The Pro Shop

When the top execs from multinational corporations go to Congress hat in hand for multi-billion dollar bailout money, their pitch is a bit less effective when they’ve stepped off private jets before landing on Capitol Hill.

That’s one of the lessons the CEOs from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler learned this week about the fine art of poor promotion. It’s not the only lesson they should be contemplating in their corporate suites, but it’s a starting point for a reality check they sorely need to make before the next round of negotiations.

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The moms of America are speaking to Johnson & Johnson, and they’re not just disappointed—they’re very, very mad.

What they’re up in arms about is an online commercial that J&J’s Motrin pain reliever brand released onto the Web targeting mothers and the pains they may get from carrying their babies and young children around. It’s not the attention from a pharma company that these mommy bloggers a objecting to; it’s the implication that some mothers are carrying their kids around as fashion accessories rather than as valuable bits of posterity.

And they’ve gotten J&J to pull the ad off the Web. more

It’s no surprise that in the midst of economic chaos, some companies are thinking twice about anteing up for Super Bowl ads. At the $3 million for a 30-second spot NBC is charging, some advertisers are skittish.

But an NFL source reports that the league is poised to unveil a roster of new Super Bowl sponsors this week. Based on the record-setting 97.4 million viewers who tuned in last year’s classic tilt between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, most sponsors are staying the course and paying the rate hike from the $2.7 million Fox charged for last year’s spots.

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If an agency is lucky enough to be asked to create ads for one of the premiere outdoor gear companies, The Timberland Co., shouldn’t they know the difference between a honeybee and a hornet?

Now I’m no bee expert, but I do know enough to know that in the new TV spots by the U.K-based ad firm, Leagas Delaney, the bees attacking one of the outdoorsman are not hornets, even though the ad shows two bees up close and then a huge swarm coming from a large hornet’s nest hanging in a nearby tree. They are honeybees.

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Sales are down at Starbucks, average tickets are off, same-store sales in the U.S. and abroad have slipped, and on Monday the company reported that fourth-quarter earnings were off 97% from the same quarter last year.

And what will Starbucks do to cut the bitterness in its cup? Add a shot of gold—a Starbucks Gold fee-paid premium loyalty card.

Anything else with that? more

You know those ideas that look good on paper, but then turn out to be an invitation to either utter doom or at least thousands of personal liability lawsuits? Carnival Cruise Lines had one of these recently, and I can honestly say that, at least in my mind, I told them so. more