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Thousands of Chicagoans flooded McDonald’s stores Tuesday, hoping to land one of 800 local McJobs.
The hiring day culminated a weeks-long advertising and public-relations campaign for the burger giant’s plans to hire 50,000 store-level employees nationwide. Get the full story »
A lawsuit that seeks to stop McDonald’s from selling Happy Meals should be dismissed because parents can always prohibit their children from consuming the food, the hamburger giant said in a court filing on Monday.
The lawsuit claims McDonald’s unfairly uses toys to lure children into its restaurants. The plaintiff, Monet Parham — a Sacramento, Calif. mother of two — claims the company’s advertising violates California consumer protection laws. Get the full story »
The cast of "Happy Days." (CBS)
“Happy Days,“ one of the most popular shows in television history, faces an unhappy legacy nearly four decades after it first went on the air.
The show, which originally aired from 1974 to 1984, “represented to the public what the best of America has to offer,“ said Anson Williams, who played Potsie. “The friendships, the opportunities, the warmth. Unfortunately, now ‘Happy Days’ also represents the worst of America — of what major companies are trying to get from it, trying to use it for, and forgetting the family it created.“ Get the full story »
From USA Today | When documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock first began asking big brands such as Nike, Volkswagen and Seven-Eleven to help bankroll “Pom Wonderful Presents The World’s Greatest Movie Ever Sold” — his take on the ubiquity of branded content and the age-old practice of product placement — he had a hard time.
Ban Deodorant eventually signed on, but Spurlock said that higher-profile companies only joined in after Chciago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. said yes. Hyatt, he said recently at a screening in Washington, was the first “blue chip” brand that he landed, which “made a difference” when they approached other companies. Get the full story>>
(Frederick M. Brown/Getty)
Broadway dancers, crime victims, unfaithful spouses and soul-food chefs are coming to OWN:The Oprah Winfrey Network, the network announced during its upfront presentation on Thursday.
Six new unscripted series were added to OWN, though there was no news of the most anticipated OWN series: an Oprah Winfrey show, which is expected to launch in September after her daytime talk show ends. Get the full story>>
U.S. fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp. said Wednesday it had scrapped a television commercial in the devoutly Catholic Philippines after facing a barrage of criticism from church leaders. Get the full story »
As broadcasters and television networks try to figure out their Internet strategy, the limited TV content that actually is online is making quite a pretty penny. Get the full story »
(Frederick M. Brown/Getty)
CBS Corp.’s syndication arm is asking $1 million for 30 seconds of national commercial time for the final week of Oprah Winfrey’s TV show in May, ad buyers say.
The stratospheric rate comes close to rivaling events like the Academy Awards, for which ad buyers said they paid between $1.7 million and $1.8 million for a 30-second spot earlier this year. Get the full story »
People trying to access the Cook County Recorder of Deeds website this morning are being redirected to a site featuring ads.
The web address http://www.ccrd.info/ redirects users to a generic web page that lists a series of advertisements. At 10 a.m., county officials said they were working on fixing a “technical malfunction.”
An urban farm in Detroit. (Heather Stone/Tribune)
Kraft Foods Inc.’s Triscuit crackers brand and a nonprofit organization that works to establish working farms on unused land are bringing their “home farming” concept to some low-income homes in Los Angeles and Chicago.
The plans for five community gardens — three in Chicago and two in L.A. — are to be announced Tuesday at a news event in New York hosted by the cracker brand and Urban Farming, a Detroit-based nonprofit. Get the full story »
A commuter reads a Kindle while riding the subway in Cambridge, Mass. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Amazon announced its new “Kindle with Special Offers“ on Monday which will sell for $114, which is $25 less than its ad-free counterpart, Amazon’s $139 Kindle Wi-Fi. The Kindle 3G is available for $189. It will begin shipping May 3.
The Kindle’s “special offers” and ads will appear on the e-reader’s screensaver and at the bottom of its home screen. Amazon plans to mix together advertisements from launch sponsors including Buick, Olay and Visa with daily-deal style discount coupons. Get the full story »
Google Inc. is working on a major overhaul of YouTube as it tries to position itself for the rise of televisions that let people watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter. Get the full story »
Ronald McDonald slaps first graders' hands as they head to lunch at Dawes Elementary School in Evanston in 2008. (Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune)
McDonald’s Corp. is putting its long-time character Ronald McDonald back on television and bolstering his web presence, resetting its sights on younger consumers after its recent push to target adults with specialty coffee and smoothies.
The new commercials starting Wednesday, starring McDonald’s mascot of 48 years, encourage kids to go to HappyMeal.com, with parents’ permission, to play games and create photos with Ronald. Get the full story »
