Marketing

FCC's TV/Child Obesity Task Force Adds Members, Sets Valentine's Day Meeting

by Jonathan Rosenblum — January 24, 2007 - 11:25am

The Federal Communications Commission has added junk food marketing critic Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the Benton Foundation (an FCC watchdog), and several academic groups to a list of mostly industry advocates on an FCC task force slated to consider limits on marketing food and beverage products to children. Sen.

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TV Week, January 23, 2007

As Nicotine Dose Increases, So Must Awareness of the Pitfalls of FDA Regulation

by Anne Landman — January 24, 2007 - 12:12am
  • Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Issue Management, U.S. Congress, Health, Marketing, Public Relations, Science, Tobacco

    • The Harvard School of Public Health released a study Thursday revealing that the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased significantly since the major American tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) in 1998. Predictably, Philip Morris (PM), in a media release available at their web site, denies the study results. The U.S. Surgeon General in 1988 warned that nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine, but these drugs don't have decades of sophisticated R&D behind them aimed at heightening their addictiveness. Cigarettes, among the most highly engineered consumer products in the world, deliver nicotine into more people's bodies more times every day than aspirin. Still, they remain unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    U.K. Food Labeling Scuffle Hits Screen

    by Jonathan Rosenblum — January 22, 2007 - 4:42pm

    Multinational food marketing giants, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Kellogg and Danone have helped fund an $8 million industry ad campaign to sway consumers to "know what's going inside you"--but not necessarily to do anything about it.

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    Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2007

    Leaked Documents Spur Investigation into Lilly Drug Marketing

    by Bob Burton — January 21, 2007 - 3:15am

    A U.S. federal court judge has extended an injunction banning groups in the U.S. from adding a weblink to leaked internal documents on Eli Lilly's schizophrenia and bipolar disorder drug, Zyprexa.

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    New York Times, January 20, 2007

    U.S. Drops Cool $36 Million to Burson-Marsteller to Promote...Money

    by Jonathan Rosenblum — January 16, 2007 - 11:33am

    The federal treasury will pay out $36 million over five years to the Burson-Marsteller PR firm to promote redesigned $5 and $100 bills. According to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the bills need to be promoted and explained to businesses, the media and others in order to ensure that new security features, including "optically variable ink" and watermarks are fully understood.

    Main Source: 
    PR Week (sub req'd), December 21, 2006

    Survey Finds Drug Ads Drive Prescribing

    by Bob Burton — January 9, 2007 - 8:54pm

    A survey of 39,090 patients and 335 primary-care physicians reveals the power of direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs.

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    Consumer Reports, February 2007

    Society of Professional Journalists, or for Professional Flacks?

    by Jonathan Rosenblum — January 2, 2007 - 12:41pm

    The Society of Professional Journalists is moving ahead on a joint venture with Market Wire, a PR industry firm that, among other services, distributes news releases. Columnist Michael Miner of the Chicago Reader exposed the deal last fall.

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    The Reader, December 15, 2006

    Food Marketing-Fueled School Channel "Going, Going Gone"?

    by Jonathan Rosenblum — December 26, 2006 - 1:52pm

    Channel One, the controversial advertising-funded TV network that reaches 7 million secondary schools, faces declining revenue and its owner, Primedia, is looking to sell.

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    Advertising Age (sub req'd), December 14, 2006

    All I Want for Christmas Is an End to Stealth Marketing

    by Diane Farsetta — December 22, 2006 - 2:14pm

    Charlie "was a hip-hop artist, very 'street.' ... He started a blog, alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, where he mused in urban patois about how his cousin Pete really, really wanted a Sony PSP for Christmas." The website was a "flog," or fake blog, launched by Sony to market the game system. "Sony's admission ...

    Main Source: 
    Sacramento Bee (California), December 21, 2006

    Sen. Harkin Hearkens: Junk Food Marketing "Out of Control"

    by Jonathan Rosenblum — December 20, 2006 - 12:00pm

    The new Congress is likely to put new and stronger emphasis on limiting junk food marketing, say aides to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Harkin becomes chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in 2007. His aides report that food marketing to children "will be one of our top tier agenda items." In recent years, Harkin futilely has sought to push through legislation toughening Federal Trade Commission authority to regulate junk food marketing.

    Main Source: 
    San Francisco Chronicle, December 20, 2006
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