Tuesday, March 15, 2005

:: adgruntie :: Additional news bits

+ Metropolitan Police are running an ad campaign to target domesic violence. Part of the reason for the campaign is to create awareness that now even if wives or girlfriends drop charges, the men will still be prosecuted.
Speaking at the launch of a hard-hitting advertising campaign in London targeted at men, Sir Ian said he was delighted by the blunt message being put across.
“We have never, ever, aimed a campaign at the perpetrators of violence in quite this way,” he said.
“With the Crown Prosecution Service we have agreed a policy where we do not need the victim to support the prosecution.
“We would like them to, but it is not necessary. There is no hiding place for those who abuse their partners.
“If there is a domestic violence incident and the police are called, the perpetrator will be arrested and charged, whether or not the victim wishes to bring the case to court.”
[...snip...]
“I think we are going to see a considerable rise in prosecutions – this is probably the biggest Metropolitan Police campaign that has been run,” he said.
The £350,000 campaign is based on a simple message, which will appear on billboards around the capital.
One reads: “Bad day at the office? How will you unwind? Glass of wine? Nice meal? Break your wife’s jaw?”
Another asks: “When was the last time you told your girlfriend you loved her? Was it just after you nearly killed her?”
The white on black posters will appear in unusual and traditionally male dominated places such as in a pub or at football matches.
Sir Ian said: “This message is going to be sitting on the tables in the pubs and clubs, it is going to be on football programmes, it is going to be everywhere.”


+ Moxie lovers aim to make it the state drink of Maine. I'm not sure of this but it is possible that it could be the first branded state drink. Although it wouldn't surprise me if Georgia's state drink is Coca Cola (can't find any info on that- maybe they don't have one yet.) Just did some poking around and it looks like Nebraska made Kool-Aid its state drink in 1998. Suprisingly, or not so suprisingly, a lot of states have milk as their official state drink.

+ Jerry Flint writes for Forbes why the automobile industry should stay away from worrying about branding.
Unfortunately, the auto industry has also become afflicted with the "brand" sickness. Yet I have never heard any brand marketer at an auto company say, "We've got to improve the quality. We've got to get five-speed transmissions. We need better designs. We need higher mileage, better brakes, deeper paint and better interiors." All that means nothing to brand marketers.

Instead, we hear jargon like, "We've got to establish the brand." The truth is that they never can "establish the brand," because they can't spend enough on advertising. Auto markets don't work with the same favorable financial ratios that apply to selling cornflakes, cigarette or toothpaste.

Car models succeed because of what they do, how they look or how they stack up against the competition. We had great cars before the industry discovered the word "brand." We knew what a Mustang was without a bunch of M.B.A. types babbling about its brand virtues.

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