AdMarket 50 Sinks 6.4%

Package-Goods Giants Fare Relatively Well on Dread-Inducing Day

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — The Ad Age/Bloomberg AdMarket 50 crashed 6.4% on Monday, its biggest percentage drop since the index began in 2000. Still, the AdMarket — an index of 50 marketer, media and agency stocks — is “only” at a two-year low. The AdMarket — and Dow Jones Industrial Average, for that matter — remain far above the post-bubble lows seen in 2002.

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Citi to Remain Largest Bank After Wachovia Acquisition Will Also Keep Place as No. 1 Marketing Spender; Brands to Remain Intact Until Next Year

YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) — With the harried wave of mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector, rankings in the bank industry are changing almost daily. Citi held the title of country’s largest bank until No. 3 Bank of America prepared to leap over it with its pending purchase of Merrill Lynch. However, now that Citi has declared its intention to buy Wachovia, it will remain largest after the deal.

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Dave Peacock on Bud’s New Owners and the Great American Lager

A-B’s Top Marketing Exec Also Explains Why He’s Not a Liquor Guy

Ad Age caught up with Anheuser-Busch VP-Marketing Dave Peacock moments after his speech on — what else? — change at the recent National Beer Wholesalers Association convention in San Francisco. While the company may be foreign-owned now, Mr. Peacock has some reassuring words for American beer drinkers.

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Ford Plays the Bad Guy in ‘Flash of Genius’ Deceased Inventor Haunts Automaker in New Film

DETROIT (AdAge.com) — As if troubled Ford Motor Co. needed another problem, this week Universal Studios releases “Flash of Genius,” a film that paints the company as a corporate ogre. The film is based on the true story of Detroit engineering professor Robert Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper in the late 1960s. After he sued two dozen automakers for patent infringement, he eventually reached a $10 million settlement with Ford.

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What ‘Facial Coding’ Analysis Says About McCain, Obama Ads

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — A marketing research system that studies the emotions expressed by facial muscles has been used to analyze presidential campaign ads. The system is the subject of the new book, “Face Time,” by Dan Hill. Mr. Hill heads Sensory Logic, a consulting firm that has been using “facial coding” methods to study second-by-second consumer reaction to TV commercials. Its clients are normally large marketing corporations.

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Creativity Weekly Top 5 Hovis Loafs Through History, Diesel Celebrates With an SFW Dirty Video, Mario’s Evil Twin Shakes It

Watch the Spots

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, courtesy Creativity-Online.com, Google distributes Earth Water by Tetra Pak to keep Advertising Week hydrated; Stockholm’s Fi and Goodby get Mario’s tubby evil twin to shake it; Hovis and agency MCBD loaf through history; “Dexter” becomes a cover boy; and Diesel promotes its anniversary with the dirtiest clean video ever made.

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Nissan’s Multicultural Account Finds New Home at Omnicom

Innovative, Diverse Shop Takes Shape After Lengthy Pitch

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Nissan North America is moving its multicultural account to Omnicom Group, to a new agency that will be set up to comply with Nissan’s requirement for certified minority ownership and attempt to create a new model for handling multicultural business.

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Your Face Could Now Be Perfect for TV Nerdy Guys and Plus-Size Women Get a Shot at Ad Stardom

Lenore Skenazy

Our culture is in an odd moment, fixated on the most beautiful of the beautiful but drawn at the same time to the realest of the real.

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Credit Crunch Takes Bite Out of McDonald’s

Planned Coffee Rollout Hit by Banking Crisis That Is Restricting Loan Capital

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — The banking crisis is threatening to take a rather surprising hostage: McDonald’s big-budget coffee rollout.

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The Real Reason Why Wieden Quit Starbucks Agency Kept Bumping Up Against a Marketer That Wasn’t Receptive to Its Ideas, Executives Say

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Last week, reacting to what it saw as Starbucks’ micromanagement, waffling and shift to a jump-ball approach for future ad assignments, Wieden & Kennedy took the unusual step of quitting the business. Executives with knowledge of the situation said Starbucks was simply a very frustrating client for the agency.

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OK, So Maybe We Didn’t Realize the Gnome Would Be So Iconic

Turns Out AdReview Is, in Fact, Slightly Uninfallible

Garfield’s AdReview

The failed nomination of the Travelocity gnome on the Madison Avenue Walk of Fame rudely remind us how skeptical — and dismissive — of him we were when he first appeared in January 2004.

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Retailers Brace for Season’s Beatings Amid Grim Sales Forecasts, Target, Costco, Others Hasten Christmas Push

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — With an escalating consumer-credit crisis, five fewer shopping days, looming retail bankruptcies and the lowest projected sales growth in years, it’s going to be a cutthroat Christmas.

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Ad Club Honors David Droga’s Global Water Project

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In late 2006, in response to a challenge from Esquire magazine, David Droga came up with the idea of branding tap water to raise money for UNICEF. Called the Tap Project, it at first involved 300 New York City restaurants asking patrons to pay a dollar for their tap water. The program then went national and, next year, will go global. Last week, the Advertising Club of New York honored Droga for his work.

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McCain Winning Search-Ad Race Has Gained More Traffic Online With Important Keyword Purchases

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — John McCain may not know how to use e-mail, but his campaign apparently knows how to use search. It’s one technology area where the Republican seems to be besting Barack Obama.

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MPG: For Voters, Presidential TV Debates Matter

Poll Finds That Among the ‘Undecided,’ Matchup Will Influence Their Final Decision

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Maverick really needs to be in Mississippi tomorrow night. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s decision to skip tomorrow night’s debate with his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, at the University of Mississippi could be a huge mistake, according to a new study by Havas media agency MPG and CNN’s Advertising Sales and Research Group.

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McCain Picks Bad Time to Cede Battleground Suspends Campaign Just as Obama Ramps Up Spending

Campaign Trail

John McCain took a bold step and suspended his campaign to go to Washington to help resolve the country’s economic crisis. On the one hand this move is consistent with his “country first” brand, but on the other hand a total suspension of his campaign may jeopardize his party’s chances this fall.

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Budweiser Ads Aim to Calm InBev Transition Fears

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The $52 billion acquisition deal that will make Anheuser-Busch part of the Belgium-Brazilian company InBev has a lot of people wondering about their beer. What happens to iconic U.S. brands such as Budweiser once Anheuser-Busch is no longer a U.S. company? VP-Brand Management Keith Levy admits there are fears about change and that Budweiser’s new advertising campaigns are being carefully tailored to address those concerns.

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Coming Soon From Paramount Pictures: Digital Feature Films Division Inks Exclusive Deal With Hollywood Producers for Full-Length Web Content

Madison & Vine

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — In a first-of-its-kind deal for the division, Paramount Pictures’ Paramount Digital Entertainment is entering into an exclusive partnership with two Hollywood execs to create and produce feature-length films for distribution online and through other digital media.

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Have You Checked Your Tires Lately?

Take Care of Your Shop the Way You Would Your Car

The Big Tent

A recent experience with my new car’s technology caused me to think about slight adjustments that are needed to keep one’s agency operating at its maximum potential.

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Ben & Jerry’s Decides Against Human Milk PETA Proposal Would Have Changed Vermont’s Image

Adages

Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s has opted against a suggestion by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to replace the cow’s milk in its products with human milk.

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