This week in Advertising Age - bypassing the airport screeners

Posted Sep 17th 2007 5:30PM by Tom Barlow
Filed under: Television, Magazines, Marketing and Advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Procter and Gamble (PG), Small Business

Clear, the FAA-approved E-Z pass-like program for air travelers that allows them to bypass the screening and feel-up process, is preparing to launch its first marketing campaign.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) has assembled a sketch-comedy cast to prep a pilot for a television show that will promote its products. If it works, the advertainment could be picked up by a cable network.

Honda (NYSE:HMC) is hot to move beyond its dominance of boomer buyers to reach Gen-Xers. The median age of Accord buyers is 54, and the company hopes to pull in a younger skew for the redesigned Accord. Watch the ads for more flash and contemporary music.

The Admarket index of the top 50 marketer, media and agency companies is down 4.3% from its 52-week high. Biggest losers are Valassis (NYSE:VCI) (-54%), McClatchy Co. (NYSE:MNI) (-49.9%) and ValueClick (NASDAQ:VCLK) (-41.3%).

Toyota (NYSE:TM) is leveraging its heightened NASCAR involvement (Joe Gibbs' team- he'll get 'er done!) with a new ad campaign. The company hopes to convince this country's car buyers that Toyota is an American brand.

Tags: advertising, branding, clear, honda, market, mcclatchy, mni, toyota, valassis, valueclick, vci