Hindustan Times
How things have changed in India. In the 1990s, many women were enraged by an ad showing a model sitting on a stool dangling a shoe, with the body copy reading "69% of Italian women would love you to slip into them." Almost overnight, the ad was panned and women's activists attacked the Delhi office of Anthem Advertising, the agency that created the ad.
New York Times
The NBA is mulling allowing ads on players' jerseys. Right now nine of the major sports leagues allow it, though it's obviously common in auto racing, golf, boxing, and soccer. Adam Silver, deputy commissioner of the NBA conceded "If we add sponsor logos to jerseys, we recognize that some of our fans will think we've lost our minds. But the NBA is a global business and logos on jerseys are well-established in other sports and commonplace outside the U.S."
MedPageToday
A new study says fast food and alcohol advertising on television has a negative influence on young people's weight and is a factor in underage drinking.
CTV
Ferrero has settled a consumer lawsuit arguing it has positioned its Nutella brand as a nutritious breakfast item. Athena Hohenberg, a California woman, was lead plaintiff in the suit charging they were deceived by the brand's advertising.
Detroit News
General Motors Co., the world's largest automaker, will begin selling the Chevrolet Corvette sports car in South Korea next month as the U.S. company seeks to expand sales in overseas markets. Given that the Corvette Coupe is an eight-cylinder, 430 horsepower muscle car, starting at 86.4 million won ($76,300), more than 50% higher than the car's sticker price in the U.S., it's not unreasonable to assume there will be some, um, auto executives driving the car around Seoul concealed by the Korean equivalent of a Groucho mask.
The Columbus Dispatch
Pure Michigan is powered by a $27.4 million state tourism budget - the biggest among Midwestern states. What does Ohio have? Gov. John Kasich wants to take the current $5 million general-revenue fund allocation for Ohio tourism and double it through different means. That would still pale in comparison to Michigan. But at least it would make it competitive with the rest of the Midwestern states.
Marketing Week
Lego has named UK TV presenter and adventurer Ben Fogle as its first celebrity brand ambassador. Fogle will star in a campaign for Lego City. A social media element, "The Great Forest Escape," tells the story of the Forest Police chasing villains from the city into the woods. A Facebook app invites parents and children to share their Forest Police-inspired Lego constructions and artwork with other fans. They can also win Lego prizes, including a trip to LegoLand with Fogle.
Los Angeles Times
Lionsgate acquired Summit Entertainment (which did the "Twilight" movies) and is keeping the marketing chiefs from both studios. Tim Palen, Lionsgate's chief marketing officer who is coming off of the blockbuster success of "The Hunger Games," has signed a new deal that will keep him in his job through 2015. The studio is also keeping Nancy Kirkpatrick in her current job as president of marketing for Summit, which is now a Lionsgate label.
Detroit Bureau
Paul Eisenstein knows a lot more about this side of things than I, so I'm going to step on my own feet here with his take on something I also wrote about in today's Marketing Daily: J.D. Power's study on autonomous driving. I mention Paul's take because it focuses on something important: autonomous driving will have big uptake with luxury buyers.
Daily Finance
Unilever global sales were up by 11.9% to 12.1 billion euros in the first quarter, while the quarterly dividend rose by 8% to 24.3 euro cents. Some of the rise in sales comes from last year's purchase of Alberto Culver, maker of the VO5 line of hair-care products, but the underlying sales growth of 8.4% reflects the Anglo/Dutch company's strength in overseas markets. Unilever's shares were up by more than 4% in early trading.