Advertising

Yes, ‘Mad Men’ Is One of the Best Shows on TV. But With Such Small Viewership, and Such Paltry Ad Sales, How Does It Stay on the Air?

Emmy Award winning "Mad Men" is one of the most acclaimed shows on TV. But it’s watched by relatively few people, and it’s ad sales are paltry. So how does it stay on the air? That’s the question Brian Steinberg asked…

Wildest Story of the Day: Is Your Detergent Stalking You? (Dirt is Good)

Here’s a wild one for you. Unilever is doing a promotion wherein it’s putting a GPS tracking device in some boxes of detergent on supermarket shelves. Once the box leaves the store the GPS device is automatically activated so the…

Motorola Latches onto Apple’s iPhone 4 Design Flaw with Campaign to Boost Droid X

Motorola is using Apple’s iPhone 4 design flaw to its own benefit, running an advertisement that points out the iPhone’s reception problem while drawing attention to its new Droid X on Verizon, reports Advertising Age. A full-page print ad that…

‘Mad Men’ Gets Advertising Age Cameo All Wrong: ‘We Didn’t Ask Cute-Ass Questions,’ Rance Crain Writes

"Mad Men" has already come under fire from George Lois, a real-life advertising man from the 1960s, for misrepresenting the changes to the industry during the era. And now Rance Crain, who serves as editor-in-chief of Advertising Age and whose family started the…

To Sell Inventory Across NBC Web Sites, Media Company Creates its Own Online Ad Network

In a move to sell inventory across NBC Universal’s Web sites, the company has created its own online advertising network, reports Mediaweek. Called Universal Audience Platform, the group will sell advertising for NBC.com, USANetwork.com, Bravotv.com, iVillage.com, Telemundo.com, as well as NBC’s 10 O&O…

Is Nothing Sacred? Cable Network G4 Sells its Name to Sprint-Nextel for a Week, Changing it to 4G

Apparently even a cable-network’s name isn’t sacred any longer, reports Brian Stelter in the New York Times. G4, a cable channel focused on video games and reality shows, is selling its name for a week to Sprint Nextel, which plans…

Real-Life ‘Mad Man’ Blasts AMC Show

A prominent real-life advertising man from the “Mad Men” era delivers a scathing critique of the AMC series in the latest issue of Playboy, reports Monsters and Critics. Well-known ad man George Lois reminisces about the industry in the 1960s…

Over 50 Isn’t Worth Your Advertising Dollars? That Notion Is So Old, Nielsen Says

The belief that the over 50-market isn’t worth as much as the coveted 18 to 49-year old market is so old — at least according to Nielsen, Advertising Age’s Brian Steinberg reports. "The measurement-and-data giant is out to prove that…

Although YouTube Surpasses Hulu as Biggest Video Site, Hulu Wins on Number of Ads Shown to Viewers

Although YouTube is by far the biggest video site on the Internet, Hulu surpasses its competitor by another measure: the number of video ads it shows viewers each month, reports Michael Learmonth in Advertising Age. "In fact, no other video…

Catch-22 1/2: Studio Accounting

The recent news regarding profit participation and TV shows–the challenge to Disney by the producers of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and Don Johnson challenging Rysher Entertainment about "Nash Bridges"–reminds TVWeek Open Mic blogger Chuck Ross of the craziness…