Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.ads,americast.usa-today.ads From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: ads Mon, Nov 9 1992 Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 04:44:15 EST Message-ID: 11-09 0000 DECISIONLINE: Advertising USA TODAY Update Nov. 9, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network APPLE ADS TARGET MICROSOFT: Comparative ads that name names - now standard in the nasty marketing battles between credit cards and long-distance phone companies - have come to computer software. Apple Computer's Macintosh, eager to beat back Microsoft's new Windows graphical interface software, skewers its competitor in TV ads claiming Windows is opaque. (For more, see special Computer package below.) TAB GETS REGIONAL CAMPAIGN: Tab, the faded star of diet soft drinks, is trying the comeback trail yet again. In four cities - Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio - Coca-Cola is running new ads for the soft drink, which commands a tiny but extremely loyal 0.1% share of the soft-drink market. Tab reached a peak market share of 4% in 1982 before being eclipsed by Diet Coke. ADS AIM AT DIETING WOMEN: Coca-Cola won't say whether its new regional advertising campaign for the diet drink Tab will go nationally. The new regional ads aim squarely at Tab's target, dieting women: A harried mom is trying to fix dinner and deal with shrieking children when her husband interrupts his phone conversation to ask her if she's lost weight. She merely smiles, but the soundtrack bursts out. BRITISH AIRWAYS GOES GLOBAL: British Airways new global advertising campaign uses the theme "It's the way we make you feel." The TV ads running in eight cities show smiling flight attendants and laughing kids, and they end with the Earth changing into a smiling face. The $34 million campaign is the airline's first to use the same theme both in advertising and marketing activities. CAMPAIGN SPRUCES UP BOOK ADS: Book advertising tends to follow a fairly bland formula: A photo of the book jacket surrounded by favorable blurbs, with perhaps a photo of the author. So Grove Press is running a full-page cartoon in book review supplements across the country, featuring its authors - Henry Miller, William Burroughs and its latest, Banana Yashimoto - and their fans, including writer Elmore Leonard. L.A. TIMES CUTS SAN DIEGO: Economic woes are forcing the Los Angeles Times to close its 14-year-old San Diego edition and cut jobs. The Times, the flagship newspaper of Times Mirror, is offering voluntary severance to 5,200 of its 7,500 full-time workers, hoping to cut 500 jobs. Times' publisher David Laventhol blamed Southern California's recession for declining advertising revenue. SNAPPLE RUNS APOLOGY: Snapple, whose hot-selling line of teas and soft drinks is indicative of a new trend sweeping the market, has had such trouble meeting demand that they've wound up running ads apologizing to customers. Alternative beverage marketers have driven Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. to toss in their attempts. Coca-Cola is now test-marketing its bottled water: Nordic Mist. HOLLYWOOD BARES ITS TEETH: Francis Ford Coppola's epic film, "Bram Stoker's Dracula," opens Friday, and it's backed by millions in merchandising. There are designer gowns ($1,000 to $4,000) and other expensive items available at Macy's in New York and Fred Hayman of Beverly Hills. Other items priced for the mass market - shirts, vests, capes, bustiers, costume jewelry - will be sold in department stores. DUDLEY MOORE COMES TO TV: Dudley Moore starts work in January on "Dudley," a new half-hour comedy for CBS. Twentieth Television, which is producing the show with CBS, said Friday that the show would air as a midseason replacement in March, but CBS wouldn't confirm. The sitcom will star Moore as a celebrated New York pianist who must raise his troubled teen-age son when his ex-wife realizes she can't hack it. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON COMPUTER: ADS PORTRAY CONFUSION: Apple Computer is featuring ads that take aim at Microsoft's Windows software. In one, Windows technical support staffers find their phones ringing off the hook with questions, while a Macintosh support staffer sits as quietly as the lonely Maytag repairman. In another, two hapless computer users read technical instructions aloud from the Windows manual. APPLE EMPHASIZES EASE OF USE: "Our long-established position has been around ease of use. We want to make sure we hold onto that position," says Michael Markman, Apple's advertising manager. Apple is also betting that a lot of businesses will soon be replacing PCs that run on Intel's 286 and 386 microprocessors with new ones that use Intel's most powerful 486 PC chips. WINDOWS MAY SLOW DOWN OLD PCS: Apple has found that Windows slows down older PCs. That's an opportunity for Apple to woo customers to its low-priced Macintosh, which comes equipped with its own graphical interface software, and put a dent into Microsoft's control of the PC software market. (End of package.) Advertising Editor: Martin Baucom. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM