9491: Blowing Multicultural Budgets.

At the ANA’s Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, Advertising Age reported Walmart SVP-Brand Marketing and Advertising Tony Rogers declared the retailer plans to “blow up” its multicultural budget. Given the typical tininess of multicultural budgets, it shouldn’t require more than a single firecracker to detonate the explosion. Besides, the ANA already knows the majority of advertisers don’t even partner with multicultural agencies. So the entire discussion is just blowing a bunch of hot air.

Walmart’s Tony Rogers: ‘Blow Up’ Your Multicultural Budget

Retailer to Funnel Funds Into Individual Business Units

By Laurel Wentz

Walmart Stores is going to “blow up” its multicultural marketing budget and move the money into the company’s individual business units, said Tony Rogers, senior VP-brand marketing and advertising, at the ANA’s Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference today in Miami. “I’ve come to the conclusion that if you really want to be serious about multicultural, one way to do it is just blow up the multicultural budget,” Mr. Rogers said. “Take the multicultural budget out of a silo and push it out into the business units. [And] you’ve got to protect the budget and make sure it doesn’t just dissolve away.”

At Walmart, for instance, if a marketer works in a category group like food, “I’m now handing you a budget that includes a very strong multicultural component,” he said. “That makes it more difficult for that marketer to ignore any part of it. If those budgets are sitting in a silo, there’s an assumption that someone else [is taking care of it].”

Mr. Rogers said this change is happening “in real time.” The new system will include linking compensation to multicultural performance, he implied. “You’ve got to make sure this marketer has four or five objectives for the year,” he said. “One of those objectives has to be how did you do against multicultural.” Walmart’s main multicultural agencies are Lopez Negrete Communications, one of the biggest independent Hispanic agencies, GlobalHue for African American work, and Interpublic Group of Co.’s Asian agency IW Group.

Procter & Gamble, the biggest multicultural marketer, made a similar move about a year ago to push multicultural budgets into individual product categories and brands from a more centralized multicultural unit and tie managers’ bonuses to multicultural performance. Ethnic agency assignments were also realigned. And as a precaution, P&G guaranteed its multicultural agencies’ revenue for three years to help smooth the transition.

Mr. Rogers spoke today to a record 700-person crowd at the ANA’s annual multicultural gathering. In a fireside chat with Jacqueline Hernandez, chief operating officer of Telemundo Communications Group, Mr. Rogers said he had just come from running the New York marathon on Sunday and drew applause for delivering Walmart’s slogan in Spanish: “Ahorra mas, viva mejor.” (“Save more, live better”).

He described his own journey as a marketer over the last decade and said there are three levels of “getting” multicultural marketing. The first level of “getting it,” he said, “is not doing anything.” The second level is recognizing its importance, but keeping efforts pretty siloed, like spending some money during Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month and considering the multicultural box to be ticked off. “The next step is where we are—making multicultural part of everything we do,” he said.

He cited Walmart’s recently rolled out layaway program, saying it’s incredibly popular among multicultural customers and that “not leading with a multicultural message, that’d be crazy.” He also said Walmart found that the interaction with recent digital ad for the layaway program, done in both Spanish and English, was three times higher for the Spanish-language version.

For Walmart’s current Christmas price-guarantee program, each multicultural ad is based on a relevant insight, Mr. Rogers said. The humorous African-American spot revolves around food and extended family. The camera zeroes in on individual food items like pie, and adds a price tag to show how affordable it is. One missing pie is tracked down to an errant uncle sneakily devouring it in another room, so he’s relegated to the kids’ table at the feast.

The Hispanic spot is based on abundance, with a huge stack of gifts at the store, which Mr. Rogers said has prompted store managers to ask if they can build a similar stack in their own premises. A third TV ad, in Chinese, reflects a Chinese saying about comparing prices three times before buying.

9490: Launch Crap Faster.

BgBng promises to launch campaigns faster. No need to click and find out how. If the banner ad represents the services offered, it simply requires abandoning any standards of quality, originality and intelligence.

9489: Joe Frazier (1944-2011).

From The New York Times…

Joe Frazier, Ex-Heavyweight Champ, Dies at 67

By Richard Goldstein

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion whose furious and intensely personal fights with a taunting Muhammad Ali endure as an epic rivalry in boxing history, died Monday night. He was 67.

His business representative, Leslie Wolff, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Frazier had liver cancer and that he had entered hospice care.

Known as Smokin’ Joe, Frazier stalked his opponents around the ring with a crouching, relentless attack — his head low and bobbing, his broad, powerful shoulders hunched — as he bore down on them with an onslaught of withering jabs and crushing body blows, setting them up for his devastating left hook.

It was an overpowering modus operandi that led to versions of the heavyweight crown from 1968 to 1973. Frazier won 32 fights in all, 27 by knockouts, losing four times — twice to Ali in furious bouts and twice to George Foreman. He also recorded one draw.

A slugger who weathered repeated blows to the head while he delivered punishment, Frazier proved a formidable figure. But his career was defined by his rivalry with Ali, who ridiculed him as a black man in the guise of a Great White Hope. Frazier detested him.

Ali vs. Frazier was a study in contrasts. Ali: tall and handsome, a wit given to spouting poetry, a magnetic figure who drew adulation and denigration alike, the one for his prowess and outsize personality, the other for his antiwar views and Black Power embrace of Islam. Frazier: a bull-like man of few words with a blue-collar image and a glowering visage who in so many ways could be on an equal footing with his rival only in the ring.

Frazier won the undisputed heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, in an extravaganza known as the Fight of the Century. Ali scored a 12-round decision over Frazier at the Garden in a non-title bout in January 1974. Then came the Thrilla in Manila championship bout, in October 1975, regarded as one of the greatest fights in boxing history. It ended when a battered Frazier, one eye swollen shut, did not come out to face Ali for the 15th round.

The Ali-Frazier battles played out at a time when the heavyweight boxing champion was far more celebrated than he is today, a figure who could stand alone in the spotlight a decade before an alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies arose, making it difficult for the average fan to figure out just who held what title.

The rivalry was also given a political and social cast. Many viewed the Ali-Frazier matches as a snapshot of the struggles of the 1960s. Ali, an adherent of the Nation of Islam, came to represent rising black anger in America and opposition to the Vietnam War. Frazier voiced no political views, but he was nonetheless depicted, to his consternation, as the favorite of the establishment. Ali called him “ignorant,” likened him to a gorilla and said his black supporters were Uncle Toms.

“Frazier had become the white man’s fighter, Mr. Charley was rooting for Frazier, and that meant blacks were boycotting him in their heart,” Norman Mailer wrote in Life magazine following the first Ali-Frazier bout.

Frazier, wrote Mailer, was “twice as black as Clay and half as handsome,” with “the rugged decent life-worked face of a man who had labored in the pits all his life.”

Frazier could never match Ali’s charisma or his gift for the provocative quote. He was essentially a man devoted to a brutal craft, willing to give countless hours to his spartan training-camp routine and unsparing of his body inside the ring.

“The way I fight, it’s not me beatin’ the man: I make the man whip himself,” Frazier told Playboy in 1973. “Because I stay close to him. He can’t get out the way.” He added: “Before he knows it — whew! — he’s tired. And he can’t pick up his second wind because I’m right back on him again.”

Read the full story here.

9488: Shitty Client Seeks Shitty Agency.

Advertising Age reported Applebee’s is seeking a new creative agency. Seriously? A creative agency? What would the restaurant chain even do with a creative agency?

Casual dining chain Applebee’s is looking for a new creative agency.

The incumbent, Interpublic’s McCann Erickson,—which has worked with the restaurant since 2007, when it shifted its account from sister shop DraftFCB—will not participate in the review.

A statement issued by Applebee’s said that the review will not impact media duties, which are at Universal McCann. Morgan Anderson Consulting, New York, is leading the review, and Applebee’s expects to have the process wrapped up and have a new agency in place by the end of the first quarter of 2012.

“Applebee’s recognizes the contributions that have been made by McCann over the years and what they’ve helped us accomplish,” said Becky Johnson, senior VP-marketing and culinary, Applebee’s Services, in the statement. “We’ve made significant changes to our food, beverage, menu, buildings and marketing communications in the past year. Given those changes—and the ever-shifting consumer landscape—we need to continue to evolve how we grow the health of our brand.”

Said McCann’s chief creative officer, Linus Karlsson, in a separate statement: “For the past five years, we have helped our Applebee’s client to not only hold their own but also innovate in a very tough competitive landscape and, in the past few years especially, battle through a depressed economy. We respect Applebee’s decision, and while they have asked us to participate, we have decided to decline their invitation. We wish Applebee’s continued success.”

The statement also said that the chain, which is the 10th largest in the U.S. by sales, according to Technomic, spends more than $100 million annually on advertising, including national TV spots, local advertising and an “ever-growing social media presence.”

And so the agency business goes—you win some accounts, you lose some accounts. In the span of a week, McCann has lost two big ones—Exxon and now Applebee’s—although it won some more global work from retailer Ikea.

Contributing: Rupal Parekh

9487: Big Tobacco Wins Again.

Here’s another example showing why Occupy Wall Street protestors are wasting their time.

Cigarette Warnings Blocked by Court on Free-Speech Grounds

Judge: The Line ‘Seems Quite Clear’

A federal judge blocked new U.S. rules for graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging from taking effect, saying the required text and images may violate tobacco companies’ free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington ruled today that ordering tobacco companies, including Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., to display images of diseased lungs and a cadaver with chest staples on an autopsy table may “unconstitutionally compel speech.”

Mr. Leon postponed the Sept. 22, 2012, deadline for the regulations to take effect while he reviews the constitutionality of the Food and Drug Administration rule.

“While the line between the constitutionally permissible dissemination of factual information and the impermissible expropriation of a company’s advertising space for government advocacy can be frustratingly blurry, here—where these emotion-provoking images are coupled with text extolling consumers to call the phone number ‘1-800-QUIT’—the line seems quite clear,” Mr. Leon said in his ruling.

Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds, Commonwealth Brands, Liggett Group and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. sued the FDA in August, claiming its mandates for cigarette packages, cartons and advertising violate the First Amendment.

Stephanie Yao, a spokeswoman for the agency, said by email that the agency “does not comment on proposed, pending or ongoing litigation.”

Ronald Milstein, Greensboro, North Carolina-based Lorillard’s senior VP-general counsel, didn’t immediately return telephone messages seeking comment on the ruling.

‘Final Resolution’
”We’re pleased with the judge’s ruling and look forward to the court’s final resolution of the case,” Bryan Hatchell, a spokesman for Reynolds American Inc., R.J. Reynolds’s parent, said in an interview.

In an e-mailed statement, Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the Justice Department should appeal Leon’s ruling, claiming it makes it “impossible to implement any effective” warning labels.

“Given the overwhelming evidence of the need for these warnings and the tobacco industry’s own admission of the factual accuracy of the warning statements, we are confident that this decision will not be the last word on the new warnings,” Mr. Myers said.

The FDA regulations require textual warnings as well as certain images to be displayed on the top 50% of the front and back panels of every cigarette package manufactured and distributed in the U.S.

Bloomberg News

9486: Limited Sees Unlimited Potential.

Advertising Age reported on The Limited capitalizing on the U.S. obesity epidemic with the launch of a plus-size clothing line. Look for a tie-in with Wendy’s.

The Limited Wakes Up to Plus-Size Potential

Eloquii Fashion Line Launched Online, Stores Could Follow

By Natalie Zmuda

The ranks of plus-size women are growing in the U.S., yet there are still few fashion marketers serving them. Now, they have one more. The Limited has launched Eloquii, a brand designed and marketed exclusively to plus-size women. While fashion bloggers have long derided the lack of fashion available for larger women, The Limited CEO Linda Heasley actually listened. Kate Shevack, a Limited consultant who worked on the Eloquii launch, said Ms. Heasley encountered questions at a fashion event from bloggers frustrated that the only clothing that seemed to be available to them were cheaply made stretchy black pieces and dowdy tops.

“That coupled with the reality that in the U.S. over 50% of women are plus-size, yet only account for 19% of apparel sales, we definitely see this as a new business opportunity,” said Ms. Shevack. “We did a lot of research, from a category standpoint, and it became clear no one was doing it well, from a merchandise standpoint and from a customer-service standpoint.”

Indeed, Americans are getting heavier. As of last year, 49 states had an adult-obesity rate greater than 20%. And in total, 34% of adults are considered obese, while 68% are overweight, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet few marketers appear to be taking notice. “I can go out and see women my size and know exactly where they bought everything they’re wearing,” Lesley Kinzel, who has run a blog at Fatshionista.com since 2007, told Ad Age last year.

Eloquii, which launched with several hundred stock-keeping units, comes in sizes 14 to 24 and features a range of career and lifestyle wear, with prices starting at $30 for tops and going up to $168 for blazers. Dresses range from $90 to 148, while pants range from $70 to $90. One distinguishing factor is that the line is not just larger cuts of current fashions found at The Limited. Shoppers can also shop by fit—with shapes such as diamond, emerald and heart—representing a variety of body types.

“We’ve taken some of the fashion inspiration from The Limited, but we’ve gone through painstaking fittings—looking at inseams, waist levels, sleeve lengths. We used a spectrum of fit models,” Ms. Shevack said. “[Our customer is] looking for a chic, figure-flattering wardrobe. She loves fashion and fashion publications just like her skinny girlfriends, and she just wants to shop just like them too.”

For now, Eloquii will be available only online, though Ms. Shevack sees opportunity for brick-and-mortar storefronts, eventually. Eloquii is offering free shipping and returns as a means of enticing shoppers.

“We’re asking customers to take a leap of faith and try us,” Ms. Shevack said. “So far as we can remove some of those barriers to trial, we’ll do that.”

The Limited worked with Hornall Anderson to create an identity and name for the brand. It settled on Eloquii, derived from the word “eloquent” because the brand “allows full-figured women to eloquently express themselves.”

“After talking to The Limited, we realized they were on a mission to give the plus-size woman a voice, we were able to bring that into a name that literally speaks to that,” said Anne Connell, VP-strategy at Hornall Anderson. The agency led the brand development and initial creative concepts. Pod1 built Eloquii’s e-commerce site.

The launch campaign, “Rejoice in the Double Take,” will have significant play online, with a presence in social media, digital advertising and search. Initially, the brand also plans to focus its efforts on public relations outreach and product placement.

9485: Overreaction Of The Week.

T-Mobile’s 4G Wonderland commercial depicts an annual example of blatant stereotyping: little people as elves. Does the holiday season offer the sole acting opportunity for this group? Guess their only other hope for work would be a Hobbit sequel, Snow White’s Disney on Ice or a biopic on Hervé Villechaize. Advocacy organizations are quick to criticize clichéd representations of Blacks, Asian Americans, Latinos, LGBT, Native Americans, Italian Americans, etc. Yet the belittling portrayals forced upon people of short stature continue without protest.

9484: Fake Fidelity Ads Show True MAS.

This fake campaign for Fidelity by Miami Ad School students shows once again that the instructors are irresponsible hacks—while the kids are inexperienced hacks. Ironically, the instructors will likely live quite well in their retirement years, while the graduates will be saddled with student loan debt and probably never know financial solvency and security.



From Ads of the World.

9483: Herman Cain Gives Press The Finger.

I vaguely recall one instance of baseless sexual harassment charges.


Maybe there were two instances. My bad.


OK, there might have been three that I can’t remember.


You could find four—but they’re all groundless and baseless.


Aw, hell, gimme five.


Um, six…seven…eight…?


9-9-9.


Listen, let’s just round it off at ten, muthafuckas.


But I’m not talking about it anymore!

9482: Seeking Samurai Warriors. With Flash Skills.

The Hong Kong office of a traditional advertising agency seeks digital talent via a poster. Brilliant. Plus, the recruitment ad appears to be exclusively targeting men (click on image to enlarge).

From Ads of the World.

9481: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Anybody else think this new Girl Scouts campaign feels sorta like the Summer’s Eve Hail to the V campaign?


From Ads of the World.

9480: Herman Cain Wipeout Update.

Now news sources are reporting Herman Cain refuses to comment further on the sexual harassment charges—with an image of the candidate wiping his mouth. Somewhere out there, a handful of journalists are madly searching for a photo of Cain wiping his ass.

9479: Bouncing Bank Transfer Day.

On Bank Transfer Day, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wells Fargo launched a special bank exclusively for U.S. households with at least $50 million to invest. Brilliant.

Super bank for super rich opens branch in Chicago

By Jennifer Bjorhus

Wells Fargo’s folksy wooden stagecoach is about to go after the carriage trade, as the bank launches a newly reorganized wealth management business aimed at families with $50 million or more to invest.

The new unit, with an office in Chicago, made its debut last week under the name Abbot Downing, after the early 19th century builder of upscale custom stagecoaches. It features a full range of services to cater to the super rich, complete with psychologists and staff to build family genealogies.

Abbot Downing will have $28 billion in assets under management and offices in major cities. The company targets the estimated 10,000 U.S. households with $50 million or more to invest with a particular focus on baby boomers with family businesses to sell.

Banks have been chasing rich people for centuries, of course. But as they struggle to increase profits in the current wobbly economy, bankers are finding the ultra-rich more alluring than ever.

Also driving the trend are the tide of aging baby boomers, various acquisitions banks have made and the costs of regulatory compliance, said Steven Crosby, a senior managing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“Clearly it’s a profitable area, and good businesses are always looking to leverage profitable segments,” Crosby said.

Wells Fargo rival U.S. Bancorp announced last spring that it was creating a new boutique unit focused exclusively on investors with assets of $25 million or more. Its new Ascent Private Capital Management unit is set to open in December in Minneapolis.

Jim Steiner, who will lead Abbott Downing, said he’s particularly interested in the rise in mergers-and-acquisitions deals as aging baby boomers face selling the family business and then handling thorny issues related to passing on the money.

“I think over the next five to 10 years, there’s going to be more and more of those kinds of liquidity transactions,” Steiner said.

The business will have a “very boutiquey” feel, he said. In addition to such traditional services as estate planning, it will offer a slew of more personal services, such as help with family dynamics, leadership transition and building family genealogies.

Unchanged will be Wells Fargo Private Bank, another part of Wells Fargo focusing on people with $1 million to $50 million to invest.

Scripps Howard News Service

9478: Checking On Bouncing Banks.

Banks Don’t Like You held its Bank Transfer Day. Did you hug your Credit Union representative today?

9477: Asian Americans Love Hip Hop.

The 2011 Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival launched on Wednesday with Among B-Boys.

9476: Herman Cain Wipeout.

As the Herman Cain sexual harassment fiasco heats up, the brow-wiping shots are increasing too.





There are even eye-wiping images.

9475: Hungry With Yum!

Advertising Age’s GoodWorks published a fluff piece on Yum! Brands World Hunger Relief initiative, “which raises awareness and funds for [United Nations World Food Programme] and other hunger relief organizations as well as stimulating volunteerism.” OK, it’s undoubtedly a noble and necessary endeavor. But it’s odd that a corporation is passionately fighting hunger while fueling obesity. Yum! worries about starvation in Kenya and opens a KFC there too. And the company declared, “Just $1 provides four meals for hungry people who desperately need our help.” Is that an impoverished country’s version of The Fourth Meal from Taco Bell? The Yum! Brands executive behind the Ad Age story insists his company’s hunger-related efforts are not about marketing products. Yeah, but they sure serve up lots of self-promotion on the subject.

9474: Giving Indians Their Due.

When discussing Kris Humphries allegedly asking Kim Kardashian to return the big ring he gave her, Kris Jenner sniffed, “I hate an Indian giver. It’s a gift, you know.” Nice.

According to Wikipedia:

Indian giver is an American English expression used to describe a person who gives a gift (literal or figurative) and later wants it back, or something equivalent in return. The term “Indian gift” was first noted in 1765 by Thomas Hutchinson, and “Indian giver” was first cited in John Russell Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (1860) as “Indian giver. When an Indian gives any thing, he expects to receive an equivalent, or to have his gift returned.” Thus it was really an exchange of gifts and not a matter of selfishness.

Nevertheless, the phrase can be considered offensive, particularly to American Indians.

It’s safe to say most self-respecting Native Americans want nothing to do with the Kardashian klan clan.

9473: The Fresh Prince Of Famous Footwear.

Advertising Age reported Y&R Chicago landed the Famous Footwear account after a review with Famous Footwear Senior VP-Retail Marketing Will Smith. Will Smith?! Damn, first the rumors about his breakup with Jada Pinkett Smith. Now the Hollywood superstar is working for Famous Footwear?

9472: Cain Commentary.

Why are so many media sources illustrating reports on Herman Cain with this image of the executive wiping his brow?

9471: Knocking Knockers.

Well, if you’re a bra store called The Booby Trap, it should come as no surprise that your ad campaign would be a creative bust.



From Ads of the World.

9470: GOP Halloween Fun.

From The New York Daily News…

Virginia county GOP committee in hot water over image of Obama with bullet in his head, meant as Halloween joke

Both Democrats and Republicans are outraged over emailed pic

By David Boroff, New York Daily News

A Virginia county GOP committee found itself in hot water after using an image of President Obama with a bullet through his head to make a Halloween joke.

An email sent by the Loudoun County GOP that included an image of Obama as a zombie has been widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. The image also includes a picture of a disfigured Nancy Pelosi. “We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy,” says the email, which served as an invitation to a Halloween parade.

The image of the President was created from a copyrighted AP photo of Obama in 2006, when he was still serving in the Senate, according to The Associated Press.

“The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever,” Pat Mullins, chairman of the state’s GOP party, told the Washington Post website. “The Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms.”

“This is a disgusting and violent portrayal of the president of the United States,” Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy told The AP. The Republican governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, called for an apology.

Mark Sell, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, backtracked and issued an apology.

“The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday,” Sell says in a statement. “Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the president as a victim of a violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left. The LCRC deplores any effort to display, suggest or promote violence against the president or any other political figure.”

The controversial image was first reported on the northern Virginia blog, Too Conservative.

With News Wire Services

9469: The Hard Facts On Soft Drinks.

The New York Daily News reported that soft drink companies are targeting marketing efforts towards minority kids. Can’t help but wonder how much of the advertising is being created by White agencies.

Soft drink makers like Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper Snapple Group target black and Hispanic teens, children: report

Big brands are capitalizing on minority youth to be their biggest buyers with multimedia campaigns in addition to traditional print, TV ads

By Joyce Chen, New York Daily News

A new study reveals truths about soft-drink manufacturers’ marketing tactics that are anything but sweet.

A recent Yale study released Monday found that soft-drink makers are targeting black and Hispanic children and teenagers in their U.S. ad campaigns.

According to the report, released by the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, black kids and teens watched 80% to 90% more ads than white children.

Hispanic teens were exposed to 99% more ads than their white counterparts.

“Our children are being assaulted by these drinks that are high in sugar and low in nutrition,” said Kelly Brownell, co-author of the report. “The companies are marketing them in highly aggressive ways.”

Coca-Cola is the parent company for popular soft drinks like Sprite and Fanta, as well as for energy drinks and juices like Odwalla and Fuze energy drink.

A big part of the increased number of thirsty viewers can be attributed to the move toward online interaction, Brownell said.

Coca-Cola, by far the most popular brand on Facebook, has more than 30 million fans, and website MyCokeRewards.com draws in millions of clicks each day.