Why You Won't See Michael Phelps on the Wheaties Box†

Kellogg Signs Swimmer Before Big G's Traditional Unveiling

Advertising Age, August 28, 2008 — In a PR masterstroke, Kellogg Co. managed to spoil an every-four-year tradition for General Mills — the unveiling of Olympians to grace the Wheaties box. By the time Big G made its big announcement today, Kellogg had already one-upped the news by revealing that it signed the biggest of them all, Michael Phelps

Actor Sparks BK-Card Freakout†

Chain Gets Big-Time Buzz When 'House' Star Talks Up 'Ultimate Celebrity Perk'

Advertising Age, June 23, 2008 — Burger King got a deluge of publicity after the blogosphere picked up on a London Times interview with "House" star Hugh Laurie, who told the paper his celebrity perks include getting good tables and his "Burger King gold card."

Mr. Laurie was referring to the prepaid, lifetime "crown card" bestowed on a few carefully selected celebrities such as Jay Leno, Jennifer Hudson, George Lucas and Robert Downey Jr. There's one hitch, however: He doesn't actually have one. Some people will do anything to get a free lunch.

Nothing Sells Like Celebrity

Where stars end and products and pitches begin has grown less and less discernible in the era of the human billboard.

New York Times, June 22, 2008 — EARLY last year, marketing executives at Totes Isotoner, a Cincinnati company that had spent the previous 30 years churning out a reliable lineup of humble umbrellas, crowded around a computer and listened to a teenage singer from Barbados named Rihanna breeze through a tune titled, appropriately, “Umbrella.”

The song, not yet released, had commercial, jingle-ready lyrics and a stick-in-your-head hook: “You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh.” Totes, which hadn’t deployed celebrity endorsements since the former N.F.L. quarterback Dan Marino hawked its gloves more than a decade earlier, was smitten. “Umbrella” became a corporate rallying cry, with the song drifting through Totes’ offices at all hours.

Social Site’s New Friends Are Athletes

Creative Artists Agency is expected to launch WePlay.com, a social networking site for youth sports — something like Facebook for young athletes — in April.

New York Times, March 26, 2008 — Late last year, Pamela Firestone, the mother of Tony Parker, the San Antonio Spurs point guard, went rooting through her home in Paris and dug up a VHS tape of a 9-year-old Tony on a Parisian basketball court with his two brothers.

O.K., let’s start,” the future N.B.A. star says in French. “It’s going to be the Chicago Bulls versus the San Antonio Spurs.”

In most families such artifacts are merely heirlooms, their value measured in memories. For the Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency and the hedge fund Pequot Capital, these are assets to be exploited.

Revlon's Makeup Test†

After a Painful Flop, Company Focuses on Its Core Brand

Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2008 — Revlon's new cosmetics have to do more than create just another pretty face.

Starting this week, TV ads starring longtime spokeswoman Halle Berry will introduce a line of Revlon makeup infused with minerals. Print ads launched in magazines last month featured Jessica Alba touting new Revlon foundation in a bottle that lets consumers' customize their shade, and this month she is featured in lipstick ads.

The blitz marks the first major initiatives since the company's Vital Radiance cosmetics line aimed at older women flopped 18 months ago, leading to the ouster of its chief executive, more than $70 million in losses, the dismissal of about 10% of its U.S. work force and a new strategy for Revlon.

Big Names in Retail Fashion Are Trading Teams

New York Times, March 8, 2008 — It’s free-agency season in American fashion.

Isaac Mizrahi, the everyman’s fashion oracle, is about to leave behind his wildly popular cheap-chic clothing collections at Target to be the creative director for Liz Claiborne, the stalwart shopping-mall label.

Dana Buchman, a longtime favorite of customers at upscale stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, is decamping this fall to the budget-conscious Kohl’s.

And Tommy Hilfiger, a constant in department stores like Dillard’s and Bon-Ton for two decades, now says he will sell his clothes only at Macy’s.

Over the next year, an unusually large group of famous clothing designers, motivated by lucrative deals, plan to shift their retail allegiances, in many cases abandoning stores... continue reading

Filling Big Hiking Boots at an Early Age

Discovery Kids pins some hopes on a chip off the crocodile hunter.

New York Times, January 7, 2008 — A year and a half ago, Bindi Irwin was an 8-year-old growing up in the Australian outback, home-schooled so she could travel with her father, Steve Irwin, to film popular nature shows like “The Crocodile Hunter.” She sometimes appeared on camera, happily petting the occasional wallaby.

Then on Sept. 4, 2006, Mr. Irwin was killed by a stingray’s barb while shooting his show. Rather than retreating into the background, though, Bindi has moved to center stage, in a spotlight just as bright, and sometimes harsher, than the one trained on her father.

LeBron Inc.

The building of a billion-dollar athlete.

FORTUNE, December 10, 2007 — It's May 31, 2007, in Auburn Hills, Mich., and the Cleveland Cavaliers, a Cinderella team no one expected to get this far, are down 107 to 104 in the crucial game five of the Eastern Conference finals against the Detroit Pistons when LeBron James launches a fadeaway three-pointer to tie with 1:14 to go in the second overtime. One minute and 12 seconds later he seals the game with a vicious drive down the lane to put his team up 109 to 107.

Those were the two finishing flourishes of a feat that NBC anchor Marv Albert crowed would "go down as one of the all-time performances in NBA history." James's play was stunning and described by another announcer as "Jordanesque": He scored 29 of his team's final 30 points, including the last 25.

Watching the... continue reading

Brady and Manning Meet in Battle of the Brands

As their undefeated teams face each other in Indianapolis, the Colts’ Peyton Manning and the Patriots’ Tom Brady are showing the type of men they are on Madison Avenue.

New York Times, November 4, 2007 — They are manly, for what is a quarterback but football’s macho lead actor?

And as their undefeated teams face each other in Indianapolis, the Colts’ Peyton Manning and the Patriots’ Tom Brady are showing the type of men they are on Madison Avenue.

If It’s Retail, Is It Still Rock?

New York Times, October 28, 2007 — AS torrents of money streamed into his wallet from multiplatinum albums in the 1980s and 1990s, Duff McKagan, then the bass player for the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, had little interest in tracking his cash. Instead, he relied on intimidation and his group’s reputation as the “most dangerous band in the world” to prevent managers from ripping him off.

Like other rockers easing into middle age or seniorhood, Mr. McKagan is also experimenting with new partnerships in response to a music business in flux. Amid plunging record sales and Internet file sharing, rockers are eagerly plastering their names everywhere.