Ad campaigns that use real people instead of actors and models have generated considerable debate in the advertising industry in the past year, but not all of it is positive. The Dove campaign for its firming cream, for example, has proved popular with consumers, but industry experts disagree on whether the ad is effective. "Using the average person won't sell anything," says Gerald Celente, director and founder of Trends Research Institute, a consultancy. "The purpose of advertising is to create desire beyond what the product can actually deliver. Do you want to see the floppy Big Mac that the fast …

Every football fan knows that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger can read a defense and throw a football pretty well, but can he sell soup to a hungry nation? How about soft drinks, or cars--or anything else, for that matter. He may get the chance to try, if his team wins Super Bowl XL and he is named the game's Most Valuable Player. Sports marketing experts say Roethlisberger, more than any other player, has "the right stuff" when it comes to potential as a celebrity endorser. "My feeling is that Roethlisberger is the man," says sports-marketing expert Bob Dorfman of …

Automakers are turning away from newspaper classified advertising in droves. Major chains such as Tribune Co., and McClatchy Co. reported huge losses in December of last year, with decreases of 16 percent and 20 percent, respectively. The development only spells more bad news for newspapers, already suffering from ads lost to the Internet. But this is particularly painful since auto classifieds were a steady source of revenue for so many years. In fact, such ads accounted for 30 percent of the industry's total classified ad revenue of $16.6 billion in 2004, the last full year for which figures are available. …

American Express is joining the fight against AIDS in Africa. The financial services marketer is launching a new credit card, American Express Red, that will contribute 1 percent of what consumers spend on the card toward the humanitarian group the Global Fund. Amex says American Express RED will be the first credit card to meet the payment needs of a new and growing group of individuals it calls "Conscience Consumers." These are consumers who make decisions about the brands they purchase based on their social, ethical and environmental values. The new product is being launched in partnership with a U.K.-based …

Chrysler Group's Dodge brand wants consumers to play musical chairs. If they do, they could win a new 2006 Dodge Ram. Dodge plans to launch a new promotion at the Chicago Auto Show in February in which participants will play the popular children's game in a Dodge Ram Mega Cab, jumping in and out of the truck, until the music stops. Whoever is sitting in the driver's seat is the winner. "We were playing to the mega cab feature since it is the biggest interior on the market," said Carrie McElwee, Chrysler Group spokeswoman. Contestants need to register for the …

Ford Motor Co., currently in the throes of a massive restructuring designed to reverse a financial slide, says it wants to go it alone without any help from Uncle Sam. The automaker made its comments in response to speculation that bankruptcy and a federal bailout loomed as a probable solution to the company's woes. "At Ford, that couldn't be further from our minds," the company said in a statement. "We plan to compete and win by driving American innovation and building cars that consumers want." Ford's net income for 2005 fell by about $1.5 billion from a year earlier, and …

With the sales of traditional white bread falling, Interstate Bakeries Corp., owner of market leader Wonder Bread, is putting its biggest marketing muscle in a decade behind the rollout of two new whole-grain products. In July, Wonder launched its 100% Whole Grain White Bread into test markets and this week announced it would expand the product nationally, along with a new brand made with less whole grain, called Made With Whole Grain White. The two products will be backed by a TV and print effort from Campbell Mithun and includes TV spots with the tagline: "Give 'Em What They Love: …

Unlike its competitors, Kellogg Co. has done little to promote the health benefits of its products or mount any kind of public relations effort to protect it from critic's claims that it is marketing junk food to children. Thus, it left itself open to a planned lawsuit from a consumer activist group. Tony the Tiger has encouraged kids to "Eat right, work hard, earn your stripes" in ads and Internet promotions, but otherwise Kellogg has done little else. The company trailed PepsiCo by nearly three years in announcing plans to reduce or eliminate trans fats in its Keebler cookies and …

3iYing, an all-female market and design strategy company, specializes in marketing to girls ages 15 to 25. In this provocative article, seven members of the 3iYing team take on print advertising, vividly describing how many marketers totally miss their mark in ads targeted to young women. Their central premise is as follows: Getting a girl to desire your product isn't that different from getting a girl to desire you. So if it didn't work in your dating life, don't try it in your print ad. The girls also provide a blistering assessment of why a print ad for a well-known …

Award-wining creative director and copywriter Karen Gedney says e-mail advertising is a recent phenomenon and that even the best traditional copywriters have trouble crafting effective e-mail copy. Here she offers a series of tips that can help. They include taking time to craft a winning subject line, which only allows for about 45 characters. She points out that your sender line should clearly identify your company and brand so it won't have to be repeated in the subject line. She also says: "Don't think of writing e-mail copy as filling in a blank page. It's more like piecing together a …