E.J. Schultz

Ad, media, direct, PR and promotions agency news: Need-to-know account shifts, personnel moves, and best ideas and campaigns to come out of the agency business.

What happens when you put 600 candy marketers in a room with thousands of retail buyers? A sugar-filled pitch-a-thon where no packaging detail seems too small or sales stat too regional. "We dominate North Texas," Mike Sanderlin said at this week's Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago when asked about his cotton candy brand, called Cotton Candy A La'...

World Nutella Day will likely survive after all. The fan-led event, which celebrates the hazelnut spread annually in February, seemed threatened when the event's founder, Sara Rosso, said earlier this week that lawyers for the brand sent her a cease-and-desist letter. She blogged about the letter, drawing plenty of media coverage and outcry fr...

Shaken, stirred ... or skinny? It's a question that could be asked at a growing number of restaurant chains seizing on the low-calorie-liquor trend spawned by Skinnygirl Cocktails. T.G.I. Friday's, Chili's, Cheesecake Factory and others are slapping generic phrases like "skinny" and "slender" on cocktails as they target weight-...

For food and drink makers, "skinny" seems to be the phattest marketing term going. Brands have put the label on everything from cocktails to popcorn to give foods a low-cal sheen for consumers that are watching their waistlines. "Skinny is the new "baby,' as in baby carrots [and] baby spinach," said Kit Yarrow, a consumer-...