Equality Campaign to Run, Despite Lamar Outdoor

Magic Media, the nation’s eighth largest outdoor advertising company, will run the second phase of Georgia Equality’s “We are your neighbors” campaign on billboards in 34 South Georgia counties beginning in October, according to the Southern Voice. The first phase of the campaign - a series of billboards that showed gay teachers and firefighters, among others - ran in and around Atlanta earlier this summer.

But when Georgia Equality tried to extend the campaign to Southern Georgia, Lamar Outdoor Advertising turned down the business.

Amazon.com Introduces Sex & Sensuality

Amazon.com has made approximately 40,000 adult products searchable from the home page of its main site, in the Sex & Sensuality section of Amazon’s health and personal care section, according to MediaPost. These items were previously available to Amazon customers through a third-party site, drugstore.com. The move invites the question of brand perception: will consumers shrink from a site that offers such material?

Agencies Get Creative with Rich Media Vendors

Rich media technology vendors such as Viewpoint, PointRoll, EyeWonder, Klipmart, Eyeblaster and United Virtualities are transforming themselves into creative services firms as a result of the standardization of rich media formats and agencies’ eagerness to outsource the production of increasingly larger and more complex display campaigns for agencies and clients without the resources to do the work themselves, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox).

‘Lovely’ Launches First Online

In a twist on the traditional “TV first, then web” sequence of launching new commercials, cosmetics maker Coty Inc. has launched - online - an ad for its new perfume, Lovely, Reuters writes. Coty ran the commercial, starring actress Sarah Jessica Parker, on Vogue magazine’s Style.com, hoping to attract a more targeted, fashion-obsessed audience before reaching out to the broader TV market during the winter holiday season. The move personifies the growing respect the web is garnering as a marketing venue. “It speaks to how far we’ve come as a medium that it’s important enough to run it first on the internet,” said Elizabeth Stafford, head of marketing for CondeNet, the online division of Conde Nast (which runs Style.com).

Howard Stern Starting Sirius Early

The Howard Stern Channel on Sirius may launch as early as September 29, according to Bear Stearns (via Forbes.com) even though he isn’t actually slated to join the company until January 2006. Such a move would give his successor at Infinity Broadcasting time to build a ratings book that Infinity could use to sell advertising inventory for Q1 2006, the article says.

Full-Episode Sponsors Line Up for ‘Martha’

Full-episode sponsors of the upcoming reality show debuting September 21 - The Apprentice: Martha Stewart - are ponying up big money to be involved, and will include the Buick division of GM, Delta and Song Airlines, Random House, and Westin Hotels and Resorts, Adweek reports. Random House will sponsor the first show, in which the two teams are asked to rewrite a classic fairy tale - Jack and the Beanstalk, and Hansel and Gretel - with judges to include Random House executives and a class of first graders.

Yikes: Horror Film Campaign Calls ‘Victims’ on Phone

Click to enlarge

A viral marketing campaign to promote the release of The Ring 2 on DVD invites visitors to the DVD launch site, 7daysleft.com, to scare their friends, reports NetImperative. When visitors enter a friend’s email address and mobile phone number, the site sends an email to the friend, inviting them to click on a link and watch a video. As they watch the video, their mobile phone rings, and when they answer they hear a voice that whispers, “Seven days.”

Sam’s Takes On Office Supplies Giants

Sam’s Club has launched an office products catalog for members, DMNews reports.
The 580-page premiere issue was mailed recently to approximately 20 million members out of Sam’s Club total membership of more than 46 million.

Tacoda CEO: Publishers Must Confront Intractable Cookie Problem

The online advertising industry is faced with the growing problem of consumers’ perceiving cookies as spyware and so deleting them; since the problem is not going to go away by itself, and advertisers themselves are unlikely to take action, it’s up to publishers to solve the problem, writes Tacoda CEO Dave Morgan in MediaPost (via MarketingVox).

Gridiron Beer Battle Heats Up

Coors Brewing signed a $300 million, five-year deal in March 2002 to become the “official beer sponsor” of the NFL. However, under terms of that deal, the NFL has an option to seek a new beer partner after four seasons, Brandweek reports.