In what could well be the first example of an expletive deleted actually being deleted from a marketing effort, McDonald's has pulled a snarky ad campaign that literally used the "F"-word. Of course, the "F"-word in this instance was the word "free," but you wouldn't necessarily have known that if you listened to the original version of the ad created by McDonald's agency Arnold Worldwide. It intentionally bleeped out the word to create the illusion that the commercial actor might have been saying another word, unless you could read lips, of course. "Our perspective is that we have to do …

Hoping to capitalize on the trend toward natural and organic product Labeling--now a $44 billion a year business--marketers of some seemingly unhealthy brands are reformulating their ingredients and advertising pitches to appear more natural. Cadbury Schweppes, for example, has removed an artificial preservative form its 7Up soft-drink brand, and May 8 will break a new ad campaign promoting it as "100 percent natural." The ads will depict cans of 7Up being plucked from the ground as if they were organic fruits and vegetables. "Everything that remains in the can is from a natural source," Marketing Vice President Kelli Freeman tells …

Like advertising, the big money in branded entertainment deals is still on television, but marketers employing the practice say they're getting better results from the Internet. At least that seems to be the conclusion from The Hollywood Reporter's coverage of the Association of National Advertisers' "Forum for Branded Entertainment," which was held live on the Rockefeller Center premises of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" earlier this week. Sarah Ross, senior director of partnership and integrated content marketing at Yahoo, cited the online portal's deal with "The Apprentice" and the Pontiac Solstice, where contestants on the TV show made a brochure for …

Lots of marketers use brick-and-mortar to give them a physical retail presence to promote their brands, but GlaxoSmithKline is using bricks-and-gum. Actually, the pharma giant will be temporarily renting retail locations in major markets to promote its Nicorette brand of smoke-cessation gum. The first store went up April 19 in a temporary space on Manhattan's 42nd Street and closes April 23, moving on with similar "pop-up" locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and Houston. Dubbed the Nicorette Stop Shop, the locations don't just offer the product, but serve as a smoking cessation clinic, providing consumers with one-on-one counseling, health assessments, educational …

Talk about David and Goliath. A tiny soft drink company called Cricket Cola is getting legal with behemoth Coca-Cola Co. over the slogan "happiness in a bottle." It seems that Cricket has been using the slogan in its advertising, packaging, and sales materials for two of the three years it has existed. Then Coke started using the same phrase just recently, in connection with its new global ad campaign themed "Welcome to the Coke side of life," in which the marketer liberally stated the "happiness in a bottle" concept to describe the effort. "It's uncanny. The coincidences were a little …

Pharmaceutical marketer Pfizer is under fire for running new ads for a controversial arthritis drug for which all marketing activities were previously suspended by regulators, due to the drug's links to heart disease. The drug Celebrex is being advertised in magazine ads that show an older man walking up baseball stadium stairs holding a boy's hand. The text says, ''52 steps won't keep you from taking him out to the ball game." In smaller print, the ad warns that the drug may raise the risk of heart attack or stroke. It was the addition of the warning that allowed the …

Nokia Corp. has hired a new marketing boss who previously worked for Pepsi-Cola in an attempt to shore up its sagging presence in the U.S. cell phone market. Veteran package goods marketer Craig Coffey, 43, was named to the position of vice president-marketing, North America, for mobile phones. Coffey was formerly vice president-marketing and strategy, Pepsi-Cola Co., where he developed a number of partnerships and innovative marketing initiatives such as the Pepsi Zone, lounges for teens in malls. The lounges included couches, Xbox video games and a vending machine. He also spearheaded Pepsi's partnership with Lipton Tea. Nokia is the …

PepsiCo and Motorola are teaming up for a new summer promotion that includes using pop singer Mariah Carey, a Grammy winner who will produce original ringtones for cellphones. Dubbed "Pepsi Cool Tones & Motorola Phones," the promotion offers more than 100 ringtones available through download, with 20 of them from Carey. A Pepsi spokesman said the effort marks the first time top musicians have written specifically for the ringtone format in a promotion. "I had a lot of fun with this project," the singer said. "It was a great creative outlet because musically I could do things here that I …

Like so many marketers seeking to break through the clutter and attract the attention of distracted consumers, communications technology marketer AT&T is turning to so-called emerging media to get its commercial message across to consumers. In a new online marketing initiative, the company is introducing a series of branded streaming video "webisodes" that take viewers inside the homes of their favorite athletes. Once there, users can see how the players live, win prizes, and click on AT&T products or services players use to learn about, for example, high-speed Internet services. The site keeps score of which factoids visitors have uncovered …

A major Japanese automaker wants everyone to know what it's done for America and is running outdoor ads to get its message across. The ads are part of a promotional campaign for Toyota Motor Corp. that touts the company's impact on the U.S. economy. The billboards are in 24 American markets where Toyota has factories or supplier operations, from Fremont, Calif., to Huntsville, Ala. The ads employ numbers, such as 13 -- "Donuts in a baker's dozen; Toyota's U.S. investment, in billions," and 386,000-- "Kilometers to the moon; U.S. jobs created by Toyota." Toyota, in fact, is on its way …