Yesterday, the actress Lindsay Lohan, better known recently for her partying than high-profile film roles, filed a $100m suit against E-Trade Financial Corp over an ad which ran during this year’s Super Bowl. The slot, created by Grey, features a baby talking to his “girlfriend” about the importance of building a diversified portfolio. The “girlfriend” gets anxious about what the baby might have been up to and asks “..and that milkoholic Lindsay wasn’t over?”.

Lohan claims that the ad is a parody of her life. Her lawyer apparently told the New York Post: “Many celebrities are known by one name only, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit. … They used the name Lindsay.” The lawyer continues: “They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.”

Hmmm…..several issues here.

1. Is the ad parodying Lindsay Lohan?

2. Does that matter when it really isn’t offensive? It’s about milk and finance, for god’s sake.

3. Is that worth $100m?

Well, personally I had absolutely no connection with Lohan when I watched the ad back in February. Lindsay Lohan does not trade, to my knowledge, on only her first name. Perhaps “Madonna” or “Rihanna” might make me think of the celebrities associated with those one-name brands, but Lohan needs her surname in my view. She just isn’t famous enough without it.

And how would an ad about being a milkoholic be offensive? The idea that Lohan is a milkoholic boyfriend stealer is simply a bit silly rather than credible. Whatever her love life as it makes the tabloids, I can’t think of any scandals involving Lohan and milk. Or really even men. Mainly she is known for her lesbian relationship with DJ Sam Ronson and her arrests for drug possession and driving offences. All of which seems far worse to be associated with than milk and babies.

While some lawsuits involving advertising might have some merit, this one seems particularly bizarre in my opinion. I can’t imagine how $100m of damage can have been done to Lohan’s reputation when it is unlikely most people would even associate her with the ad.

Grey’s response? They say that someone called Lindsay worked on the account team and lent her name to the baby in the ad. Whether this is true or not, it sounds realistic. And when we’re talking about $100m and talking babies, that’s probably the most sensible thing yet to come out about this story.

For those of you unclear on the significance of this, the Rainforest Alliance is a scheme that aims to make business more sustainable and fair. The organisation’s own marketing says that “we involve businesses and consumers worldwide in our efforts to bring responsibly produced goods and services to a global marketplace where the demand for sustainability is growing steadily.

Farms that meet the comprehensive criteria of the Sustainable Agriculture Network earn the right to use the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, and forestry enterprises that comply with the rigorous standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), can use the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal in conjunction with the FSC logo to differentiate their products in the marketplace.”

In other words, it’s a logo that Galaxy can use to show it’s trying to act in a sustainable way.

This comes very soon after Nestle announced it had turned its flagship KitKat brand Fairtrade. Its packs now proudly boast the distinctive Fairtrade Foundation logo. And last summer, Cadbury turned its flagship brand Dairy Milk Fairtrade. Organic chocolate brand Green & Black’s is also turning fairtrade in its entirety (about time too).

What I found really interesting about this is that Mars has not chosen to make Galaxy Fairtrade like its rivals. Why is this? Well, I can’t speak for Mars but only a couple of weeks ago, the brand director of Sainsbury’s – now the world’s biggest Fairtrade retailer – spoke about how many years it had taken to get its products to meet all the standards of The Fairtrade Foundation criteria. It is not a short-term project; it involves convincing your farmers to accept new standards and upgrade farms, which is a tricky business.

I’m not implying that getting Rainforest Alliance accreditation itself is necessarily less “good” than going Fairtrade. But it simply doesn’t mean the same as Fairtrade and that’s important. There is a crucial difference between RA and Fairtrade – Fairtrade has responsibilities not only for the farmers to meet standards but also the eventual brand buyers. RA makes the producer responsible for meeting standards, but as far as I know, the end brand does not have to commit to a minimum price.

On the other hand, RA is very focused on the environmental impact of production. It reportedly has tighter restrictions on environmental measures. So perhaps it is best for brands really concerned about the sustainability of supply lines and being green.

Is this a good move for Galaxy? I have several thoughts:

1. It is a bit late for Galaxy to adopt Fairtrade. Its two rivals have already done so, which makes it look a bit like it is following, rather than setting an agenda. Not that consumers would mind it following others if it ends up Fairtrade, in my opinion, but the brand might do.

2. It’s nice to see that obviously Fairtrade IS seen by brands as a major consumer benefit; so much so that those in the market without it are looking for accreditation of their own to show customers they are “good”.

3. Galaxy may have deliberately chosen to go RA to give it a different ethos from its competitors. Perhaps the brand is hoping to carve out a niche as the chocolate brand thinking about the green issues, rather than fair trade. That’s an interesting idea – especially after Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s recently went on record saying that the reason Fairtrade sales held up in the recession was the “people” aspect of its offer, rather than something like organic, which is less humanised. Will Galaxy miss out on the humanised side of being Fairtrade?

4. Galaxy should also watch out if it thinks consumers will be content with any “good” logo on the packet. There are plenty of sources out there explaining the difference between full Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Unless customers consider both logos equal, this could be an issue further down the line.

Thoughts?

The first is very much NOT a good ad idea, but it still makes me smile and wince a bit. It is an image apparently taken in Belfast showing two ads placed slightly unfortunately next to each other. (See below). This photo is via @MehdiElGueddari.

And this ad is possibly the best male fragrance commercial ever filmed:

So which of the Winter Olympics stars are likely to become winning sponsorship vehicles? The Winter Games are never as mainstream in their appeal as the Summer Olympics, which have a wider variety of sports and athletes available for brands. Let’s face it, most of us are more familiar with (and likely to take part in) football or running than events such as “Nordic Combined” and “Skeleton”.

But those athletes being tipped for the top by both marketing/sports experts include:

Lindsey Vonn. Known as the “best American skier ever”, according to Sports Illustrated, she won at the world championships last year. Blessed with good looks, AdAge reports that she is causing a buzz among brands at the moment. She already has some endorsements, including Alka-Seltzer, but a good performance at these games could propel her into the sponsorship big leagues.

Kim Yu-Na. The South Korean ice skater has won numerous titles already with her triple-triple jumps on the ice skating rink. Apart from bringing in a great deal of prize money, Yu-Na has become a marketing dynamo in her own nation at just 19 years old, with Hyundai, Nike and Procter & Gamble among her sponsors. She has earned around $7.5m (allegedly) in deals already and even has her own phone model created by Samsung, which broke a company record for unit sales with more than a million shifted in less than seven months. The Winter Olympics may be where Yu-Na goes global.

Apolo Anton Ohno. Apart from having simply the best name in the whole world ever, he already has a high media profile from appearing on TV programme “Dancing with the Stars”. With corporate deals including Nestle and Alaska Airlines already, he is also set for success at this year’s Olympics. This could make him a bigger marketing prospect than ever.

Bode Miller. Miller is the bad boy – sort of – of Olympic competitions. Back in 2006, his boozy behaviour during the Games meant that he did not perform particularly well and talked about ski-ing “wasted”. Once an endorser for PlayStation games about ski-ing, he was seen as a failure. Now he has turned his life around and as a new father, Miller wants to show he is taking sport seriously. With a back story of bad-boy-turned-good-guy, victories at this Olympics could provide a fabulous marketing story for sponsors.

Shaun White. The snowboarder got Red Bull to build him a half-million-dollar half-pipe last year so he could work on his impressive moves, which include crazy flips and twists. He won gold at the Winter X Games in January and last year, allegedly took home $7.5m in sponsorship income from brands including Red Bull and Burton along with prize cash.

Which will be the ultimate winners? We will have to see what happens both in the sporting and brand worlds over the next few weeks…..

But no, it appears that it is not a hoax. Although the content seems so laughably bad to me that anyone associated should probably pretend immediately that the whole thing is an elaborate art project commenting on media in the modern age.

Why am I being so harsh? Well, @jenniferesque posted a picture of the paper’s front page first thing this morning, revealing the embarrassing misspelling of cricketer Phil Tufnell’s name – see it below – photo credit to @jenniferesque. Other misspellings in the issue include “Cowell is king of immitation” and “Serve them with New BAILEYS Extra Thick Crea”.

The rest of the paper doesn’t look much better. I picked up an edition of its rival freesheet theblogpaper too this morning. I found the content pretty weak (one article is called “Porn: It’s All Wank Really”).  But at least it is an interesting idea and the layout suggests that the people involved care about their product. I might not really care what a blogger calls “Bangs and a Bun” thinks about the forthcoming Sex & The City film, which they haven’t actually seen, but perhaps other people do. Anyway, crowdsourced content as a concept – at least it is trying something different.

The problem with The London Weekly is that its first edition just isn’t any good. The layout is terrible. Aside from the misspelling on the front page, the design looks tired and cheap. A page on showbiz uses a huge yellow arrow which looks like it came straight out of my Word Clip Art collection. (Although that might be an insult to Clip Art. Sorry, Microsoft.)

YOU CAN SEE MORE OF THE PAGES HERE.

When thelondonpaper and The London Lite closed last year, I did feel a little sadness. I felt that thelondonpaper at least had managed to find a few editorial niches, such as the reader’s column each day, which were entertaining.

But I can’t say I’ve missed those publications too much, especially now The Evening Standard has become a freesheet. I really hope that The London Weekly is some elaborate crazy hoax pulling the wool over my eyes. I think it’s fair to say that based on this early view, if The London Weekly didn’t come out ever again, I wouldn’t even miss it for a second. Actually, I’d probably celebrate on behalf of any trees getting saved as a result.

***UPDATE***

Time Out’s music editor has allegedly just pointed out that The London Weekly’s top five albums only has four in it……SURELY this must be a spoof? Step forward, Chris Morris, please……

(My particular fact of choice from the survey? A female marketing director earns £17,000 less than her male counterpart. So much for equality.)

Now data from the Higher Education Careers Services and Graduate Prospects has produced their figures on what happens to young marketers at the start of their careers. It follows what those marketing graduates from 2008 did next.

The split of graduates from the 2008 crop was 42% male as opposed to 58% female.

Apparently 70% of those with marketing degrees have entered employment, 5% undertook further training, 4.3% are working and studying, 9.6% are unemployed and 10.8% are ominously “other” (which I assume means they left marketing to do something else or went travelling for a year).

Sector-wise, 30.6% went into marketing, sales and advertising; 17.9% entered commercial/industrial/public sector management; 13.5% entered clerical/secretarial jobs; 12.6% started in retail/catering; and 25.4% went into other areas.

Of those people starting off in marketing, sales and advertising, 59% entered the world of being advertising/marketing executives; 10.5% went into other marketing, sales and advertising roles; 8.2% became public relations officers; 7.5% became sales reps or agents; and 14.8% did other things.

So it seems that at the start of their careers, more women than men are engaged by the joys of marketing and most people choosing a career in this area do want to hold pure marketing/advertising positions rather than some of the positions that touch on the same skills or management but are not core roles. With that in mind, I hope that by the time the 2008 graduates become marketing directors, the pay inequality of today is a thing of the past.

Via PSFK.

The retailer has formed a joint venture with US media firm Amber Productions to create a range of straight-to-DVD films that it will sell exclusively under the deal’s initial terms. The first movie is understood to be an adaption of Jackie Collins’ book Paris Connections. Other authors apparently under discussion for a Tesco release include Judy Blume and Philip Pullman.

Tesco says its role will involve marketing and sales rather than the creative process, but this is an interesting idea. Will you be keen to watch Tesco book-DVDs?

1. United Breweries Group. The Indian conglomerate markets everything from Kingfisher beer to Scotch brand Black Dog and bought Whyte & Mackay back in 2007. Headed up by Vijay Mallya, it looks set to grow over the next few years beyond its current size as one of the world’s largest spirits businesses.

2. Build your Dreams. Originally established as a battery maker, its new automotive division is taking this Chinese brand to new heights. It is aiming to become one of the most well-known manufacturers of electric and hybrid cars in the world – there is ample opportunity in China.

3. MTN. The South African mobile phone brand has more than 40 million subscribers and with African mobile ownership set to rocket, it is well placed to grow significantly over the next decade.

4. Natura Cosmetics. Otherwise known as the South American “Avon”. This direct-to-consumer Brazilian beauty business has trebled its revenues since 2001. Using Brazil’s biodiversity as the base for many products, it combines environmentalism and fashion.

5. Virgin Galactic. The space venture from Richard Branson already has thousands of bookings and its philosophy of being a “clean-tech” project mean that it may throw up numerous other more efficient, greener innovations that can be used in multiple businesses.

6. Kapersky Lab. This Russian business makes products and technologies for more that 250 million computer users globally already. Its internet-security products are set to grow in demand as more people than ever before log onto the net.

7. Westover Clinics. This London-based concept for healthcare which blends “wellness”, fitness, nutrition, life coaching, dentistry and GP services could become huge if the concept takes off.

8. OnLive. This on-demand video service still faces some question marks over whether it will work but the brand insists its technology can help millions of gamers stream their games in real time over the internet with no need for consoles. If broadband can cope, this could be the future of gaming.

9. Climate Exchange. Aims to own, operate and develop exchanges to facilitate trading in environmental financial currencies, such as emissions reduction credits. With being green expected to be increasingly important over the next 10 years, this could be a very important business plan.

10. Plastic Logic. A spin-off from Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory, its principle product is an electronic display the thickness of a credit card, which will be used in eReaders later this yera. It is intended as a paper replacement, allowing for documents to be read easily on the flexible screens.

What do you think?

But what does this mean for the brands?

1. Debt. Kraft has a heavy debt, which will increase now so that it can execute the Cadbury takeover. It is certainly a worry for Cadbury how much debt will be passed on. After all, look at the case study of a fellow British icon that has passed into American ownership: Manchester United.

When football club Manchester United was bought by the Glazer family in 2005 in a £790m debt-financed takeover, the club took on some of the debt of its new owners. Statements from 2009 show that the club paid £41.9m in interest and without selling player Ronaldo for £80m, the club may well have made a loss. Its owners are seeking a bond issue to raise £500m to ensure the club meets its financial targets over the next few years. This is a very different situation from a few years ago, when the club regularly topped the richest football club in the world tables and appeared debt-free.

2. For Brits, Cadbury is more than a company; it’s a British icon. By passing into American corporate hands, Cadbury’s 186 year history as an independent business based on Quaker ethics – something which runs strong in the business even today – comes to a close. Now, rationally, that might not make much difference to your average shopper, but emotionally, it’s a blow for many Britons.

Brits are some of the world’s highest spenders on chocolate (sales were up 5.9% in the UK last year, compared to just 2.6% in the US) and the sweet brown stuff has a particular resonance with shoppers here. We are chocoholics. Kraft will have to tread very carefully so as not to threaten this. The business should take note of Unilever’s purchase of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. At the time, there was an outcry that the small brand had been swallowed up by a huge multinational, but consumer complaints seem to have largely fallen away – Unilever has always been careful to run the brand as a separate division (with its own location) and stayed relatively true to the brand’s quirky philosophy.

3. Potential overseas growth for Kraft. Cadbury has operations in emerging markets such as India and Latin America, where Kraft’s portfolio has yet to make an impact. For example, in Latin America’s Cadbury’s Trident gum has helped it to sales of around $500m, outpacing Kraft’s $350m. And in places like Thailand, Egypt and other Asian countries, Cadbury is the largest confectioner, with international markets making up around 38% of its global sales, compared with around 20% at Kraft. By combining its own operations with Cadbury’s presence in these markets, it gives Kraft the chance to be a truly global brand, rather than merely an American one with outposts in other markets.

The longer-term implications of the deal will take time to show. Well, unsurprisingly, the British are anxious about potential job losses. Kraft is known for its cost cutting and unions reckon as many as 30,000 workers could be at risk. And what of Cadbury’s move towards making its products fair trade? This is a very important step for the business and incredibly important to UK shoppers, but will it be meaningful to the new American bosses?

We can only hope that since many of Kraft’s own products has brands dating back to the 1700s, the firm will understand the importance of preserving Cadbury’s legacy (as well as its workforce and ethics). We shall have to see.

In the meantime, I’m going to spend some time working out just what some of the products in the Kraft portfolio actually are…….Miracle Whip? Dream Whip? Cool Whip? “Whipped non-dairy topping” – just what is this stuff? Anyone?