Sometimes an ad gets just a little too truthful for its own good. By the time this 1972 full-pager for Benson & Hedges 100’s ran in Life magazine, smoking was widely understood to be associated with a range of serious diseases. So, sure, let’s equate using our product to jumping out of a plane. Bought by Philip Morris in 1958, Benson & Hedges is a British brand and still a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Philip Morris International. This ad was part of a larger “favorite cigarette break” campaign that leaned into the fact that Benson & Hedges offered longer cigarettes at the same price point, so people kept accidentally snapping the suckers in two. “Nobody had ever mutilated a cigarette before in American advertising—cigarettes, like automobiles, had always been treated with reverent respect by their manufacturers,” Mad Woman Mary Wells Lawrence wrote in her 2002 memoir “A Big Life (In Advertising).” “Anything anti-establishment seemed smart in the mid-’60s, so our advertising made Benson & Hedges wildly hip and cool and the cigarette to be seen with.” (Lawrence, the first female CEO listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is still alive at 91. Must not have been a smoker.) But the times? They are a-changin’. Benson & Hedges parent PMI was in the news last week as merger talks between it and Altria Group, another American purveyor of cancer, broke down. Altria itself holds a minority stake in Juul Labs, the embattled e-cigarette maker... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-30 09:00:00 UTC ]
In recent months, the double-digit sales growth of ebooks in English has begun to plateau, but since the Spanish-language book market tends to be around three to five years behind the English-language market, ebook sales of Spanish books in the U.S. are just beginning to gain traction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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21st Century Fox on Friday announced it would take a controlling stake in YES Network, upping its of Yankees Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network, raising its ownership position in the RSN to 80 percent. The media conglomerate originally assumed a 49 percent stake in YES in November 2012,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2014-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At PW, we’ve always served the library community, but you’ve probably noticed that in recent months we’ve ramped up our commitment to covering library news and issues, with a lineup of monthly columnists writing on a broad range of issues affecting libraries and publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook has sent unprecedented levels of traffic to publishers across the internet in recent months, a dramatic and unexpected increase affecting a large range of sites serving a wide variety of content. According to data from the BuzzFeed Networ ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A cautious approach to HMV by publishers in recent months has meant many did not feel over-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is in early talks about merging with Simon & Schuster, according to reports in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rupert Murdoch's US media giant News Corp is expanding its presence in the Middle East media market and beyond by agreeing to acquire a minority stake in Dubai-based media company Moby Group. Under the deal, News Corp will relinquish its 50 per ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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NewPage Paper and Verso--the largest makers of coated paper and the subject of merger rumors last year--are b Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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