Agency News

NEW YORK Young & Rubicam, New York, bowed its first work for Gifts.com, a new joint venture between Reader's Digest and StarTek, a provider of e-commerce technology. The ads poke fun at husbands who give clunker gifts. A print ad breaking this week features a red mug with the inscription, "World's #1 wife." Copy beneath it reads, "A gift says something about the person who gives it This one says, 'I don't have a clue.'" The tagline: "Just the perfect gifts." Y&R landed the $20 million integrated account after a review that involved other undisclosed shops, sources said. Y&R and its subsidiaries will handle above- and below-the-line duties, as well as media, via The Media Edge. Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York, created a public relations division. Dubbed, Moxie, the new division is being run by Claudia Strauss, a managing director and former marketing consultant who joined the agency last month. Moxie's first client is the Alliance for Downtown New York, a business improvement district that covers the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Strauss reports to Felicia Stingone, a partner and executive director of PR/promotions. Merkley Newman Harty, New York, has launched a print-and-outdoor effort for New York's American Museum of Natural History that places headlines, such as "Scientifically committed to blowing your mind," over images of the museum entrance. The campaign, which also unveils a new logo, does not employ a tagline. Other headlines include, "Discover your inner paleontologist" and "Come in a jaded New Yorker. Leave an enlightened jaded New Yorker." Print ads are running in local publications, including New York, The New York Times Magazine and Time Out New York. Outdoor ads appear on the backs of buses and on a billboard overlooking the West Side Highway. Postcards were also produced. Previous ad efforts from the agency focused on specific exhibits. SFM Media, New York, has landed media planning and buying duties for Herndon, Va.-based LifeMinders.com, which operates a consumer e-mail reminder service with more than 4 million members. Billings are estimated at $6 million. Franklin & Burling of Alexandria, Va., is the creative agency. BBDO, New York, is launching Visa's National Football League promotion with a $50 million TV, print and radio effort. Oink Ink Radio, New York, produced two spots featuring overzealous football fans: In one, a group of "many men" sing Visa's praises; in another, a man calls a "fantasy line" to talk about "playing catch with Randall Cunningham." The spots are tagged, "It's everywhere NFL fans want to be." Carat and Schoenfeld & Partners, both in New York, were named media buying and planning agency, respectively, by Register.com, which is an Internet domain-name registrar. Biederman Kelly Krimstein & Partners, New York, created a 15-second spot for classical-music station WQXR. The ad features a pianist walking across a stage to a grand piano. He prepares to play, but instead of touching the keys, he reaches inside the piano and turns on a radio to WQXR. Rapp Collins Worldwide, New York, has created a print campaign for Reflect.com titled, "It's the image of you." Reflect.com is an online beauty-product retailer. The campaign launched with an insert in Marie Claire and will appear in November issues of Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Martha Stewart Living, Vogue and other magazines. Ellenson Group, New York, was tapped by AdForum.com, an online resource for agency searches. Ellenson bested three undisclosed shops to win the account. Spending will be $1-2 million over the next 12 months. Amodeo Petti, New York, has won two new accounts. Rosetti Handbags tapped the agency to handle its U.S. advertising. Riviera Eyewear also selected the agency to direct a branding effort themed, "Life is a spectacle." Amodeo Petti will break print ads for both clients in trade publications in November and in consumer magazines in spring 2000. The Romann Group, New York, has created a series of TV ads for Japanese-restaurant chain Benihana featuring the voice of The Karate Kid actor Pat Morita. Roy Kamen, president of Kamen Entertainment Group, New York, engineered the sound for the voiceovers. His brother Robert wrote the scripts for Morita's Karate Kid movies. Posnick & Kolker, New York, developed a corporate-identity spot for Hasbro themed, "Together TV." The 90-second spot runs before and after "It's Itsy Bitsy Time," a commercial-free TV show, sponsored by Hasbro, which runs on the Fox Family Channel. Robert Martin Advertising, Hauppauge, has been hired by Hastings, a manufacturer of asphalt and brick pavers. Athlon Communications, New York, was tapped to handle marketing and public relations for PopWall.com. PopWall sells such items as beanbag chairs to college students. Castle Rock Communications in Hauppauge was tapped by North Shore Towers, a three-building co-op apartment complex. Castle Rock will handle public relations for North Shore Towers and will also create a new brochure, logo and Web site. PowerAdz.com, based in Rensselaer, has added The New York Post as an affiliate. PowerAdz technology will allow the newspaper to provide local classifieds, auctions, Yellow Pages, and community and editorial content to consumers across the U.S. NEW JERSEY Winning Strategies, Freehold, recently bowed a campaign for The Community Bank of New Jersey. The cable TV, radio, newspaper and outdoor ads, which carry the theme, "Absolutely," target potential customers, in addition to local businesses. The Star Group, Cherry Hill, launched a campaign for New Jersey Lottery's participation in the seven-state, $200 million Big Game. The effort includes TV, radio, outdoor, airplane-banner, point-of-sale and agent premiums. The TV spot shows a mission-control center with various officials reacting to "the big one." Radio ads, in a game-show format, ask, "How big is it?" Airplane banners at the shore read, "There's a yacht out there with your name on it." Transit posters read, "Hey, you, in the Rolls-Royce. You're welcome," "You can never be too rich or too thin," and "Become your mother-in-law's favorite person." Pat Tesman, vice president of marketing at Gianettino & Meredith in Short Hills, and Karen DeLuca, creative director at Block Advertising & Marketing in Verona co-chaired the New Jersey Advertising Club's ninth annual Career Day, which at press time was slated to occur Oct. 14 at Montclair State University. Jon Bond, co-founder and chief executive officer at New York's Kirshenbaum, Bond & Partners, will keynote the event, which is titled, "2001 Successes." PENNSYLVANIA Conshohocken-based Perceptive Marketers Agency has launched its new Web site, PerceptiveMarketers.com. The site provides a list of services and client experience, as well as a portfolio of the agency's advertising, design, collateral materials, logos and other work.

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