REVIEW: Marketing and advertising news in the week’s press

Leo Burnett has had to end its association with Dewar’s whisky

after its owner, UDV, was forced to sell the brand. UDV, created out of

the merger of United Distillers and IDV, was ordered to make the move by

the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. Burnetts, one of UDV’s three

global ’club’ agencies, already runs its flagship whisky brand, Johnnie

Walker. It is unclear which agency will now handle Dewar’s. - Marketing

Week

Forte’s Heritage Hotels has picked the musician and TV presenter, Jools

Holland, to front a pounds 1.5 million TV campaign through WCRS. The

commercial is designed to give the hotel group a younger and more

upmarket positioning. It will air for eight weeks from this weekend. -

General release

Paul Polman, the Procter & Gamble general manager who launched a

stinging attack on ITV airtime inflation last year, is to take a senior

position at P&G in North America. Polman will be based in Cincinnati on

taking up his new position on 1 October this year. - General release

Holsten Pils is replacing Denis Leary as its brand spokesman with the

British comedian, Paul Whitehouse, in a new TV campaign through TBWA GGT

Simons Palmer. He stars as one of a group of Peruvian buskers playing

pan-pipe music on beer bottles. - The Sun

Sony Playstation and the Telegraph Group have signed up as official

sponsors of the FA Premier League. They will join Nestle and McDonald’s

as secondary sponsors under the Carling title banner. The package for

both companies will include rights to perimeter advertising,

cross-promotional activity and co-branded marketing initiatives. -

General release

Asda is poised to announce three marketing initiatives. The first is a

home delivery service, Asda Delivery; the second is an internet shopping

business, On-line Home Entertainment; and the third involves plans with

Flextech or Cable &Wireless Communications to launch TV programmes

promoting its non-food offerings in the run-up to Christmas. - General

release

British Digital Broadcasting has appointed Nia Tudno Jones as brand

manager. Tudno Jones joins from Flextech Television where she was

marketing manager and launched UKTV, the BBC/Flextech joint venture.

BDB, a partnership between Carlton Communications and the Granada Group,

is set to launch at least 15 channels on digital terrestrial TV. -

General release

Court Burkitt & Company has been appointed by South West Trains to

handle an above-the-line campaign to promote off-peak, leisure business.

The agency won the estimated pounds 1.5 million account after a pitch

against Griffin Bacal and Banks Hoggins O’Shea. A six-month campaign is

likely to break in the autumn across the press, radio and outdoor media.

- CampaignLive

Saatchi & Saatchi is behind the campaign for the July launch of the US

blockbuster feature film, Godzilla. The outdoor and ambient campaign,

featuring posters with Godzilla-sized claw marks, will begin as an

unbranded teaser campaign, breaking at the beginning of July. - General

release

The New Millennium Experience Company has appointed Sholto Douglas-Home,

BT’s head of consumer advertising, as director of marketing and

communications. He will remain on staff at BT and will be seconded to

the NMEC for up to two years. His appointment comes two weeks after

Deborah Oliver was recruited from the Post Office as NMEC director of

corporate communications. - CampaignLive

The German government has confirmed it is to make a legal challenge to

the European ban on tobacco advertising. The German Economic Ministry

will make the challenge in the European Court of Justice on the grounds

that health policy should fall under the jurisdiction of member states

and that the ban violates freedom of speech and companies’ ownership

rights on brand name products. - The Times.

This article was first published on Campaign