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

Anheuser-Busch has taken its media planning and buying in-house in

some international markets to form Busch Media Group. Busch already

handles its own media in the US, and South America and Eastern Europe

will be the next markets to change. The UK is unaffected by the move at

present and BMP Optimum’s position is stable. - Advertising Age

The boycott of UK commercials work by Equity, the actors’ union, has hit

the Safeway TV campaign. The latest advertising for the supermarket

through Bates Dorland features new children, instead of the familiar

Molly and Joe characters, together with voiceovers by Cilla Black and

Jeremy Clarkson. The agency said the campaign would have changed despite

the Equity dispute, but admitted the confrontation had prevented it

signing the voiceover artists it wanted. Molly and Joe will be

reinstated at a later date. - CampaignLive

Nike has slashed its adspend in the US after its founder and chief

executive, Phil Knight, lashed out at Wieden & Kennedy’s new ’I can’ ad

strategy. He said: ’Our problem has not been too much marketing, but too

much ineffective marketing.’ The sportswear giant’s global budget will

fall by dollars 100 million for the fiscal year beginning 1 June. W&K is

in the process of opening an office in the UK to handle Nike here. -

Advertising Age

Boots the Chemist is the latest high-street retailer to enter the

financial services sector with the roll-out of a travel insurance and

dental careplan service. Nine financial products are to be sold over the

counter in the 250 largest stores in the chain, including family health

cover and single-trip travel policies. - General release

Omnicom has bought the below-the-line agency, Claydon Heeley, after a

long bidding war between Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Publicis pushed up

the price to between pounds 15 million and pounds 20 million. The

agency’s status as part of the M&C Saatchi Village is unchanged and Bill

Muirhead, a founding partner of M&C Saatchi, will remain a non-executive

director of the shop. It is expected that Claydon Heeley will be merged

with the Anvil Consultancy, the Omnicom-owned sales promotion agency. -

General release

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has

launched a campaign through Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, which asks ’Are

you doing your bit?’ for the environment. The pounds 2 million campaign

comprises four executions to appear in the national press, backed up by

30- and 40-second radio spots. The print work features people helping

improve air quality in their own small ways, by cycling, turning lights

off and properly tuning their cars. General release

RHM Foods is conducting a strategic review of Bisto, two years after it

gave the famous Bisto Kids the axe. The incumbents, Abbott Mead Vickers

BBDO and BBJ Media Services, will be joined in pitches by Michaelides &

Bednash and the strategy company, Brand House. - Marketing

Eric Cantona and the Brazilian national football team star in Nike’s

latest TV epic, directed by the action-movie director, John Woo, in his

ad debut. The action takes place at Rio de Janiero airport, where the

Brazilians dazzle with a display of ball skills. Cantona, seated in an

aeroplane, gives a Gallic shrug at the events taking place outside. -

General release

Mercedes-Benz has hired the former BMW marketer, Simon Oldfield, to

extend the brand into new car categories. Oldfield left BMW last October

to become the brand communications director of the Hilton International

hotel group. BMW will launch its first small car later this year. -

Marketing

Lilt, the ’totally tropical, totally chilled’ soft drink, will return to

TV in April with its first pounds 5 million campaign through Mother. The

commercials feature two real-life characters, Hazel Palmer and Blanche

Williams, encouraging members of the public to lighten up. - General

release.

This article was first published on Campaign