January 31, 1994
Thirty years after Burma-Shave signs vanished from U.S. highways, the legend of rhyming red-and-white roadside jingles has outlasted its originator, Allan G. Odell. Indeed, the recent death of Mr. Odell at age 90 is not the end of the road for Burma-Shave, the only successful product marketed by Minneapolis-based Burma-Vita Co. American Safety Raz...
January 31, 1994
I read about the death of Allan G. Odell, the man who created the roadside Burma- Shave signs, about the same time as I read about the demise of Clarion, a line of cosmetics from Procter & Gamble. The moral of my story is that it's not easy to establish a brand name that occupies a warm spot in the hearts of consumers. P&G spent millions of dolla...
January 31, 1994
L'Oreal is betting $70 million that 1994 will be a beauty of a year. Cosmair's L'Oreal cosmetics and fragrance group is increasing its overall marketing budget 16% from 1993, a year in which L'Oreal surprisingly was the only established mass-market cosmetics brand to see double-digit sales gains. Part of the spending will support V the Vibrant Sc...
January 31, 1994
NEW YORK-Meigher Communications has yet to publish a single issue of a single magazine, but it's starting to look a lot like a professional publishing company. Adding to a powerhouse lineup of executives and investors, the company named media industry veteran Joe Armstrong, 50, as publishing director, overseeing advertising and marketing for its p...
January 31, 1994
Michael Jackson last week moved to shore up his shaky business empire by first resolving his personal problems. The pop superstar last week paid an out-of-court settlement, thought to be in the $20 million range, to the teen-age boy he was accused of molesting. Rather than endure a lengthy, highly publicized trial, Mr. Jackson wanted to put the ex...
January 31, 1994
Some say 1994 will be the year interactive marketing truly takes hold. But those that tried it in 1993 can expect their every move to come under the microscope. Modem Media, a Westport, Conn., interactive advertising agency, has issued its 1993 GMies (named after General Partner Gerald M. O'Connell), honoring-and sometimes lambasting-last year's n...
January 31, 1994
NEW YORK- Ogilvy & Mather Direct Chairman-CEO Jerry Pickholz is preparing for retirement by stepping up the search for his successor at the world's largest direct marketing agency. Mr. Pickholz, who has headed O&M Direct almost since it became a separate unit in 1977, confirmed he has held discussions with candidates for a top-level job, probably ...
January 31, 1994
AGENCY Grey Advertising has named longtime executive John Shannon, 56, to the new post of president of Grey International, overseeing 202 offices outside the U.S. that bill $2.9 billion. A 30-year Grey veteran, Mr. Shannon remains chairman-ceo of Grey's operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa and will remain in London. The move, which cons...
January 31, 1994
With Los Angeles roadways being even more clogged than usual in the aftermath of this month's earthquake, cellular phone operators expected a jump in usage and telecommuting advocates saw a golden opportunity to convince companies to let employees work from home. "We expect to see an increase in telecommuting with people having 3-, 4- and 5-hour c...
January 31, 1994
Hey big spenders, now that you've blown $900,000 for a measly 30-second spot on the Super Bowl, here are a few suggestions for how you could have stretched that budget with some careful media planning, courtesy of N W Ayer, New York. To determine just how much of a premium Super Bowl sponsors were paying, Ayer worked up several scenarios for what ...
January 31, 1994
NEW YORK-As Conde Nast Publications is swept by generational change, even S.I. Newhouse Jr. is putting in place his own succession plans. And though the company's 66-year-old chairman and owner has set no timetable for retirement, he discussed the topic during a wide-ranging interview in his office last week. Wearing green corduroys, a black sweat...
January 31, 1994
Life is never dull on the high-tech front. Every year brings new challenges and surprises, and 1994 promises to be particularly eventful. Advertising Age has put together a list of 10 important developments to monitor in 1994, half of them involving the consumer market, half involving the business use of technology. War is swell. First came the ...
January 31, 1994
Coca-Cola Co., dealing the latest blow to its ad agencies, is cutting commissions paid to shops by 3 points, international agency executives say. The change in Coca-Cola's long-stable compensation system is another strike against Interpublic Group of Cos.-parent to McCann-Erickson Worldwide, Lintas and Lowe & Partners/SMS-which has seen the cola ...
January 31, 1994
The recent merger-mania in the telecommunications industry has strengthened the major players on the information highway and likely will continue. But despite the fact that most of the merger partners will come under intense antitrust scrutiny, key government officials seem willing to let industry take the lead in enacting new legislation. At la...
January 31, 1994
NEW YORK-American Express Co. has dragged Visa USA back into court. This time, AmEx charges Visa made false claims in describing why famed Los Angeles restaurateur Wolfgang Puck dropped AmEx like a scalding saucepan from two of his restaurants. The skirmish, the latest in a series of cat fights in the intensely competitive credit card market, is m...
January 31, 1994
A programmer of children's radio is hoping to become the pied piper that finally succeeds in luring more advertisers to the medium. But so far, media buyers are underwhelmed. Arbitron Co. on Jan. 7 presented the Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based Children's Satellite Network with results of the first study that measures the listening habits of children a...
January 31, 1994
Pac Bell touts superhighway in new TV ads Pacific Bell broke a new ad campaign during the Super Bowl touting its plans for an interactive superhighway. Pacific Bell plans to offer video on demand, home shopping, videogames and other fare to 5 million customers by the end of the decade. Three 30-second and three 60-second spots feature the voices o...
January 31, 1994
Ammirati & Puris, just 31/2 years after a drawn-out buyback from Omnicom Group, may be headed into the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency network. The possibility of acquiring one of the industry's most highly regarded creative shops is being discussed as Interpublic moves aggressively to diversify its portfolio of global goliaths. Advertising Age ...
January 24, 1994
Like those early pioneers who helped open the American frontier, Burnett's veteran media tracker, Jayne Z. Spittler, has been charged with a mission of exploration: to take the point on the agency's multidisciplinary team that is venturing into the interactive media terrain; to report on the activities of the early settlers of that new territory; and to bring back news of the surprises and opportunities that lie ahead for advertisers and their agencies.
January 24, 1994
Phoenix Suns star Charles Bark-ley may be considering retirement from pro basketball, but he's working overtime on his off-court endorsement career. The next two months will see a blitz of new marketing efforts featuring Mr. Barkley, including campaigns for Hyundai Motor America, Gillette Co.'s Right Guard, McDonald's Corp. and Nestle Chocolate & ...
