Month: December 1998

Net to become mass media for children, says new study

Marketing Week

The Internet is poised to attain mass media status among UK children, but further progress remains at risk because of the proliferation of unregulated and upsetting adult material, according to a survey released this week by NOP Research Group. The Kid.net survey, sponsored by Microsoft, BBC, NatWest Bank and Anglia Multimedia, says that 2.4 million […]

ASA slams ‘demeaning’ Harvey Nichols shoe ad

Marketing Week

Upmarket department store Harvey Nichols has been rapped for a demeaning advertisement showing the lower legs of a woman in labour wearing high-heeled gold sandals. Earlier, the Knightsbridge store was charged with demeaning women after it ran a poster featuring a woman wearing a dog’s lead. The latest ad, a national press execution through Travis […]

Fat-bottomed girls myth blown

Marketing Week

I just had to write in and say how much I laughed at Somnolence Cured By Sustenance written by Iain Murray (MW December 3). However, as I neared the end of the article, I was crying out with protest that the research on the size of bottoms has only been carried out on women! Have […]

Carlsberg-Tetley hires AKQA for Internet marketing brief

Marketing Week

Brewer Carlsberg-Tetley has ap-pointed new media agency AKQA to handle its online marketing account, which has been held since 1995 by CHBi Razorfish. The budget for the year-long appointment is thought to be more than 1m. AQKA’s first task will be to develop a new Internet site for the Carlsberg brand for launch next year, […]

Whitbread in fresh marketing rejig

Marketing Week

Whitbread has further restructured its marketing department after merging sales and marketing directorships under Stewart Gilliland. Phil Rumbol, formerly marketing manager for Heineken, has been made director of brand communication within the company. He will be responsible for sponsorship, PR and new media. Rachel Johnson has been recruited to replace Rumbol in his old position, […]

Excitement for BT/Yell’s future

Marketing Week

Your article headlined “BT/Excite’s deal with a difference” (MW December 3) characterised an Excite spokesman as suggesting that the future of BT’s Yell directory site is unclear. Clearly, Excite is in no position to have any special knowledge concerning the future of Yell or any business other than its own. Yell is an independent entity […]

Bullish media sector refuses to act as the harbinger of doom

Marketing Week

Christmas is coming, but the shop-keeping geese aren’t getting fat. With the R-word increasingly bandied about, Christmas 1998 is apparently going to be the worst for years. Retail chains such as Storehouse, Allders, John Lewis and Safeway report a decline in underlying sales of five per cent or more, and describe the trading environment as […]

Boots to launch in-store specialist skincare units

Marketing Week

Boots The Chemist is to set up specialist skincare advice units in 95 stores nationwide, staffed by trained advisors selling a range of products new to the UK. Boots has created a new umbrella category, Boots specialist skincare, comprising products which fall between beauty and pharmaceutical use. In France and the US the sector is […]

When the talking stopped…

Marketing Week

Paul Robinson may have left Talk Radio for Disney, but few believe he is through with the medium which has been his life for the past 20 years. Zenith head of radio Yvonne Scullion says: “It will be interesting to see whether, if another good job in radio comes up, he will be tempted back, […]

Guinness axes failing Enigma

Marketing Week

The pruning of Diageo’s beer brands has begun with brewer Guinness GB scrapping failed lager Enigma and transferring the marketing and production of Harp Irish Lager to regional brewer Wolverhampton & Dudley. The production of non-alcoholic lager Kaliber and Guinness Bitter will also move overseas, leaving the Guinness stout range as the only Guinness product […]

Commercial radio gains strength from solidarity

Marketing Week

Trade associations are not noted for their ability to arouse strong emotions, but the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) could be an exception to the rule. CRCA, like its sister organisation the Radio Advertising Bureau, is an industry-wide organisation whose aim is to ensure that commercial radio remains the fastest-growing medium in the UK for […]

Tetley’s Teafolk as fresh as ever

Marketing Week

Who, in 1973, dared to suggest that our favourite cuppa might be better brewed in a tea bag? Who in 1989 then persuaded us, for no apparent benefit, to swap our square tea bags for round ones? And who in 1997 launched the world’s first non-drip tea bag? Gaffer, Sidney, Maurice, Clarence, Gordon, Archie and […]

Chaos on forecourts as oil giants merge

Marketing Week

Mergers among the multinational oil giants are creating some of the biggest companies in the world, yet their impact on the UK forecourt remains far from clear. Texaco UK managing director Roger Ebert, for one, has flown to the US where he expects to discuss the changing landscape of the worldwide oil sector. The recent […]