Now, a moment for follow-up

8/13/09

Hi All!
I’m back and I thought I’d devote this week’s blog to follow-up on some of the issues discussed previously.

1. Magazines with ad page increases

Not surprisingly, given what I pointed out in the 7/16/09 post, some magazines posted advertising page gains in the first half of 2009.

Those on the winners list include: Fitness, Cooking with Paula Deen, OK!, Family Circle, Scholastic Parent & Child, Organic Gardening, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Country Weekly, and Muscle & Fitness.

It seems pretty obvious that most of these magazines are addressing current lifestyle trends – health concerns, more home cooking, and our obsession with our children. Meanwhile, OK! benefited from the fact that it is now being measured by MRI and Simmons, which means that established advertisers are now including it in their consideration set.

What I’d like to see now is the readership trends for these publications. I bet they’re up too.


2. This round goes to Powerade

As discussed in the 3/30/09 post, I believe that when companies engage in spitting matches, neither side wins.

Manhattan District judge John G. Koeltl has ruled that Gatorade failed to prove its case that Powerade’s advertising claims were false, and that it was guilty of trademark dilution. In addition to pointing out that all the claims were literally true, the ruling also stated that SVC (Gatorade’s parent company) “has not shown either a likelihood of irreparable injury or a likelihood of success on the merit.”

I’m still betting that both brands suffered by pointing out the chemical content of their products.


Roberts, J. (2009, August 10). Now Read This. newsweek.com. Retrived August 12, 2009 from
http://www.newsweek.com/id/211289

Hein, K. (2009, August 6). How Powerade Defeated Gatorade in Court. brandweek.com. Retrived August 12, 2009 from
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i43f8401a4817748c139d1d9d293d0b12?pn=2