Blue Sky Brands has made much of its debut magazine for men, called Men’s Quest. It fiercely rejects the bums, tits and flash-cash approach of many other men’s magazines, preferring to target the thinking man. So the Diary was a little surprised to find that the launch party was in the nightclub Sugar Reef, a […]
Mars’ brazen claim that chocolate can cut heart disease casts fresh doubt over the FSA’s effectiveness as the consumer’s champion. With pressure groups crying out for labelling legislation and multinationals ready to defy a new code of practic
Chris Lovell, UK managing director of below-the-line agency DraftWorldwide and the key driver of the UK business, has resigned over “differences in strategic vision” and will leave the company in October. DraftWorldwide president for Europe Jean-Paul Dupuy says he has not decided whether to replace Lovell or to restructure the senior level. He says: “Lovell’s […]
Lucy Barrett’s article on pan-European car advertising “Gearing down” (MW April 6) is muddled, poorly edited, and an oversimplification of the facts. She describes the UK car campaigns of the past 20 years as “lavish and wasteful”, but then goes on to praise local creativity. The so-called 15 per cent contribution that advertising makes towards […]
Chocolate is good for you. Its principal constituent, cocoa, contains numerous trace elements not easily found in any other single source of nutrition. Among them are polyphenols, which research has demonstrated can help to maintain a healthy heart. If the above message had been conveyed through the Lancet or Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine […]
CIA Medianetwork UK has won the £4m media planning and buying account for baby milk company SMA Nutrition, which previously used healthcare media agency Acumen. CIA’s brief is to launch a multimedia campaign this summer for Progress, SMA’s “follow-on” milk for babies over nine months old. The creative account is held by Euro RSCG Healthcare […]
Somerfield business development director Mark Thurgood has been squeezed out in a shake-up following the collapse of the supermarket chain’s Kwik Save sale. Thurgood was regarded as the Somerfield group’s rebranding expert and spent more than 20 years at the company. He leaves with no job to go to. The company refused to discuss the […]
While I welcome Tom Bawden’s article about the challenges of creating a pan-European banking brand (“Internet opens up Europe for banks” MW April 20), it failed to examine the role new banks such as Tesco Personal Finance and EasyGroup’s Easymoney will play in this trend. With the exception of Easymoney, the article suggests the majority […]
The BBC has appointed head of BBC Sport for TV and radio Bob Shennan as controller of Radio 5 Live. The position has been vacant since Roger Mosey became head of television news in December 1999. Mosey had held the post since the beginning of 1997. Shennan joined the BBC in 1987 as a trainee […]
So Visa International is locking out its rivals from this summer’s Olympic Games? (MW April 20). How times have changed. What a shock it was to discover that while people are in the Olympic stadium they will have to pay for things in cash. Now I may be showing my age a little, but I […]
EasyEverything, the Internet caféset up by EasyJet owner Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is seeking a marketing director to pilot its expansion into Europe.
Eve Pollard’s Parkhill Publishing is to lose its ad director Jane Sproul. Sproul resigned from her post at the fledgling publishing company in the same week that news broke of the impending departure of Deidre Vine, editor of newly-launched w
Somerfield business development director Mark Thurgood has been squeezed out in a shake-up following the collapse of the supermarket chain’s Kwik Save sale. Thurgood was regarded as the Somerfield group’s rebranding expert and spent more than 20 years at the company. He leaves with no job to go to. The company refused to discuss the […]
Energy drink Enorm is being rolled out in the UK this week as a rival to clubbers’ favourite soft drink, Red Bull. Enorm is brewed in the Netherlands by Ulvenhoutsaan12, which has licensed Watford-based Sapna Impex to handle the UK roll-out. The drink is aimed at adults and is being launched with the slogan “Life […]
Imperial Tobacco has revamped its gift inserts card promotion in the face of the forthcoming ad ban, at a time when all other cigarette companies have abandoned similar schemes. Imperial denies it is trying to side-step the proposed ban on cigarette promotions by replacing its focus gift inserts with quality assurance cards. The cards will […]