It has become increasingly common for marketers to include a stipulation that agencies surrender rights to anything pitched in a review, but Kraft foods is going a step further. In its review for the Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles, Ritz, Triscuit and Grey Poupon brands, it is insisting that participating agencies accept legal liability should the marketer end up using those ideas at some later date. Tom Finneran, executive vice president-management services for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, describes the idea of agencies retaining legal liability for the work they pitched as "totally outrageous." A Kraft spokeswoman says that …

Conventional wisdom held that fashion--which is hard enough to buy with the aid of sales clerks and fitting rooms--would be difficult to translate onto the Internet. But online revenue from skirts, suits and shoes reached $18.3 billion last year, surpassing PCs, printers and word-processing programs, which totaled $17.2 billion, according to a report by Forrester Research. Still, consumers made only 8% of all clothing purchases on the Web, compared with 41% of computers, 21% of books and 15% of baby supplies, according to the report. But the clothing market is far larger than the others, which explains why apparel …

Anheuser-Busch has applied for a federal trademark for the word "Pomacai," which it describes as a vodka. A company spokeswoman says A-B doesn't comment "on products that may or may not be in development." Industry observers say A-B would likely test a product in limited markets to evaluate its prospects before jumping into a national rollout. The application for a trademark for "Pomacai" might mean A-B is exploring a fruit-flavored vodka involving pomegranate and açaí, a fruit native to South America, says Mark Swartzberg, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. When "you look at what vodkas are growing, not only …

High-end "sleep systems" company Tempur-Pedic is breaking a new ad campaign tomorrow that pushes sleep as being an essential element in wellness. The message for the health-conscious: Your bed should do more. The Kentucky-based company's bedding is made of a foam that's based on a material developed by NASA to cushion the forces of acceleration on astronauts. The mattresses--which have no springs and no bounce, and conform to body shape--cost from $900 for the lowest-priced twin size to $7,000. Restful ads, shot at spa-like locations in places such as South Africa and Mauritius, show a pristine aqua sea …

Johnson & Johnson is asking all agencies competing for its $3 billion global media buying and planning account to create a special division to handle the communications planning--or consumer-research--duties. Those divisions, which are now housed inside the media-buying firms, would work more closely with J&J's various creative agencies. J&J joins a growing list of marketers who are calling for more collaboration between the people who do the consumer research and the people who actually create the ads. P&G last month shifted all its ad and marketing duties for its Oral B brand to a newly created team at …

Underscoring the growing pressure on the drug industry over its marketing, three current and former executives of Purdue Pharma pled guilty yesterday in federal court in Virginia to criminal charges that it had misled doctors and patients about its painkilling narcotic, OxyContin. Initially, Purdue Pharma contended that because of its time-release formulation, OxyContin posed a lower threat of abuse and addiction to patients than faster-acting painkillers like Percocet. That claim became the linchpin of an aggressive marketing campaign. In a statement, the company said the three executives were not aware of the wrongdoing by other company employees. Misdemeanor …

A letter signed by attorneys general in 27 states warned Anheuser-Busch yesterday about the promotion and sale of alcohol beverages such as Spykes, Tilt and Bud Extra that that contain caffeine and other stimulants. The AGs expressed "serious concern" that the drinks are highly attractive to underage youth. The AGs cited the drinks' availability in fruit and chocolate flavors, brightly colored packaging and small-sized containers. The letter also says the Spykes Web site has no effective means of preventing underage people from entering, and that Internet ads offered "vivid" descriptions of the flavors, but no mention that the beverages …

The oil industry's image plunged after Hurricane Katrina in 2005--when prices at the pump jumped and consumers fumed--and it has never quite recovered. That's why John Hofmeister, president of Houston-based Shell Oil, played 20 questions with a group of invited guests ranging from supportive state politicians to deeply skeptical environmentalists in a Richmond, Va. hotel ballroom recently. An open bar and a buffet table fortified the event, which was engineered by Shell's public relations agency, Burson-Marsteller. Hofmeister's frequent allusions to the need to tap into offshore oil reservoirs made it clear that there was more to the evening than …

Pfizer's next stage of marketing for its Chantix smoking cessation pill will launch this summer with branded consumer ads in which it points out that the medication is cheaper than a pack of cigarettes even though most health insurance plans don't cover its cost. Chantix cost about $3 a day. Cigarettes can cost $8 to $10 a pack in Manhattan and some bars in Chicago, or $3 to $4 in rural America or certain areas where taxes on cigarettes are not as high, according to Pfizer and other sources. Since December, Pfizer has been marketing the pill with …

Unilever--which has drawn praise for its Dove advertising campaign featuring women of all shapes and sizes--says it will no longer use size zero models in advertisements for any of its brands, whether it's Hellmann's mayonnaise or SlimFast diet drinks. Unilever's brand directors and advertising agencies across the world will be directed to use only models or actors with a body mass index (BMI) of between 18.5 and 25, which conforms to United Nations guidelines on the level of BMI that's considered healthy. Unilever also says it will restrict its marketing and advertising to children between the ages …