Irish mobile phone company Meteor has been slammed by animal rights groups for using an orang-utan in its latest television ad. A coalition of more than 30 international animal protection organisations has written to Meteor demanding that the ad, which features an orang-utan called Harry, is pulled. However, the company says it intends to continue […]
Harrods has appointed Isobel to create a brand advertising campaign beginning next spring and lasting most of 2006. Isobel won the business after beating off competition from The Bank. A spokesman for Harrods has confirmed that the agency will not be retained as the luxury department store’s agency of choice, but has been appointed with […]
Vauxhall has chosen four people with no advertising experience between them to create its latest campaign. The VX Collective, which is made up of a skateboarder, a disc jockey, a fashion designer and a film-maker, has developed a cinema and online campaign for the General Motors-owned marque. The campaign will break on November 8. The […]
The WWF is repositioning itself to reflect the work it does on global environmental issues in its biggest marketing campaign to date. The charity, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, is renowned for its efforts to protect endangered species, but is now focusing on the wider problems of climate change and deforestation in a […]
Outrageous comments are nothing new to WPP creative guru Neil French, who resigned last week after labelling women creative directors “crap” and saying they are more concerned with raising families than being committed to work. But whether or not the 61-year-old’s outburst was a headline-grabbing rant, rather than an error of judgement, he has thrown […]
Beer brand Beck’s is launching an outdoor advertising campaign to mark 20 years of art sponsorship. The campaign, which breaks on November 7, is the brand’s first advertising since InBev UK took on marketing and distribution in August this year. It is part of the company’s &£6m marketing spend between August and the end of […]
As part of its £10m Christmas marketing push, computer hardware giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) will be wrapping bus-shelters in bright colours. The shelters will feature images of passers-by thanks to built-in interactive technology.
Audi’s decision to launch a dedicated television channel has been labelled “brave” by one media expert, while others say it could prove to be an expensive experiment and predict other brands will hesitate to follow suit.
British Gas is to sponsor Creature Comforts, the animation series made famous through advertising, in its first terrestrial television series sponsorship deal. The deal covers all nine episodes of the Sunday afternoon show’s second series, including its first Christmas special. The first series, which features animal characters using the unscripted voices of the public, attracted […]
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) unveils a new corporate identity at its Engage 2005 conference tomorrow (Thursday) as part of the trade body’s repositioning as a service organisation for advertisers. The new logo and font, developed by advertising agency Masius, will be used across all IAB marketing in print and online. The logo uses circles […]
American tourists are being encouraged to sample proper London life, but is it fair to subject our visitors to a diet of binge drinking, violence and profanities? Though they are disliked in some of the less advanced corners of the globe – Islington, for instance – I have a soft spot for Americans. True, there […]
Outdoor advertising has progressed far beyond the traditional, single-impact poster. Modern ads appear in a bewildering array of formats – and some of them can use the phone. By Richard West A few years ago, the Outdoor Advertising Association (OAA) set its sights on achieving a ten per cent share of display advertising revenue. Today, […]
The UK’s creative industries are thriving, but with international competition increasingly fierce, proper training can keep us world class, says Chris Ingram There is increasing interest in the UK’s so-called creative industries.The reason for this interest is that the sector is growing at three times the national average and is a much bigger employer than […]
After a shaky start, third-generation mobile phone operator 3 is beginning to prosper. Its recent repositioning as a media company is widely seen as being the first step towards flotation, but much will depend on its ability to show that 3G is more than just a novelty, says Robert Lester Third-generation (3G) mobile phone operator […]
Whenever the Diary passes through a university campus and sees the hordes of designer clothes-wearing, mobile phone-toting students avoiding lectures, it can’t help but wonder what happened to the cash-strapped, fish finger-eating undergraduates of yore. Obviously they’re taking the television ads reassuring students that they shouldn’t worry about their loan repayments and so might as […]