Advertising News

Pepsi's Refresh Project, a first-of-its-kind experiment in social media that invests the brand in community-building projects, won't simply leave a legacy for the recipients of its financial grants. It's also a pivotal test case for other brands trying to navigate...

Hats off to whoever came up with this: an ad for the Dante's Inferno game (launches today) done in ASCII and hidden in Digg's source code. Similar images were also placed on a few other sites. Each ad contains a password; collect all of them and enter them at hellisnigh.com...

After a seven-month review, Unilever has awarded its $800 million North American media-planning and -buying account to Mindshare, executives with knowledge of the review said.

The single biggest challenge marketers face in the next 10 years is attention scarcity. Bank on it.

According to Edelman's latest Trust Barometer, the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.

In the short history of online TV-watching, one standard has largely held fast: Shows that run online have significantly fewer ads than shows that run on the boob tube. But that could soon change.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler ought to send Toyota a thank-you card. Toyota's recall is boosting the quality reputation of its domestic rivals in the eyes of consumers.

Without a visual hammer, an advertising campaign is almost certain to fail.

There's no point in this post other than general amusement, but I saw my first "testers wanted" banner ad today and got inspired to gather screenshots of nine different sites promising a free - FREE! - iPad after you buy a bunch of other stuff.  Look, the top one uses a...

In a perfect world, all work leaders would make a practice of role-reversal. Unfortunately, most don't have the luxury of delaying their real work to do the work of their employees. As employees, we can all be proactive. If you feel as though your boss is clueless about your...

Anheuser-Busch InBev has kept largely mum on its marketing plans for this summer's FIFA World Cup, but it tipped its hand a bit late Friday when agency DDB put out a casting call for an apparent Bud-themed reality show.

Although Focus on the Family's Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad can be examined from many angles, an interesting angle for a CMO relates to understanding issue-based advertising and how it might differ from more traditional brand-advertising efforts.

From tweets to texts, consumers weighed in on which ads were best, with Doritos coming out on top in several measures. (Shown: 'House Rules.')

The spot that stole the show during Sunday's Super Bowl was Google's. The simplest of the bunch, it also effortlessly (but so effectively) dug down to the brand's core. It was smart, charming and pure.  How pure? It reminded me of the best line from among all of the...

Consumers continued to cut back on purchases at magazine newsstands in the second half of last year, but publishers managed to slow the rate of attrition, according to the semi-annual circulation report released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Like all things Hollywood, Oscar is getting some work done to keep up a more youthful appearance. Along with the ballyhoo surrounding the Best Picture category, now with 10 nominees instead of five for this year's 82nd annual telecast, airing March...

Rising tensions between agencies and marketing procurement have birthed a new role in the agency C-suite: the chief compensation officer.

While other beers deluged consumers with frat-house gags and women in bikinis, Corona Extra rode to 16 years of consecutive growth on the most unique positioning in the category: It was a vacation in a bottle. But now, as it tries to avoid a fourth consecutive year of sales...

Newspapers' resistance to pay-per-inquiry advertising may be beginning to crack a little for an industry beset by recession, digital competition and other changes.

After last week's shuttering of the highly regarded, 4-year-old boutique agency Toy, Ad Age queried small-agency leaders across the industry to see how they're tackling the times.

Even as major marketers once again threaten to pull back on TV spending -- a new survey indicates they will allocate only 41% of their budgets to the medium this year -- the TV networks are gearing up for an "upfront" ad-sales market they expect will be more robust than...

After years of talking about how it's targeting young males who consume prodigious amounts of fast food, Burger King's description of its target has recently become a lot more expansive.

If you're a certain sort of still-employed media person, you're probably wondering how much longer you can hold on to your job. But the larger question might be: Just how unreal -- illusory, delusional, unmoored from the realities of the marketplace -- has your job been...

Quick: Name one highly creative advertiser. Bet your first choice wasn't Kraft. The food giant is making strides toward updating the look and tone of its advertising while keeping it as accessible as possible for consumers.

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- American Family Insurance VP-Marketing Lisa Bacus recently spoke with Ad Age about lessons learned from her entertainment programs, the importance of bringing all her agency partners together for quarterly creative meetings and why branding should...

Just how effective is Twitter as a marketing tool? Some brands sing its praises, others think the service has whistled its last tune.

Initiative has created a new social-media solutions division called Prophesee and hired Raquel Krouse as svp to run it.

Can new developments in real-time bidding give search advertising a run for its money?

The new venture is designed to help the CPG giant tweak its online tactics in all Web sales venues.

Last Friday in a hastily arranged press conference, Akio Toyoda, Toyota's president and grandson of the company's founder, made his first formal public apology to consumers, admitting, "We are in a crisis." The car company's image meltdown began on Jan. 21 when it announced a...

NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- The Super Bowl is over, but the attempts to figure out how the Super Bowl ads performed are just beginning. With so many different kinds of post-ad analysis available, Ad Age wants to make it easy for you to find where all of it is.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is hinting that Google is entering the brand advertising big leagues with an ad in the third quarter of the Super Bowl on CBS.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is hinting that Google is entering the brand advertising big leagues with an ad in the third quarter of the Super Bowl on CBS.