February 14, 1994
Figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding aren't the only ones with a lot on the line in the Winter Olympics. As the Games began in Lillehammer, Norway-scene of the first biennial Winter Olympics-Ms. Kerrigan held a news conference and Ms. Harding fought to hold her place on the team. CBS and its 83 advertisers held their breath, hoping hei...
February 14, 1994
When Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison takes the stage at CBS Studios in Hollywood tomorrow, it will culminate a nine-month campaign to reposition the once-obscure database software company as the leading-edge supplier for the interactive age. Oracle will unveil its Media Server and other related software at a glitzy event hosted by Walter Cronkite a...
February 14, 1994
Retail was the driving force behind a third-quarter 8.5% increase in out-of-home spending, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Spending by retailers on outdoor boards, transit shelters and buses rose awhopping 95% from a year earlier, a major contributor to the overall $432 million in spending for the quarter. For the fir...
February 14, 1994
Borrowing from Procter & Gamble Co.'s playbook, General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac division plans to build up the brand identity of individual models, making names like Bonneville and Grand Am as distinctive as the Pontiac nameplate. Three newly named brand management directors will have broad authority to ensure product features and marketing program...
February 14, 1994
MEDIA NEW YORK-Norman Bierman has been named exec VP of NBC Cable Advertising Sales, succeeding Angela Pumo, who left. Mr. Bierman previously was president-ceo of sports marketing company Sports Alliance International. As head of NBC Cable Advertising Sales, Mr. Bierman will oversee sales for all of NBC's cable, international and new media prope...
February 14, 1994
Montreal's No. 2 supermarket chain has learned the value of magazines as an ad medium-not for its own print ads but to boost readershipof the chain's circulars. The free-circulation Le Magazine Provigo reaches consumers inserted in the fliers of Provigo Supermarkets. A typical issue of the food-related magazine also carries anywhere from two to fi...
February 14, 1994
Tetley warms up $30M tea account review SHELTON, Conn.-Tetley will start reviewing agencies for its estimated $30 million tea account, following a split with its shop of eight years, Rotando Partners, Stamford. A conflict with Rotando's largest client, Ocean Spray Cranberries, caused the breakup. ESPN, MTV tackle football deal in Europe NEW YORK...
February 14, 1994
There is already a split within the movement to reward people who voluntarily turn in firearms. Foot Locker has seceded from New York businessman Fernando Mateo's Goods-for-Guns program, planning instead to take its own Shoes-for-Guns program national. Mr. Mateo burst onto the scene in New York in December with what was then called Toys-for-Guns....
February 14, 1994
Brand name manufacturers are taking the offensive against private labels. In its first major effort on the issue, the Grocery Manufacturers of America kicked off a yearlong public relations campaign in defense of national brands on Feb. 12 with a speech by GMA President C. Manly Molpus (see related story in Forum on Page 22). His talk, at the Int...
February 14, 1994
Turner Broadcasting System and Reader's Digest are teamingup to play games. The media companies are leveraging their worldwide positions to jointly develop a global, cross-media ad package centered on this summer's Goodwill Games. SmithKline Beecham has already signed on as the exclusive healthcare category sponsor, and other deals are expected s...
February 14, 1994
Hachette Filipacchi Magazines is in discussions with major infomercial production companies about an alliance to develop programming for Hachette advertisers. Hachette's search is believed to be linked to its agreement to develop a cable TV channel based on Car and Driver and Road & Track with Tele-Communications Inc. Hachette also is in discussio...
February 14, 1994
In five short months as an advertising team, Harry and Louise have merely: forced the White House to revamp its healthcare plan; led first lady Hillary to rip them; and caused President Bill, begrudgingly, to invite their sponsors to help shape national policy. So much for the notion you can't fight 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Regardless of whether Pr...
February 14, 1994
Supermarkets are staking out a place in the burgeoning home office market. Xerox Corp. is teaming with supermarket chains for specially designed Xerox Document Centers, an aisle featuring Xerox Office Basics. The Office Basics line of home office supplies includes copier and fax paper, self-stick notes and computer diskettes. "As we look at the ...
February 14, 1994
The new-product problem seems to extend into the alcoholic beverage market. When it comes to beer developments, the approach seems to be: Take an idea from another country and run it up the U.S. flagpole. Japan, for example. Dry beers, brewed longer and supposedly smoother tasting, were a big hit in Japan, so here they came. The dry brews the U.S...
February 14, 1994
Kroger Co. plans a marketing coup March 1 when it installs the first interactive kiosk to give consumers healthcare and over-the-counter drug counseling in all 64 Dallas division stores. "Most pharmacists put out information sheets for consumers," said Jim White, pharmacy merchandiser for the supermarket division. "We want to take it one step furt...
February 14, 1994
Nielsen Marketing Research is on the verge of achieving the unthinkable: reclaiming not one but two clients from Information Resources Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and the McNeil Consumer Products Co. unit of Johnson & Johnson, worth a combined $6 million to IRI, are pulling up stakes at a company that hasn't lost a client to Nielsen in nearly tw...
February 14, 1994
The linkup of Knight-Ridder and Bell Atlantic Corp. for an interactive TV test is the latest sign that barriers between publishers and telephone companies are breaking down. Knight-Ridder, the nation's second largest newspaper group, will explore ways to develop news, information and advertising services as part of Bell Atlantic Video Services C...
February 14, 1994
Publisher Jamie Masada has a lot of comedians working for him. While many magazine publishers might say the same in jest, Mr. Masada is dead serious. After all, he publishes Laugh Factory magazine. It began in 1983 as a single page of jokes duplicated and handed out to people waiting in line at the Laugh Factory, Mr. Masada's Sunset Boulevard com...
February 14, 1994
Your letters column frequently deals with advertisements that are incorrect or in poor taste, but the worst ad I've seen was printed in your own magazine. In the Jan. 17 issue of Advertising Age a two-page spread for the New York Festivals had the audacity to compare their annual of advertising with the Holy Bible, calling the Bible the good book,...
February 14, 1994
With regard to James Brady's Dec. 13 column on the proposed Disney theme park in Prince William County, Virginia, he rearranges geography to set up a straw man (or park), whereby Disney becomes the despoiler of hallowed ground. The Route 28/Bull Run/shady tree location he writes of is about 10 miles east of the Disney location. Now, even by Long ...
