In a superbowl 2002 commercial, the Budweiser Clydesdales respectfully bowed to the New York City skyline.

Since then, a special bond has grown between the Clydesdales and Americas emergency responders, and the Clydesdales are invited to appear in parades and other fire company events.

As if Martha Stewart's nightmare can't get any more worse...it is.

"The new "Martha In The Box", instant cake mix will feature several specialty instant cake mixes, with a twist. For a limited time, specially marked boxes will include one collectible bastard file."

An article over at The New York Times [free registration required -or use name fodosnak, pass fodosnak] presents the story of the resurgence of interest in Pabst Blue Ribbon -- and how the lack of marketing may be the key.

So, how do you continue your marketing success if what builds your success is a lack of publicity? I'd think that staying out of The New York Times would be a good start.

Herman Vaske's film for BMW is now running at whokilledtheidea.bmw.com.

Note: If you live in North America you shouldn't view the film, apparantly. (in fact, you can't so dont bother trying)
Try and spot all the Paul Arden style visuals and Dave Trott jokes. ;)

Tiger Woods switched drivers from Titleist to Nike a while back in a deal worth an est. eighty million dollars. Part of the resultant campaign focused on a contract point that if Tiger found something better, he could switch (see one of the spots here, if you're a SuperAdgrunt). Well, Mr. Woods had kind of a rough season and rumours are flying. So what's this mean? The Scotsman's Lawrence Donegan looks into it.

Peter Nicholson chief creative officer at Publicis (NYC) joined them after leaving Goodby Silverstein and Partners last May, he felt that Publicis was "strong on TV but light on print" and immediatly set out to change that.

Now they have done a campaign for Principal Financial Group, a supplier of employee benefits. James Smolka shot the ads, which use mostly found, real-life scenarios.

I already saw the insert in magazines and pop-ups. Who wants to enter a contest for the ultimate trip to NYC? It is called "Miller Lite: Bite The Big Apple.

Who wants to take a flight in Hooter's Air? I want to since I can't wait to eat some Hooter's food and look at Hooter's chicks. The bad news is that the flights are in the East Coast of the U.S. so far. Darn it!

Nestle gets nailed for false advertising.

Now someone explain to me again why bottled water is more expensive by volume than gasoline, bleach and most other convenience store beverages!?

Oh yeah - because we're silly enough to continue buying it at that price.

Sidenote: The rumour about Evian water being filtered with cow's blood? False.

It appears that the search-and-ye-shall-find powerhouse Google is in danger of being branded too darn well.

Will it go the way of trademarked words like Aspirin, Xerox, Hoover and Kleenex and become a generic word? BBC News investigates.

(Evansville, IN) The EVSC needs more funding, and one of the possibilities is an exclusive soft drink contract.

On Monday night the EVSC school board looked at a proposal from Coca-Cola to help pay for extracurricular activities. It's a five-year deal worth about $2.5 million. During the first year $700,000 would be paid.

Mazda marketing chief jumps ship, Autonews reports.

Although there does not appear to be any connection, the departure of Kristen Simmons comes amid concern within the parent company in Japan that the acclaimed zoom-zoom advertising campaign may be running out of steam.

In days of yore, true believers fired up the ol' barbie with sacramental oils to make God/Gods happy. Today, we have "Palmolive Aromatherapy Liquid Soap, Anti-Stress" and a bajillion other specially scented products to flare your nostrils into a sense of well-being whilst you toil away at the drudgeries of modern life.

So is aromatherapy real or a bunch of hooey? One thing's for sure - it appears to be a damn good marketing gimmick. However, this brings up an additional question - Is "aromatherapy" as used in marketing real or a bunch of hooey?

Nelson Handel smelled a story for the LA Times in a rather lengthy but very well researched and written report. Give it a read while I go downtown to try and score some Clorox Spring Mountain Meadow Multiple Orgasm Fresh Blossom Bleach from my local dealer.

Accused of all sorts of misconduct and facing a federal investigation, Boeing Co. is expected to run a full-page ad in newspapers today featuring an open letter that defends the company's "integrity" and "honesty."

"It has become clear that some of our employees did not behave properly during the competition" over the rocket pact, Boeing Chairman Phil Condit says in the open letter.

By defending themselves in a 'public forum' Boeing is acknowledging for the first time publicly that some of its employees "behaved unethically".

LA times has the story reg required (free).

The Independant reports that the Government believes the drinks industry has gone too far with their laddish jokes and sexy puns. The ads, it says, encourage antisocial behaviour and unsafe sex. Chief executive of the Marketing Society, Mr Burkitt told The Independent: "If you go back five years there were very few complaints about alcohol. We are seeing more and more now. The ads are stepping over the boundaries of taste and decency."

Alex (adlist) weighs in: "Britain has always had this ambivalent attitude to sex. We do it like rabbits, but we don't talk about it. Not directly anyway. "Cover up the piano legs, Dorothy, the Vicar is coming for tea." And it will never change until the last people born in the 40s and earlier have died. Maybe not even then.
I do think though, that creatives -especially male ones - will always try to get a sexual angle into a campaign where they can. Not me, of course, oh no. Never."

New creative agency Welcome to Orange County has created quite a stir already by nabbing IKEA as a client - they made it into the Financial Times and adageglobal. We had a little chat with one of the founders John Schoolcraft about danish agencies and Ikea...

IKEA SNUBS 'STRAITLACED' DANISH AGENCIES
COPENHAGEN --

IKEA, the Stockholm-based Swedish furnishings company, has rattled Danish pride by snubbing local agencies to hand its $6 million creative account to Spanish ad-agency Welcome to Orange County (WTOC), headquartered in Mallorca. Ikea executives in Denmark described the country's leading creative agencies as "old-fashioned and straitlaced" in their thinking.

... read more for the chat with John.

Playtex won the lawsuit against Procter & Gamble for false advertising claims used in the launch of it’s Pearl Tampons.
Now take a look at this article, which takes a look at past legal battles that have ensued over false advertising, “puffery”, and other “better than” claims made in ads.

Miller Lite, now famous for their Catfight ads which broke in January, are taking the concept even further. New spot stars Pamela Anderson joining two other scantily clad women having a pillow fight.

"The commercial will run concurrently with at least another ad in the "Catfight" series in which a buxom Catfight woman a man is wrestling turns into an overweight man. That spot will run during network sports broadcasts."

Today, the San Jose-based company plans to start selling the data it collects from the more than 700,000 recorders in viewers' homes. This data will give the TV industry a moment-by-moment breakdown of how TiVo owners react to their commercials or shows, the LAtimes report

Advertising posters for US drama "Six Feet Under" have been banned.

Depicting corpses the posters sold luxury to die for , embalming fluid and wound filler presented the same way luxury perfumes. The ads parody cosmetics adverts.

The body copy carries on to say that the items are available from Fisher & Sons funeral home - the name of the fictional funeral home in the show.