Advertising icons like Planters' Mr. Peanut, the Sun-Maid Raisin girl, and Columbian Coffee's Juan Valdez are as much a part of the American lexicon as apple pie and baseball. But even those well-known characters need an update from time to time to stay current. As such, all three are part of a trend among marketers to reinvent old ad mascots in a move that allows advertisers to get some publicity while capitalizing on nostalgia. In March, the Sun-Maid Raisin Girl was digitally animated in a new TV campaign after 100 years as a frozen portrait on a red box, while …

A new, national promotion by package delivery service DHL will honor baseball's greatest players and give fans a chance to vote on their favorites. The initiative, dubbed "Hometown Heroes," is an extension of the company's role as the official express delivery and logistics provider of Major League Baseball. The plan calls for each of MLB's 30 teams to nominate five players from its history who best represent each teams' accomplishments, character and leadership. Fans will then vote on their favorites from July 18 through Sept.17. The official winning roster will be unveiled prior to the playoffs in September. The effort …

An item in yesterday's Marketing Daily, "Travel Industry Targeting African-American Market," was actually originally published in 1997. A Google news feed mistakently listed this story as having been published on Saturday.

Quick on the heels of its new baseball-themed ad campaign, Chevrolet is jumping feet first into this week's All-Star baseball game with a wide range of promotions and tie-ins that include sweepstakes, giveaways and an array of fan activities. The game will be played Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, and Chevrolet's involvement begins with a fleet of more than 100 E85 Ethanol-compatible Avalanches, Suburbans, Tahoes and Impalas that will be available for use by Major League Baseball. The vehicles will be wrapped with a gold Chevrolet bowtie and an All-Star Game logo. "The objective is to make a solid connection with …

The travel industry is beginning to specifically target African-Americans in an attempt to tap into the group's estimated $25 billion in travel spending power. One example is American Airlines, which recently teamed with the city of Philadelphia to create the carrier's first "Ethno Tour," packages targeted to black travelers. "As the shift in the population occurs over the next 15 years, it is dear that our customer base will shift. We need to start developing products that appeal to this growing market. We intend to extract as much business as we can," said airline spokesman Lou Phillips. In addition, US …

Wine marketers are discovering the benefits (and pitfalls) of product placement in TV programs and feature films. It's a new connection between Hollywood and wine (get it?) that takes a different tack than most other product categories. Unlike other industries, wineries seldom pay for product placement. Instead, they try to get attention by donating cases of their wine to show biz events and celebrity parties and hiring agents like Jenny Turnbull who look for opportunities by reading scripts and keeping in touch with studios. "Product placement is here and it's here to stay," says Los Angeles-based Turnbull, who spent 10 …

Marketing history was made at this year's Super Bowl, and not the kind made famous by the likes of Janet Jackson. This time the important moment came in one of the game's commercials, which was neither racy nor controversial. The spot touted the new Toyota Camry Hybrid and featured a father driving the car with his son strapped in the back seat. The father was a Latino with a discernible accent, and the conversation he had with his son played on the word hybrid: the son represented a blend of U.S. and Hispanic cultures, the car represented a blend of …

One of the oldest brands of tea in the world is branching out. Twinings, which has existed since 1706, is one of the best-known brands of Associated British Foods, a U.K. conglomerate incorporated in 1935. With consumption of standard black tea--the most British of beverages--on the decline in the average English home, Twinings has decided to launch specialty blends, including a new line of white teas due out in September, in a bid to convince people to drink one tea for breakfast, another for winding down after work, and still others for special occasions, just as they might choose different …

Product placement in TV shows is all the rage among marketers seeking to break through commercial clutter and get their message in front of increasingly distracted consumers, and many of them pay considerable money to get their products into TV shows and movies. But when it comes to product placement on late night TV talk shows, it appears luck plays almost as big a factor as hard work and diligent planning. For example, in a tracking study by TNS Media Intelligence, Yamaha musical instruments were the most-seen brands on the three late-night shows: CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," NBC's …

Marketers trying to break through the ad clutter with their commercial messages are engaging in a new advertising trend in which smaller is apparently better. They are using new, shorter TV ads that last only five seconds and are placed at the end of regular commercial breaks. The goal of these so-called "mini-ads" is to overcome the effects of digital video recorders (DVRs) that let consumers zap through ads. They take advantage of the fact that when a user stops fast-forwarding on many DVRs, the machine backs up a few seconds to compensate for the user's reaction time. "As you're …