Advertising agencies

NICK BUNKLEY

Why Chevy execs are suddenly watching 'Mad Men'

2:19 pm U.S. ET | May 7, 2013
One of Joel Ewanick's big moves in his brief reign as chief marketing officer of General Motors was to combine two rival ad agencies and give them the Chevrolet account, ousting Campbell Ewald after decades of experience. It turns out that Don Draper had that exact same idea in 1968.... Read More »

 

GM pulls Chevrolet ad that includes song labeled as racist

2:29 pm U.S. ET | May 1, 2013
GM apologized for a Chevrolet ad that included a song referring to "the land of Fu Manchu" where all of the girls sing "ching, ching, chop-suey," which one Chinese newspaper called racist. The ad ran in Canada and never appeared in China.... Read More »

 

Hyundai apologizes for UK ad that depicts suicide attempt

April 26, 2013 06:01 CET
Hyundai apologized for an ad that sought to promote the zero carbon emissions of a fuel-cell powered ix35 by featuring a man failing to commit suicide using a hose attached to the exhaust.... Read More »

 

Hyundai apologizes for U.K. commercial that depicts suicide attempt

3:37 pm U.S. ET | April 25, 2013
Hyundai apologized for a spot, created by the agency Innocean Europe for use in the United Kingdom, showing a suicide attempt failing because the vehicle, the ix35 crossover, did not produce any harmful emissions. Hyundai removed the commercial from YouTube today after criticism of it spread rapidly through social media.... Read More »

 

Cadillac's Ferguson expands exec team to drive growth

12:00 pm U.S. ET | April 12, 2013
Cadillac chief Bob Ferguson is expanding and shuffling his executive team to speed the luxury brand's international growth. Don Butler, head of U.S. marketing since March 2010, has been reassigned as vice president of global strategic development for Cadillac, a newly created position. He continues to report to Ferguson.... Read More »

 

GM refriends Facebook after automaker reverses decision on ads

4:50 pm U.S. ET | April 9, 2013
Facebook won back General Motors as an advertising customer 11 months after the automaker said it would quit running marketing messages on the world's largest social-networking service.... Read More »

 

GM meets with 3 agencies vying for Cadillac ad business

1:19 pm U.S. ET | March 29, 2013
Three major advertising agencies are vying to handle Cadillac's creative account. Executives from the three companies -- Interpublic Group, Omnicom Group and Publicis Groupe -- met in Detroit on Thursday with General Motors' marketing leadership about the Cadillac pitch.... Read More »

 

WPP India unit sacks employees after sexist Ford ads

March 26, 2013 19:31 CET
An Indian unit of advertising group WPP has sacked employees over a series of ads, including one showing women tied up in the trunk of a Ford driven by ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.... Read More »

 

WPP India unit sacks employees after sexist Ford ads

1:31 pm U.S. ET | March 26, 2013
An Indian unit of advertising group WPP has sacked employees over a series of ads, including one showing women tied up in the trunk of a Ford driven by ex-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.... Read More »

 

MARKETING

Ford apologizes for mock ads showing tied-up women

March 25, 2013 16:52 CET
Ford and a WPP unit apologized over unauthorized ads for the Figo in India, including a version depicting former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tying up and gagging three young women.... Read More »

 

Ford apologizes for mock ads showing tied-up women

10:52 am U.S. ET | March 25, 2013
Ford and a WPP Plc unit apologized over unauthorized ads for the Figo in India, including a version depicting former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tying up and gagging three young women.... Read More »

 

Ford campaign touts technology

1:44 pm U.S. ET | March 22, 2013
Ford will highlight its vehicles' technology and fuel economy in a new national, multi-media ad campaign launching in April. The campaign, which the company calls “AND not OR,” will tell consumers they don't have to make compromises to drive a Ford vehicle.... Read More »

 

Chevy advertising account goes to McCann

4:47 pm U.S. ET | March 14, 2013
The advertising joint venture formed last year to handle Chevrolet's creative advertising has split apart, with McCann Worldgroup emerging as the lead agency for the bow-tie brand globally. McCann said today that it has taken full ownership of the Commonwealth firm, which it formed in a 50-50 joint venture with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The Commonwealth name will remain, but McCann is buying out Goodby's stake.... Read More »

 

BILL SHEA

'Cadillac deserves better,' says ad veteran Gary Topolewski

11:03 am U.S. ET | March 13, 2013
Detroit advertising industry veteran Gary Topolewski knows a little something about Cadillac's advertising, which appears to be on the verge landing at Campbell Ewald. Topolewski is credited with helping revive the General Motors luxury car brand with Led Zeppelin-pumping television commercials in the early 2000s in a campaign called "Breakthrough."... Read More »

 

GM marketing shakeup may end joint venture that handles Chevy advertising

9:02 pm U.S. ET | March 12, 2013
GM is considering another shakeup in Chevrolet marketing that would end a joint venture created last year between two large agencies to handle Chevy's creative advertising globally. Discussions are underway that would consolidate most of Chevrolet's creative work under Interpublic Group's McCann Worldgroup, one half of the 50-50 venture called Commonwealth that was formed nearly a year ago with Omnicom Group Inc.'s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, according to a person familiar with the talks.... Read More »

 

GM considering Campbell Ewald for Cadillac ad work

8:02 pm U.S. ET | March 11, 2013
Cadillac is considering naming a longtime General Motors partner, Campbell Ewald, to become its new advertising agency of record in a deal that could be worth about $244 million in media billings annually, sources have told Crain's Detroit Business, an affiliate of Automotive News.... Read More »

 

Zipcar taps ad agency Campbell Ewald, hires new CMO

2:01 pm U.S. ET | Feb. 22, 2013
Hourly car rental firm Zipcar, in the process of getting a new parent company, has selected Interpublic Group's Campbell Ewald, the former longtime Chevy ad agency, as its new global creative and brand strategy agency, the company said in a statement.... Read More »

 

Chrysler takes patriotic road with popular Super Bowl ads

10:48 am U.S. ET | Feb. 5, 2013
Chrysler was once again one of the big winners in the Super Bowl ad battle, scoring with a military-themed spot narrated by Oprah Winfrey and another highlighting farmers that underscored the automaker's attempts to rehabilitate its image by playing to viewers' patriotism.... Read More »

 

2013 SUPER BOWL ADS - WINNERS AND LOSERS

Auto advertisers hit it big in Super Bowl; Chrysler stands out

8:56 pm U.S. ET | Feb. 3, 2013
Auto advertisers were back in force in the 2013 Super Bowl with commercials that were funny and touching -- with a few that just fell flat. Chrysler stood out -- yet again -- despite not running with the pack online in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.... Read More »

 

NICK BUNKLEY

Lincoln's Super Bowl sign of the 'alpacalypse'

10:13 am U.S. ET | Feb. 1, 2013
Last year, General Motors ran a Super Bowl spot asserting that the Chevrolet Silverado is the only truck strong enough to survive an apocalypse. Now, Ford is showing us what happens when its Lincoln MKZ encounters an "alpacalypse."... Read More »

 

Automakers' Super Bowl spots rule YouTube

5:08 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 31, 2013
Carmakers' Super Bowl commercials so far are dominating viewership among the big game's ads on YouTube, the social-media video site.... Read More »

 

GM, in more marketing shifts, names new ad boss for Cadillac, report says

9:39 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 30, 2013
General Motors said it has appointed a new director of advertising for the Cadillac brand. Craig Bierley will succeed Molly Peck, who is becoming director of Chevy advertising. Peck replaces Kevin Mayer, who left GM last year to become vice president of U.S. marketing at Volkswagen, the company said today.... Read More »

 

Kia picks new agency to improve digital presence

1:52 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 17, 2013
Kia Motors America said today it has picked a new digital ad agency to revamp its online presence while the brand boosts spending on Internet and mobile marketing. Kia tapped Publicis Groupe-owned Denuo as its digital agency of record after bidding that took six months... Read More »

 

Honda casts wide net in $700 million U.S. ad agency review

6:22 pm U.S. ET | Jan. 8, 2013
When American Honda Motor Co. put its media and creative accounts up for grabs in December, it ensured that it would be one the biggest pitches of 2013. What wasn't clear then, though, is just how far the automaker is willing to step out of its comfort zone in its search for marketing partners.... Read More »

 

Data companies help automakers reduce digital guessing games

9:29 am U.S. ET | Dec. 23, 2012
Automakers have fewer reasons to wonder whether online marketing blitzes are translating to sales. With an estimated 90 percent of people starting the car-buying process online, data companies are providing automakers and their advertising/marketing agencies with an arsenal of information to help them capture those consumers and better understand their behavior.... Read More »