March 26, 2010 at 6:11 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Consumer news,
Food
Ronald McDonald slaps first graders hands as they head to lunch at Charles Gates Dawes Elementary School in 2008. Ronald McDonald was at the school to launch of the new Ronald McDonald Care Mobile\, a pediatric mobile health care vehicle. (Chicago Tribune Photo by Heather Stone)
By Julie Wernau
| A coalition of health professionals, parents and corporate
accountability advocates is calling for Ronald McDonald to retire as a spokesman for the nation’s largest restaurant chain, saying he has too much influence on kids.
Corporate Accountability International, which has waged campaigns against bottled water companies and tobacco companies, said it plans to present the results of a survey Wednesday showing that most Americans agree.
The group will release the results at a lunch-time “retirement party” for Oak Brook-based
McDonald’s Chief Happiness Officer, a 50-year veteran of the company, at the McDonald’s restaurant at Chicago Avenue and State Street in Chicago.
Get the full story »
By Wailin Wong
| Sprint Nextel Corp. has lost its appeal to an advertising watchdog
because of its boast of being “America’s most dependable 3G network.”
The dispute stemmed from a claim against Sprint that rival Verizon
Wireless made in November to the National Advertising Division of the
Council of Better Business Bureaus. The NAD asked that Sprint
discontinue its claim, prompting the company to appeal the decision to
the National Advertising Review Board.
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March 24, 2010 at 7:01 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media
From the L.A. Times’ Company Town | Oprah Winfrey surprised her Discovery Communications partners at a big presentation to advertisers in Chicago yesterday. Winfrey was not scheduled to attend the event held to promote Discovery’s cable channels — including the Oprah Winfrey Network, a joint venture between Discovery and Winfrey — but changed her mind Tuesday afternoon and dropped in about 15 minutes after it started. She got a spotlight welcome.
Get the full story: Company Town
March 23, 2010 at 11:20 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Health care,
Litigation,
Retail
By Wailin Wong | Deerfield-based pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. will pay nearly $6 million in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges of deceptive advertising for its “Wal-Born” dietary supplements.
The FTC already settled cases with CVS and Rite Aid last year over the same issue. The agency also settled in 2008 with Airborne Health Inc., the maker of the Airborne supplements on which the Wal-Born products were modeled. Advertising for these supplements used “baseless claims that (they) could prevent colds, fight germs and boost the immune system,” the FTC said in a statement.
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March 22, 2010 at 5:43 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Food,
Sports
(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Tribune staff report | Oak Brook-based McDonald’s announced in a statement Monday that golfer Michelle Wie will participate in an ad campaign for the restaurant chain. The campaign will launch in April and be available in five languages.
By Wailin Wong | It may be a dirty job, but somebody has to speak up for Motorola’s phones.
The Schaumburg-based mobile phone maker has tapped Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” show, as the new spokesman for Motorola’s iDEN portfolio.
IDEN is a proprietary technology used for rugged, push-to-talk phones that run on Sprint’s Nextel service.
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March 21, 2010 at 11:33 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Internet,
Retail
From the Consumerist | Sears Holdings-owned Kmart Corp. posted a coupon to the Internet offering $10 off a $20 purchase that it said was intended for the Chicago, New York City and Baltimore markets only. But, it contained the words “valid at all locations” and the coupon was widely circulated to people in other markets via e-mail. The company apologized for the inconvenience.
Get the full story: theconsumerist.com
March 18, 2010 at 5:45 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
From Reuters | Deerfield-based Fortune Brands plans to increase marketing spending in its spirits business more than 10 percent. Fortune’s senior vice president and chief financial officer Craig Omtvedt said that Fortune wants to build its core brands, such as Jim Beam bourbon and Sauza tequila, as well as promote newer products.
Get the full story: reuters.com.
March 11, 2010 at 8:29 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Internet
By Michael Oneal | Groupon, the Chicago-based coupon Web site, launched a new iPhone application Thursday.
The app will allow Groupon users to tap the site’s daily offerings of
deals on local goods, services and cultural events from their iPhone or
iPod touch, the company said in a release.
Get the full story »
March 4, 2010 at 6:15 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Manufacturing
Associated Press | RC2 Corp. said Wednesday that Joan K. Chow, chief marketing officer for ConAgra Foods Inc., has been appointed to its board.
RC2 makes products for babies and mothers under brands such as The First Years and Lamaze.
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March 2, 2010 at 3:59 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
Bloomberg | Brazil’s second-largest brewer has withdrawn a television ad featuring Paris Hilton simulating a striptease to voyeuristic neighbors. The ad was pulled after an industry group received complaints from consumers.
Primo Schincariol Industria de Cervejas e Refrigerantes SA said the ad for its Devassa Bem Loura brand — a play on words in Portuguese roughly translating as “Dirty Blond” — said in a statement that it would respect the decision by the advertising industry group Conar while it mounts a defense.
“The company believes that the advertisement starring the model Paris Hilton doesn’t offend, in any sense, any rule or orientation,” Schincariol, which is based in the city of Itu, in Sao Paulo state, said.
Feb. 13, 2010 at 3:16 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Media,
Sports
From Bloomberg News | Retired NBA star Magic Johnson is in talks to buy Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co., publisher of Jet and Ebony magazines. No definitive agreement has been reached at this point, a Magic Johnson Enterprises spokesman said.
Read the full story: bloomberg.com
Feb. 12, 2010 at 12:08 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing
By Mary Ellen Podmolik | The Museum of Science and Industry will kick off a new local television
advertising during tonight’s opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter
Olympics in Vancouver.
The ads, produced by the Chicago office of Hoffman New York, are part
of a rebranding campaign for the museum, which is in the midst of a
$205 million capital campaign labeled Science Rediscovered.
Get the full story »
Feb. 9, 2010 at 1:19 p.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Telecommunications
By Wailin Wong | Motorola’s Super Bowl ad starring actress Megan Fox generated a fair amount of online chatter over the weekend, but not as much buzz as Google and Doritos, according to Chicago-based marketing firm Alterian.
Alterian tracked online buzz related to Super Bowl ads between Dec. 1 and Feb. 8, monitoring conversations on forums such as blogs, Twitter and message boards. Heading into Super Bowl weekend, Motorola ranked eighth out of 35 advertisers in volume of mentions. In Alterian’s final results, which saw the total list of advertisers grow to 46, Motorola dropped to 12th in volume. Alterian data showed that the Schaumburg-based was more frequently discussed on Monday than on the day of the game.
Feb. 9, 2010 at 5:35 a.m.
Filed under:
Advertising/Marketing,
Restaurants,
Retail
A line of people waiting for free Grand Slam breakfasts wraps around a Denny’s restaurant in Irvine, Calif. a few minutes during last year’s giveaway. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mark Rightmire)
| By Kevin Pang | Once again, Denny’s has the nation in its bacon-greased, pancake-battered grip by offering a free Grand Slam breakfast to anyone who wants a free Grand Slam breakfast. Which, judging by last year’s massive turnout, was about 2 million Americans.
Here are the details: Go to any Denny’s between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday and receive a free Grand Slam, consisting of two eggs, two pancakes and either two sausage links or two pieces of bacon. Drinks are extra.
Read more: The Stew
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