Marketing

BP Loses Australian Bid to Trademark Green

by Bob Burton — June 20, 2007 - 3:13am

The High Court of Australia has dismissed a bid by BP to have the green Pantone colour 348C used in its logo registered as its trademark. BP's barrister, David Shavin, requested leave to appeal the lower court's decision that the company can't trademark the colour.

Main Source: 
Australian Financial Review, June 15, 2007

Big Tobacco's Racial Profiling Challenged in Court

by Anne Landman — June 8, 2007 - 6:03pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health, Marketing, Race / Ethnic Issues, Tobacco

    • Gloria Tucker's mother and grandmother both smoked cigarettes. Both died from smoking-related health problems. An African American woman, Tucker believes that her loved ones' deaths were due to "racial profiling" by big tobacco companies. And she's got the documents to prove it.

    On June 7, Miami attorney J.B. Harris filed a lawsuit on Tucker's behalf. The suit seeks $1 billion in punitive damages collectively from Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco, R.J. Reynolds, and Liggett Group. It accuses the companies of using predatory marketing techniques to target African Americans. Central to the case are hundreds of tobacco industry documents that detail how companies designed cigarettes especially for African Americans; tailored marketing campaigns to lower-income, less-educated African Americans; and continued to do so long after the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 declaration that cigarettes are hazardous to health.

    Unilever: "Viva Marketing!"

    by Diane Farsetta — June 1, 2007 - 11:28am

    The multinational consumer product company Unilever "has launched ViveMejor, a multimedia marketing initiative that targets the Hispanic community" in the U.S. The PR firm Edelman's multicultural practice is heading communications for the campaign. The campaign includes a magazine, "distributed for free at grocery stores and online ...

    Main Source: 
    PR Week, May 29, 2007

    Hogging the Picture

    by Sheldon Rampton — May 31, 2007 - 6:49pm

    The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company has arranged a deal with the film school at the University of California-Santa Barbara that recruits students as cheap labor to make Harley ads in the form of "short sponsored videos for online media or for downloading to other digital media platforms such as cell phones, iPods, and PDAs." Under the terms of the "partnership," students submit proposals to Harley-Davidson, describing the type of video they plan to make. If approved, the company pays a stipend of up to $1,200 for each proposal, and a prize of $5,000 to the winner.

    Main Source: 
    UCSB website

    Nigeria Strikes Back at British American Tobacco

    by Anne Landman — May 30, 2007 - 11:54am
  • Topics: Internet, Children, Corporations, Ethics, Health, International, Marketing, Race / Ethnic Issues, Tobacco

    • If you think the U.S. tobacco industry is bad, you'll find the behavior of many of the same companies overseas to be truly shocking.

    Happily, the industry is beginning to be held accountable for its operations in the Global South. Nigeria's two largest states are following the lead of U.S. states, in suing British American Tobacco (BAT) of Nigeria, its U.K. parent company and Philip Morris International for the health care costs of treating sick smokers, The Times of London reported this week.

    The new lawsuits demonstrate the importance of the online public databases of previously secret tobacco industry documents. The 1998 U.S. Master Settlement Agreement required major tobacco companies to reveal millions of pages documenting unethical -- and even illegal -- marketing, public relations and lobbying campaigns. A lesser-known treasure trove is the British American Tobacco Documents Archive, which has made some seven million pages of BAT documents freely available. These documents are of particular importance to countries like Nigeria.

    I Don't Want My Pharma TV

    by Diane Farsetta — May 22, 2007 - 2:03pm

    "Amid strenuous lobbying across Europe" to end restrictions on direct-to-consumer drug advertising, four pharmaceutical companies are considering launching their own television station.

    Main Source: 
    The Guardian (UK), May 21, 2007

    Shaping the Message, Distorting the Science

    by Sheldon Rampton — March 27, 2007 - 3:13pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, U.S. Congress, Lobbying, Marketing, Public Relations, Science, Tobacco

    • I've been asked to deliver testimony this Wednesday before the Committee on Science and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives, which is holding a hearing titled "Shaping the Message, Distorting the Science: Media Strategies to Influence Science Policy."

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