Chief Marketer Staff

• Agencies

  Loose Cannon: First They Came For The Smokers

  There’s a tossup regarding which I detest more, cigarette smoke or censorship. Because of this, recent efforts to classify any movie that depicts smoking with an R rating put me in a bit of a bind.

  I’m going with my anti-censorship sympathies for two reasons. First, a society that tolerates free expression should put minimal fetters on writers and directors.

  Second, censors tend to have rapacious appetites. Once started, who knows what the next target of their pique will be?

  A leaked draft document from the Motion Pictures Association of America Inc. answers that question.

• Email

  Blue Sky Factory Buys RSS Service

  E-mail service provider Blue Sky Factory announced it has acquired RSSFWD, a company that forwards RSS content feeds via e-mail technology.

• Agencies

  Anheuser-Busch Yanks Spykes Beverage After Complaints

  About one week after 27 attorneys general warned Anheuser-Busch over its marketing practices, the brewer has pulled the plug on its Spykes flavored malt beverage.

• Verizon CMO John Stratton Behind Agency Consolidation

  Verizon Communications’ surprise consolidation of its estimated $2.5 billion marketing account puts its Verizon Wireless division at the fore of the parent company’s marketing strategy.

• Agencies

  Advocates Prompt FTC to Investigate Digital Food Marketing

  Consumer groups are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate digital food and beverage marketing of junk foods to children after a new report revealed that the technology is contributing to poor nutrition and obesity.

• Agencies

  Wyndham Hotel Launches Wing Eating Contest

  Wyndham Hotel Group is staging a chicken wing-eating event to raise awareness around its TripRwards loyalty program.

• Agencies

  Hyundai Motor Names Kumpis as Experiential Manager

  Hyundai Motor America has named Monique Morin Kumpis as experiential marketing manager.

• Agencies

  Staples Picks a Winner in Photo Contest

  Staples named a San Francisco man the grand-prize winner of its national photo contest.

• News Brief

  FISHER-PRICE: is teaming up with Dream Apparel, a children’s sleepwear manufacturer, to produce

• Agencies

  Optimize Your Contact Strategy for Higher Response Rates

  (List and Data Strategies)Contact strategy is a balancing act: Approach your customer multiple times in a short timeframe and you could either improve your results or experience list fatigue by contacting the same audience one too many times.