, who becomes chief executive of PepsiCo Europe, and Saad Abdul-Latif, appointed as CEO of PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa. Over at Avon Products, group president Elizabeth Smith, second-in-command to CEO Andrea Jung, is also leaving and will not be replaced. That departure, one of several at different companies in recent months, shows a distinct shift at many large American corporations to eliminate the #2 position of president or chief operating officer and reallocate responsibilities among lower-level managers.

The private equity owners of France's Orangina Schweppes said they had accepted a binding offer from Suntory of Japan for the business. No price was disclosed, but it is thought to be around E2.6bn. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval and employee consultation, but is expected to go through before the end of October. It will mark Suntory's first step into Europe's soft drinks market.

Meanwhile, in the arm wrestling content between Kraft Foods and Cadbury, the latter's CEO Todd Stitzer was reported to have told a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch conference that a combination of the two companies would make sense, provided the price was right. According to a press note from BofA summarising the conference, Stitzer "admitted that there is some strategic sense in combining the two companies and he doesn’t expect Kraft to walk away, so he said his job is to get as much as value as possible. Todd would be surprised to see a counter-bidder come forward until Kraft has made its next move." Cadbury has asked UK regulators to impose a "put up or shut up" deadline on Kraft to either submit a formal offer for the business or walk away.

Dell unveiled a deal to boost its IT services division by acquiring Perot Systems, which specialises in US healthcare and government clients, for around $3.9bn. The purchase will grow Dell's IT services revenues to around $8bn, narrowing the gap a little with market leaders IBM and HP.

In the news this past week: Agencies

The new ranking of French media agencies from Recma demonstrates the continuing domination of the local market by MPG and Carat, as well as the steady marginalisation of Interpublic's Initiative and Universal McCann. According to final figures for 2008, MPG and Carat between them accounted for more than a third of the overall market, with billings of E2.6bn and E2.5bn respectively. Third-ranked ZenithOptimedia came in some way behind with billings of E1.3bn. At the other end of the scale, Initiative and UM slid behind independent shop My Media for the first time to languish in 13th and 14th place with billings of just E246m and E121m apiece.

Nick Waters, Mindshare's regional chief for the EMEA region, is to leave the agency in Spring 2010 to take over from Patrick Stahle as head of Aegis Media Asia Pacific. His replacement at Mindshare has not yet been named. At Ogilvy Group, veteran executive Bill Gray, currently vice chairman Ogilvy North America, will retire at the end of this month after more than 30 years at the agency. He will retain a consultancy role, working mainly with the New York office of British shop CHI, which operates in the US as a joint venture with Ogilvy.

In something of a surprise move, Grey Group has given creative director Jay Furby a partnership role at its outpost in Sydney Australia, which now rebrands as JayGrey. Grey's main office in Australia is based in Melbourne and the Sydney agency has suffered a turbulent few months. It's hoped that the appointment of Furby, who also acquired a minority shareholding in the unit, will restore its fortunes.

In account assignments, Mars announced plans to align each of its lead brands to a single agency network worldwide from 2010. BBDO is confirmed as the lead shop with global control of brands including Snickers, M&Ms, Cesar and Sheba. TBWA will manage Whiskas and Pedigree among others, while indie Sapient Nitro picks up the worldwide account for Dove/Galaxy. Diageo pulled its Jose Cuervo account from JWT in the US, and shifted sister tequila Don Julio into Grey. Dairy producer Lactalis called a review of Euro media for all its brands including President butter and cheese and the Ski and Munch Bunch yogurts in the UK. Fragrance company Beaute Prestige International, a unit of Shiseido's Japan, transferred media for Issey Miyake and Jean-Paul Gaultier perfumes from MPG to Carat. Carat also won media duties in Germany for the Beiersdorf brand portfolio, led by Nivea, and for Tchibo coffee. Recruitment agency Manpower kicked off a global review of media. Procter & Gamble appointed StrawberryFrog to manage worldwide digital creative for Pampers, thought to be its highest-spending brand online. For all other appointments, subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

In the news this past week: Media

According to a report in AdAge, Super Bowl 2010 host CBS has already sold around 70% of its ad inventory for the game. It's a better performance than had been expected given the current state of the economy and the disappointing results earlier this year from the upfront ad sales market. Nevertheless, last year's host NBC had sold 80% of inventory by now, while in 2007 Fox had virtually wrapped up all its sales by the end of October. Among the advertisers already confirmed for 2010 are Super Bowl regulars Hyundai (with two spots), CareerBuilder, GoDaddy.com, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch InBev. Bridgestone is the half-time sponsor.

Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, resigned abruptly. A Disney lifer who began his working career as a ride operator at Disneyland, Cook had headed the movie division since 2002, but the past year's slate featured several disappointing releases. His replacement has not yet been appointed. Animation chief John Lasseter is one of those in the frame, along with Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks partner Stacey Snider.

A big Yay! to three of our favourite TV shows, Mad Men, 30 Rock and the BBC drama Little Dorrit, which collected Emmys for best drama, best comedy and best miniseries respectively at this year's prestigious US TV awards. Wieden & Kennedy's "Heist" ad for Coca-Cola, in which insects team up to steal a sleeping man's bottle of Coke, was named outstanding commercial of the year.

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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