The Diary is pleased to put the record straight on a misleading story printed last week. We stated that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream had become the first national brand to advertise on cows. The idea was in fact used 13 years ago, as pointed out by David Beadle, media development director at Arc Advertising’s […]

Seagram has always targeted growth areas, built them up and sold them on. Hollywood is its new baby, so will its drinks be next to go? By David Benady

Food giant Heinz is reversing its decision to spend half last year’s 24m marketing budget below the line, by switching more money into TV advertising. Two years ago, Heinz shocked the marketing industry by becoming one of the first fmcg companies to channel substantial spend into a heavyweight direct marketing campaign. The push was designed […]

It may be an old-fashioned concept, but aren’t Diary stories meant to be amusing? Your Diary story criticising the Direct Mail Information Service, and direct mail per se “1995 – a year that’s bin junk”(MW May 24) fails to achieve this. If the Diary editor is having such a problem filling the page perhaps we […]

Seagram UK marketing director John Ratcliffe is leaving to become commercial director of its off-licence chain, Oddbins, which the company is believed to be preparing to sell (MW April 12). It is not clear how Ratcliffe’s position will be filled, but the move is part of a European-wide restructure of Seagram’s marketing, designed to cut […]

Your cover story on sales promotions legalities, “Ill-gotten games” (MW May 24), confirms the bewilderment of the interpreters of the Lotteries Acts, codes of practice and case histories when dealing with the sometimes arcane workings of promotional techniques. The authors of the article themselves also seem to be confused. They say: “For a promotion to […]

MD Foods marketing director David Whitehouse is poised to quit the company, following an internal restructure and the appointment of a new group marketing director. Andrew Simpson has been brought in from Sun Valley Foods, where he was divisional general manager for UK retail sales and marketing. The Leeds company, which has about 65 per […]

Tour operator First Choice is the only one of the top three holiday firms to see sales fall in April, according to figures obtained exclusively by Marketing Week. The figures on First Choice, Thomson and Airtours’ performance have been compiled by Stats MR, the holiday industry market research analyst. Stats MR refuses to confirm or […]

Saturday night ITV is facing a revolution in programming, following the failure of the Man O Man show (MW May 31). The network is looking at dropping the traditional studio-based general entertainment show, typified by Man O Man and Blind Date. Director of the ITV Network Centre Marcus Plantin says: “We may be experiencing a […]

On the surface the divorce of Coca-Cola from Cadbury Schweppes in the UK appears like one of those modern clean cut affairs. Their joint venture distributor Coca-Cola Schweppes Beverages is dead after just nine years, but both sides are putting a brave face on the split and saying that they will keep in touch. When […]

English Heritage has hired Harari Page to handle its advertising, while its previous agency, Leagas Delaney, is still being paid. The quango split with Leagas Delaney last month, but is bound by its contract to continue paying it until October. Leagas Delaney and English Heritage parted “by mutual agreement” in May having won the business […]

Initial figures for sales since Pepsi’s much-lauded Project Blue relaunch show a rise of only 0.1 per cent. Rivals, and much of the media, gloated over its ‘failure’, but Pepsi’s statistics reveal a different story.

Media computing systems company MediaTel has launched Media Village, a “Net community” on the Internet, catering to the media buying and advertising industries. Media Village contains the Web sites of nine media trade associations and companies, such as the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the Periodical Publishers’ Association and research company AGB. As well as […]

Boots has made healthy but decreased profits, and its position is still enviable. But with the rising threat of own-label, stronger rivals, and loss-making companies in the group, it must defend its core business, while expanding into internat

The demise of Facia with debts of 30m is another black cloud on Sears’ horizon. Can Liam Strong allay shareholders fears? By George Pitcher. George Pitcher is joint managing director of media consultancy Luther Pendragon