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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U.K. Supermarket Chains Feel the ‘Aldi Effect’

Discounters Are Seeing Sales Gains as Shoppers Deal With Credit Crunch

LONDON (AdAge.com) — U.K. supermarket chain Asda, owned by Wal-Mart Stores, is using the credit crunch as an opportunity to demonstrate its thrifty credentials and is dropping its usual celebrity endorsements from its marketing plans in the process.

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The Many Ways Male Product Designers Frustrate Women A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Women are America’s most powerful buying block, but today’s designers continue to create products aimed at male sensitivities. And that means a lot of female-unfriendly products aren’t achieving their full market potential, says Marti Barletta. The author, marketing consultant and CEO of Chicago’s TrendSight Group was a keynote speaker at last week’s annual conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America. Addressing a predominantly male audience, she ticked off a list of what ticks off women.

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GM CEO: ‘Second Century’ Starts Now

Says It Will Be Leader of the Future, Unveils Chevy Volt at 100-Year Anniversary Bash

DETROIT (AdAge.com) — General Motors Corp. might have lost $15.5 billion in the second quarter, but Chairman-CEO Rick Wagoner sounded downright buoyant Tuesday about its prospects, calling this the “most exciting time in GM’s history.”

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Bonnie Fuller Gets Serious About Millennial Women Video Interview With Celebrity Gossip Queen

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Bonnie Fuller, queen of the celebrity gossip magazine, recently left her position at American Media to start her own company. In the interim, she’s also been writing for Ad Age and the Huffington Post. In this seven-minute video program, she chats about her rising interest in millennial women, who, she says, will play an important role in her new business.

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Attack Ads Prove GOP Needs ‘Education’ in Straight Talk

McCain’s Latest Proves Republicans Still Tops When It Comes to Lying

Garfield’s Ad Review

Two spots from the McCain camp and one from the Republican National Committee represent the worst in presidential politics: lies, distortions and Rovian distractions of the most despicable kind.

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Creativity Weekly Top 5: Sept. 15 HSBC’s Family Differences, Wieden Touts Nike Women, Remembering Nagi Noda and Other Work

Watch the Spots

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, courtesy Creativity-Online.com, HSBC and director Vince Squibb tell a tale of family differences; Digital Kitchen and HBO sink their teeth into Alan Ball’s “True Blood”; Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, touts Nike Women; MTV and Area/Code dive into competitive chatting online; and we remember pioneering director and artist Nagi Noda.

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Women to Watch Have Earned Their Accolades

Ad Age Honorees Directed Their Careers to the Top, Now Lead Others

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — These are challenging times, but this year’s group of Women to Watch honorees offered plenty of strategies for surviving and thriving in a tough economy. Approximately 800 attendees from agencies, marketers and media companies gathered at the Hilton hotel in Manhattan for a luncheon event to celebrate Ad Age’s 30 honorees.

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Enfartico Creator Reaches Out, Touches Us Cloaked Pay-Phone Call From Spoofster

Adages

Months into the venture, the adworld isn’t showing any signs of improved faith in the WPP-Dell venture dubbed Enfatico. Rather, haters continue to defecate all over its prospects of success, the latest evidence being this: enfartico.com, a site that mocks everything about the start-up shop.

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Study: Skinny Women Better for Bottom Line

Researchers Find Thin Models Make Viewers Like Brands More, but Themselves Less

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Thin is still in for advertising, new research suggests, unless you’re trying to sell cookies or self-esteem. A study by business professors at Villanova University and the College of New Jersey, inspired by Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty,” shows that ads featuring thin models made women feel worse about themselves but better about the brands featured.

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Starbucks Posts Loss for Third Quarter CEO Schultz Cites Tough Economic ‘Headwinds’ but Says Customers Remain Loyal to Brand

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Starbucks cited economic “headwinds” and restructuring costs for its dreary third-quarter report. CEO Howard Schultz, however, maintained that the company’s brand remains strong, and that customers remain loyal to Starbucks, even if tighter budgets keep them from visiting as often.

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Seth MacFarlane Discusses His Landmark Google Content Deal

Comedy Project Could be Industry-Changing Event VIDEO NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Seth MacFarlane, the country’s highest-paid TV series creator, says his new content deal with Google is so complicated even he doesn’t really understand it. Ad Age Los Angeles bureau chief Claude Brodesser-Akner caught up with the director at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. The landmark agreement turns Mr. MacFarlane into an internet producer while transforming Google into an original entertainment content player with massive global distribution capabilities. PLAY

A Rare Admission: Wowed by Competitors’ Marketing How Vans Shoes Was Eclipsed by the Online Gimmick it Invented VIDEO Corporate marketing chiefs rarely admit that their company has fallen behind its competitors in a field it pioneered. But that’s what Doug Palladini, marketing VP of the half-a-billion dollar a year Vans, Inc., did at this week’s Associaton of National Advertisers’ Marketing Accountability Conference. In other news, Sobe debuted a follow-up to its Super Bowl spot that had supermodel Naomi Campbell dancing with lizards. And, State Farm erects a mini Yankee Stadium in Times Square. PLAY

Meet the Powerful and Real Women of the “Mad Men” Era One Club Exhibit Looks Back at Period’s Great Creatives VIDEO Although AMC’s hit “Mad Men” show portrays its advertising era as one of total male dominance, the truth is there WERE powerful women in real agencies back then. This fact is one of the core themes of The One Club’s extensive new exhibit at the Science, Industry and Business facility of the New York Public Library. Entitled “The Real Men & Women of Madison Avenue,” the show focuses on the individuals who actually created some of the century’s most iconic and industry-changing ad works. PLAY

World’s Largest Digital Sign Nears Completion in Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Building Becomes Vast Digital Billboard VIDEO Turning three sides of a 25-story building into a coordinated animation display, the world’s largest digital sign is nearing completion in Times Square. Commissioned by Walgreens, it wraps One Times Square, the famed building from which the New Year’s Eve ball drops. Its 23 synchornized digital screens dwarf those of the nearby Thomson-Reuters sign which has only 11 such units. The designers are determined to push the competitive advertising environment of Times Square to a whole new level. PLAY

Why Unilever is Quite Unexcited About Using HDTV Ads Director of Strategic Media Planning All But Yawns at Subject VIDEO Although hyping the advertising potential of HDTV is all the rage across the sales side of televisiondom, more than a few big markters have yet to be convinced. In fact, one of the biggest — Unilever — is quite unexcited about the whole thing. And that’s no small issue, given that the package goods giant buys $2.2 billion worth of U.S. advertising each year. In other news, ABC’s sales chief is not happy with talk about programming commercials according to their performance. And, some big rock stars have launched their own lines of coffee, which we put to the taste test. PLAY

Creativity’s 5 Top Ads of The Week: July 14, 2008 Absolut, PES, American Express, Monster.com, Channel 4 VIDEO Great Works and TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, offer online users Kanye-fication on behalf of Absolut; PES animates a tasty meal; Tina Fey bumps into Martin Scorsese for American Express; Monster.com and JWT, Hong Kong, show the sad state of underemployed toys; and 4Creative gives a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shining” for Channel 4. PLAY