By Julie Wernau
A suit filed Tuesday in federal court alleges that a Naperville marketing firm has been spamming cell phone users with text messages in an attempt to sell magazine subscriptions for the publishers of US Weekly, Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal.
The suit claims that the unsolicited text messages not only represent “an especially pernicious form of marketing” but also are in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bars companies from making unsolicited calls to cell phones. Get the full story »
By Dow Jones Newswires
Proposed changes for cigarette packaging under new FDA rules.
Graphic images depicting dead bodies and diseased lungs were unveiled by federal health officials Wednesday as part of a move to require bolder health warnings on cigarettes and advertising.
A 2009 law requires larger and more graphic health warnings on cigarettes as part of an effort to discourage people from starting to smoke and to lower current smoking rates. Currently, 20.6 percent adults and 19.5 percent of high school students smoke cigarettes, according to government figures. Get the full story »
By Wailin Wong
A meal from Reza's Restaurant delivered to Tribune food critic Phil Vettel through GrubHub, Jan. 24, 2008. (Abel Uribe/Tribune)
GrubHub, the Chicago-based technology start-up that connects consumers with restaurants that deliver to their neighborhood, has raised $11 million in its third and largest round of venture-capital funding.
The company received the funding from Benchmark Capital, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm that has also backed companies such as restaurant reservation service OpenTable, review site Yelp and real estate site Zillow. GrubHub launched in 2006 and had previously raised $3.1 million in two rounds of funding from Origin Ventures, Leo Capital and Amicus Capital. Origin Ventures and Leo Capital are both based in Northbrook.
Matt Maloney, GrubHub’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company was looking for funding to expand into new cities and develop new products and features in areas such as mobile applications. Get the full story »
Nov. 8, 2010 at 3:05 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Autos
From Automotive News | General Motors Co. is dropping the GM Goodwrench car mechanic brand in the United States as the company moves to redirect the marketing emphasis around its four core vehicle brands, sources say.
By Reuters
The American Medical Association unleashed its latest salvo Monday in its campaign against cuts in Medicare payments to doctors with a survey that finds overwhelming concern among Americans.
The physician’s group did an online survey of 1,000 Americans aged 18 and older and found 94 percent of them said they are concerned about the cuts to doctors who treat elderly patients.
The group released the findings at a meeting in San Diego to kick off a new advertising and lobbying push to convince lawmakers to block payment cuts — set to take effect Dec. 1 — before they recess for the Thanksgiving holiday later this month. Get the full story »
Nov. 4, 2010 at 4:30 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Autos,
China,
International
By Associated Press
General Motors Co.’s strength in China and its global growth potential are the focus of the automaker’s sales pitch as it shops for investors ahead of its initial public offering this month. Get the full story »
Nov. 4, 2010 at 1:40 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Airlines,
Media,
TV
By Ameet Sachdev
United Airline's plane painted for Oprah Winfrey's final season. (United Airlines)
Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Oprah. Actually, it’s a plane sporting Oprah Winfrey’s logo with the familiar big looping “O.”
On Thursday, United Airlines unveiled a newly painted plane at O’Hare International Airport commemorating the 25th and final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The Boeing 757’s tail is blue with Winfrey’s signature, with the words “The Farewell Season” painted on the fuselage. Get the full story »
Nov. 4, 2010 at 8:19 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
From USA Today | Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has offered to provide the White House with purple Slurpees — mixing red and blue — seizing on an opportunity created when President Barack Obama joked Wednesday that he might hold a “Slurpee Summit” with the new Republican leadership.
“This is a rare opportunity for a brand,” says Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, which owns 44-year-old Slurpee soft frozen drink. “We don’t want to be opportunistic, but nothing has ever been this big for Slurpee.” Get the full story >>
By Becky Yerak
TalentDrive, the Chicago-based online resume search engine company founded by a former Leo Burnett executive, has hired former Allstate Corp. manager Jeff Tomaszewski as its chief technology officer.
TalentDrive’s chief executive is Sean Bisceglia, who in 1998 sold his technology marketing firm to Leo Burnett and later became the ad firm’s technology group CEO.
In May TalentDrive was highlighted in a U.S. News & World Report article on “How to Stand Out from the Crowd.” The company’s search engine is called TalentFilter. Get the full story »
Nov. 1, 2010 at 9:17 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
By Mary Ellen Podmolik and Andrew Grimm | At least it’s Snooki wearing the revealing green swimsuit and not Rod Blagojevich.
The ex-governor/convicted felon, along with the “Jersey Shore” star, are among eight celebrities tapped by Paramount Farms to star in a $20 million, six-week ad campaign touting Wonderful Pistachios. The Blagojevich ad made its debut during Sunday’s World Series telecast. Get the full story »
Oct. 29, 2010 at 3:23 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media,
TV
By Associated Press
For TV viewers, this cutthroat election year is a riot of attack ads and media saturation made possible by big-money donors. For TV stations, it’s a stimulus package.
One research group expects TV political spending to hit a record $3 billion. The windfall may continue well past Election Day because regular advertisers are getting squeezed out of the schedule and could spend their ad budgets later.
Oct. 27, 2010 at 5:58 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media,
TV
By Associated Press
And now, a word from our sponsors. A very brief word. TV commercials are shrinking along with attention spans and advertising budgets. The 15-second ad is increasingly common, gradually supplanting the 30-second spot just as it knocked off the full-minute pitch decades ago.
For viewers, it means more commercials in a more rapid-fire format. For advertisers, shorter commercials are a way to save some money, and research shows they hold on to more eyeballs than the longer format. Get the full story »
By Reuters
Attorneys general in Illinois, Oregon and California said on Tuesday that Bayer AG agreed to a $3.3 million settlement over misleading claims that the drug maker’s vitamins reduced men’s risk of prostate cancer.
Under the terms of the settlement, Bayer cannot make claims that its One A Day Men’s multivitamins can prevent or cure prostate cancer or any other disease without scientific evidence, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement.
“When manufacturers like Bayer make marketing claims with insufficient scientific proof behind them, they are misleading consumers,” she said.
Get the full story »
Oct. 21, 2010 at 2:40 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media,
Newspapers
By Reuters
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has put on hold ambitious plans to create a subscription online newsstand, after failing to attract enough interest among other news organizations, a person familiar with the plan said.
The owner of the Times of London, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal will reassign the staff working on “Project Alesia,” which aimed to charge readers for a bundle of newspaper and magazine digital content.
The source said News Corp was unable to reach a “critical mass” of publishers to support the plan. Get the full story »
