Remember great Coke slogans like "It's the Real Thing" and "Always Coca-Cola"? They were considered advertising classics. Then the soft drink marketer switched gears and launched a series of forgettable ads that were eviscerated by critics. Now the company is coming back with yet another new ad campaign that it hopes will restore luster to its brand and boost sagging sales. The effort is scheduled to be unveiled this weekend during coverage of the NCAA Final Four in men's college basketball, and Coke plans to deploy the ads in other countries this summer. The campaign was created by Portland, Ore., …

Low-fare airline JetBlue is launching a new marketing campaign that largely relies on nontraditional media like the Internet, events, promotions and word-of-mouth marketing. The $25 million effort will also include more traditional tactics, like TV and print ads, but the nontraditional aspects of it are more intriguing. For example, in markets like New York, oversize boxes labeled "Help Yourself" will be left in public places, stuffed with free samples of the snacks the airline serves on its flights. And in Richmond, Va., a new JetBlue market, residents are to be treated to a free night at a local movie theater. …

Beer marketers aggressively targeting the Hispanic market are coming under fire from health activists who say the brewers are unfairly targeting a minority group and promoting alcohol abuse among teens. Part of the criticism stems from an abundance of billboards in San Diego that promote beer in Spanish, raising concerns that they specifically target young people. "Latino youth are drinking more than black or white youth, with all the concurrent negative health and social consequences," says Katherine Culliton, an official of the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention, in Washington. "We believe this is a result of beer …

Beer marketers are drawing criticism from all over these days. Critics are now claiming that the industry's self-imposed advertising code is really nothing more than a public relations ploy designed to give brewers maximum latitude in their ads. "The beer ad code has loopholes that are big enough to drive a team of Clydesdales through," said Laurie Leiber, director for media advocacy at the Marin Institute, an organization that keeps watch over the alcoholic beverage industry. In January, the code was changed by the Beer Institute, an industry trade group, to make it even weaker than it already was, according …

Eastman Kodak Co. wants consumer to smile for the camera.  And whoever smiles best will get whisked to New York City for an all-expenses-paid extravaganza.  It’s all part of a new sweepstakes by the camera and film marketer that’s tied to the release of the movie “King Kong” on DVD.  Participants can enter what the company is calling its King-Sized Smiles sweepstakes by uploading photos at a special Kodak Web site or e-mailing photos from their camera phone showing their greatest smiles. Each submission is supposed to include a short paragraph describing why the photo has a Kong-sized smile, …

If it's true that trends that start across the pond in the U.K. eventually make their way to America, then online ad spending is in for a whopping increase. New figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK) revealed a 66 percent increase in online advertising expenditures in 2005, rising to about $2.4 billion. Search led the pack with 79 percent growth to $1.3 billion during the year, display advertising grew 44 percent to $584 million, and classifieds showed 62 percent growth to $457 million. Observers note, though, that online spending in the U.K. seems to favor search, whereas …

A new research report says mobile advertising--where marketers can reach consumers via their cell phones--is going to be the next big thing. The survey was conducted by Magna Global at a December conference where mobile advertising and video advertising emerged as the top two areas survey participants said they wanted to experiment with. "With 2 billion mobile subscribers around the world, 20 percent annual subscriber growth, new networks capable of distributing video, improving handset capabilities, and rapid turnover of the handsets themselves, mobile phones may become the most pervasive devices able to access video content on a global basis," wrote …

Major marketers are gearing up to face one of their biggest advertising challenges ever--how to facilitate global marketing by making a single ad that appeals to consumers in different nations all around the world. That's a job for marketers who will advertise on television coverage of soccer's World Cup, a month-long tournament scheduled to begin in Germany in early June. The games will be shown in 189 countries to an audience that makes the crowd watching the Super Bowl look small. For agency creatives, the challenge is enormous. "World Cup makes the NFL Super Bowl look like an amateur event …

In the latest trend to break through the clutter of advertising and engage consumers who can easily zap through television commercials, a growing number of marketers are trying to lure viewers into their web by inviting them to participate in the advertising process. The methods range from asking customers to create their own ads to offering cash and prizes for finishing TV spots to choosing which spots will run from a selection of professionally created ads. The list of major advertisers experimenting with the process is impressive. It includes MasterCard International, Home Depot, General Motors Corp., Sony Electronics, Toyota Motors …

Bazooka bubblegum, a venerable brand that one generation fondly recalls but is virtually unknown among another, will be relaunched this summer by Topps Co. The gum category is currently enjoying a renaissance and Topps wants to cash in while the going is good. The only problem is that the product's primary target group has never heard of it. "We've almost missed an entire generation," said Paul Cherrie, Topps managing director. The brand has received virtually no marketing support for the past decade and subsequently is unknown among today's six- to 12-year-olds, the group that makes up the biggest group of …