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.

As US media laws face deregulation MoveOn.org , Common Cause, and Free Press are beind a campaign that hopes to alert the public to the dangers of deregulation.
The television adverts can be viewed at Moveon's site, and the press ads that ran in New York times and other papers can be downloaded as .pdf.

"Murdoch wants more. Much more," the campaign warns. "Unless we act now Rupert Murdoch is going to get his way."

My my my but the Brit censors have been busy lately.

This time banning from early evening broadcast an ad for the Renault Megane,
featuring wiggly backsides and a song by the Groove Armada entitled "I See
You Baby (Shakin' That Ass)." 139 complaints this time around.

Has UK advertising hit bottom?

SI Columnist Phil Taylor examines the world of athletic endorsement in the wake of Nike's successful $90,000,000 bid for high school basketball player LeBron James.

Hmm... They took their time with this one. Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss are now considering legal action against Honda and Wieden & Kennedy, saying that the Honda Cog spot is a wee bit too close to their award-winning 1987 masterpiece, Der Lauf Der Dinge (The Way Things Go). Independent story here.

The latest UK ban: A Sun newspaper commercial.

Reason this time around: A man inhales helium from a balloon.

Shocked! Shocked, I am!

Hmm... I wonder if whippets are still ok?

...but at least it has damn good advertising. Story here.

Chevy has finally learned to exploit its legacy - by harnessing the more than 200 songs that make mention of its products. Story at Automotive News.

The Manila Times educates the Philippines on weasel words, complete with a healthy dose of their use in advertising and an interesting origin of the phrase.

Slate examines the use of the eldery in commercials.

It's a high fiber drama that could only happen in the Pacific Northwest. Will Vinton, the guy who made California Raisins a commercial Claymation phenom, is suing Phil Knight, Nike founder, and the rest of the board that fired him from Will Vinton studios. Big Oregonian story here.

Meow Mix CEO Richard Thompson had been bitten by a dog. In the ass. And just before the launch of Meow Mix's Meow TV on the Oxygen network - that TV show for cats we heard about a few months back. Could this be foreshadowing?

Kvindeligt Selskab sent letters of complaint and want people to boyott Cult Shaker, due to their sexy advertising. Someone seems to have a read book on marketing titled "sex and nudity sells".

Cult Shaker, a mixed vodka and soda drink, made the headlines of the national newspaper with their posters - do read more to see them. Kvindeligt Selskab has participated both on national radio and tv-news in regards to reporting these ads to the consumer ombudsman in Denmark.

USA - In response to inceasingly conservative organizations morphing their "don't drink and drive" messages into zero tolerance campaigns, American Beverage Licensees and the American Beverage Institute had D.C. agency Berman and Company create a commercial with a message of their own - that it's ok for adults (over 21, of course) to "Drink Responsibly. Drive Responsibly."

Read the New York Times article here. (Registration may be required.)

And of course, some people aren't too happy with the commercial. Read one such response from PacketOnline.

And as for the commercial itself, superadgrunts can now see it here.

So, what's YOUR opinion?

The Columbian coffee growers are bringing back Juan Valdez starting with the new Jim Carrey movie which opens this weekend.

"Juan was one of the most recognized symbols of global advertising before he was virtually pensioned off two years ago amid a financial crisis for Colombia's coffee industry."

Now, Juan is coming back. "But rather than advertising in sporting events as previously, Colombia's growers say they are putting Juan on the pages of hip publications such as Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly."

"We don't want him to become a vintage, we want him to be a living icon," said Mr. Silva.

"The growers' federation will next month award an advertising contract to run a $9 million campaign and is said to be seeking an agency with experience of marketing to 18 to 35-year-olds."

Remember way back when Kentucky Fried Chicken wanted to be perceived as healthier so they changed their name to KFC? Yes? No? Either way, did they make their chicken healthier? No.

Well, a decade or so later, Burger King has decided that that was a pretty darn smart idea. They want to be perceived as healthier too. So what do they do? They changed the term for their proprietary burger cookin' from the classic "flame broiled" to the new "fire grilled." Did they do anything to make their burgers healthier and/or change their prep methods? No.

Truly, marketing brilliance is at play once again. Story here.