Kazaa is displeased with how it's been portrayed in the media surrounding Claria's termination of an agreement between the two parties. While the split has widely been attributed to Claria's ongoing mission to "clean up its act" leading many to interpret Kazaa might have, in some way, tarnished the Claria brand.
Kazaa, in a press release, claims the real reason for the split "followed ongoing issues between the parties relating to Claria's lack of performance of its obligations under the agreement and steps Sharman (Kazaa parent company) had already taken to investigate and rectify that performance."
Kazaa further claims, "Claria's announcement is contrary to its obligations under the agreement. At present, Sharman continues to perform its obligations whilst pursuing its options under the Agreement."
Lee Iacocca, who uttered Chrysler's tagline, "If you can find a better car, buy it," in 61 commercials during his reign as turnaround CEO for the troubled car company, is returning as pitchman in a set of new commercials. The deal calls for Iacocca to appear, initially, in three spots with compensation in the form of a Chrysler donation to Iacocca's diabetes research foundation along with $1 for every Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep sold for the rest of the year.
Extending its brand further into people's lives, Disney, using the Sprint network, will launch Disney Mobile, a cell phone service targeted t families with kids 11 to 14. Besides phone service, Disney Mobile will offer Disney-related content including ring tones based on familiar Disney songs, Disney branded phones, games and images. The service is set to launch in 2006.
The proliferation of ad creep has made it far too easy for institutions in need of money to turn to marketers for relief. Naming building and stadiums was once taboo. Now, it's odd if a sports arena is not named after a marketer. A school in New Jersey sold the naming rights to its gymnasium to local grocery store Shop-Rite and now an elementary school in suburban Detroit is considering courting marketers to name its new school.
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Yet another California Native American casino has opened in the Southern California area. While we know a lot of morons go to casinos believing they will leave rich, the Morongo casino seems to be openly welcoming these people in both spirit and in name.
While this one isn't as blatant, another fast food marketers seems to want people to fornicate with its products. First, McDonald's ran a banner campaign with the headline "I'd Hit it." Now, Andrew Teman points to a Wendy's ad for its Chicken Sandwich which contains the headline "Do a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Now, we all know there's an association between food and sex but we're not quite sure fast food falls into the category of mood-altering quisine.
You've seen the ads. Images of fresh-faced, yet been there, girls of questionable age posing seductively to sell clothes. It's always been American Apparel's approach to advertising. Gritty, un-retouched, almost slutty imagery but acceptable enough because it looks like pictures a guy might have taken of his girlfriend while fooling around in bed. Writing in the San Fransisco Chronicle, Mark Morford claims American Apparel has gone "pro" hiring AVN porn star Lauren Phoenix. Not that this is actually news with Fleshbot having published this almost a month ago but we thought you'd like to know. Thanks Barry.
The restaurant chain that has nothing to do with owls and everything to do with cleavage has, for a while, been expanding its empire into new channels. Two years ago, the company launched Hooters Air which was followed by a Las Vegas casino licensing agreement, a hotel and a magazine, all of which are designed to send more people flocking to restaurants to ogle tightly dressed waitresses serving average food.
Business has been good for the chain which did $850 million last year and plans to open 60 new stores in 2005 with sales projected at $950 million.
Adland tells the story of a clueless Denmark Coke marketing manager who seems to be the last person of earth who knows the Internet is about linking one website to another. This manager, after forcing a Coke fansite to changes it's URL because it the Coke brand name in it, then asked fansite owner Andre Lund via email to stop linking to the Coke site with this oddball reasoning, "If you are to be allowed to link to a coca cola website (cocacola.dk) you have to send in a written application to us. I can not see that you have made such an application, and there is no agreement with you about this. So I have to ask you to remove the link to www.cocacola.dk."
Apparently, someone gave this marketing person a lesson in Internet 101 causing the Coke manager to relent and publicly apologize of the Coke site. It's hard to believe this kind of thinking still exists.
From the New York's Olympics bid to the NBC peacock to FTD Florist, Radar Magazine has taken a stab at what it calls the gayest logos. In truth, some are pretty gay.
