Advertising

Taxpayers Subsidize Smoking in "Avatar," Other Youth-Rated Movies

by Anne Landman — January 13, 2010 - 12:59pm

Smoke Free Movies, a project that aims to "reduce the U.S. film industry's usefulness to Big Tobacco's domestic and global marketing" has started running advertisements in the Hollywood Reporter and Variety about the movie Avatar. The ads state that,

For every $100 million it earns at the box office, Avatar ...

Main Source:

New York Times, January 11, 2009

Federal Reserve Tries to Burnish Image with Ad Campaign

by Anne Landman — December 4, 2009 - 1:36pm

The Federal Reserve Bank is on the hot seat for failing to protect consumers from unscrupulous mortgage lenders, failing to predict or prevent the financial crisis, and its involvement in the multi-billion-dollar, 2008 taxpayer-funded bailouts, making this a great time to run an ad campaign to try and burnish its image.

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Los Angeles Times, November 26, 2009

Newsweek Is Neck Deep in Oil & Conflicts

by Lisa Graves — November 6, 2009 - 1:14am

Topics: Advertising, Journalism, Corporations, Energy, Environment

TPM Muckraker has exposed the fact that Newsweek is teaming up with the American Petroleum Institute (API) to host a "briefing" for Members of Congress on climate and energy policy. The briefing is timed to coincide with, surprise, the Senate getting ready to take up climate and energy policy in advance of next month's COP15 world conference on global warming policy.

API's Lobbying Is Up and Against Slowing Global Warming

According to TPM, API has already spent $3.9 million directly lobbying in the first part of this year, primarily influence "cap-and-trade" legislation regulating the use of "carbon credits" or pollution emission credits, as well as on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. (During the Bush administration, API spent only about $3 to $4 million a year on directly lobbying Congress.) But, according to Guidestar, API (a registered non-profit) has revenues of around $200 million a year, primarily from oil companies, as of the last public report in 2007. And, it spent over $70 million on advertising that year alone.

Philip Morris, RJR Lose Appeal, Must Pay $2.85 Million

by Anne Landman — October 20, 2009 - 11:25pm

California's First District Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to uphold a $2.85 million damage award against Philip Morris (PM) and R.J.

Main Source:

San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 2009

A New Way to Enjoy Nicotine Addiction

by Anne Landman — September 24, 2009 - 3:48pm

Amid an increasingly hostile climate towards secondhand smoke and tobacco advertising, tobacco companies are battling to maintain both their nicotine markets and the ability to use their logos.

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New York Times, September 21, 2009

On What Planet Does the Chamber Design Its Ads?

by Diane Farsetta — September 8, 2009 - 3:04pm

To "move the spotlight off the unpopular commercial banks and mortgage lenders that are the target of the legislation," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is claiming that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency will hurt butchers. "The economy has made it tough on this local butcher's customers," reads the Chamber's latest ad.

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Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), September 8, 2009

Front Group Defends Tar Sands as "North American Energy"

by Diane Farsetta — September 8, 2009 - 2:16pm

Tar sands oil, "which is mined and boiled off instead of pumped out of the ground, is some of the dirtiest petroleum on Earth," with three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil. Yet the Consumer Energy Alliance recently launched an ad campaign supporting tar sands oil.

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Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minnesota), September 4, 2009

Republicans Criticize Big Pharma -- for Its Obama Ties

by Diane Farsetta — August 21, 2009 - 2:09pm

Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod's public relations and ad industry ties -- which received some scrutiny during the presidential campaign -- are again being questioned. Opponents of health care reform (mostly Republicans) are criticizing the "huge ad buys" that pro-reform groups are making through Axelrod's old firm. "Two separate $12 million ad campaigns advocating Obama's health care plan ...

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Politico.com, August 19, 2009

Are Cigarette Packs the New Cigarette Ads?

by Anne Landman — July 29, 2009 - 4:29pm

As more routes of advertising get closed off to cigarette makers, cigarette pack designs are taking on greater importance as marketing tools -- and carrying more meaning for smokers.

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The Canadian Press, July 28, 2009

One Stimulus Response: Fake News

by Diane Farsetta — July 29, 2009 - 2:04pm

"You can't pretend like you are broadcasting news when it is a paid advertisement," said Senator Claire McCaskill, urging the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action against "ads that mimic newscasts, with actors or even news anchors from a TV station," reports Broadcasting & Cable.

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Broadcasting & Cable, July 22, 2009