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Reports on the status of McDonald's as of November 2004. Increase in worldwide sales; Success of its marketing strategies; Remarks from former company chairman and CEO Charlie Bell on the status of the company.

Reports on the poor performance of the stocks of pizza chain Domino's in the New York Stock Exchange on July 13, 2004. Factors the influenced the poor performance; Products of Domino's; Sales performance of Domino's in 2002 and 2003.

The article focuses on the advertising business in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago is still the largest second city in the U.S. in terms of advertising billings but consolidation and competition are taking toll on agencies. Chicago-based advertising firms are losing clients to large agencies in New York and independent agencies across the country.

Presents a roundtable discussion with management personnel at large, traditional companies in the United States concerning the effect of the Internet on their respective companies. Companies which include Sears, Roebuck and Co., MasterCard International, McDonald's International, and Procter & Gamble Co.; Need for mass media in advertising until the Internet is able to contact small niche groups; Interactive advertising.

The article reports that marketing executives of McDonald's have convened to plan against attacks against from Eric Schlosser's film Fast Food Nation and book Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food. Add to this, are lawsuits alleging food companies have damaged people's health, legislators calling for a ban on food marketing to children, and a number of critics insisting fast food be pulled from all hospitals and schools. INSET: 'Fast Food Nation,' the kid's meal.

Focuses on cross-media deals at AOL Time Warner. Findings of a study conducted by Advertising Age on the cross-media deals completed by AOL Time Warner; Benefit that can be gained by marketers and agencies from cross-media deals; Analysis on a number of deals completed by the company.

The article reports that Publicis Groupe became the fourth ranked advertising agency after it acquired Boom3 Group. For marketers, the acquisition gives the advertising agency field a fourth contender where previously there were only three giant holding companies. It is Boom3's strategic alliance with Dentsu, Japan's largest and most powerful agency, that offers the expanded Publicis the global bargaining clout to take on the three biggest rivals.

This article reports on the arrest of several suspects by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in a swindle that was allegedly masterminded by an employee of Simon Marketing. McDonald's, which had been working quietly with the Bureau, immediately fired Simon Marketing, pulling a $500 million-a-year account and putting the future of Simon in jeopardy. Such is the power of the world's largest fast-food chain. It appeared that the Bureau controlled the sting breaking the crime ring that stole winning game cards for McDonald's Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Monopoly games. The Bureau said the swindle was masterminded by an employee of McDonald's long-time promotion shop, Simon Marketing. Attorneys already have filed one consumer class-action lawsuit. McDonald's insular nature ultimately may have led to the relative ease in which Simon security employee Jerry Jacobsen was purportedly able to pull off the scam for so long. The company has a reputation for aligning with companies, most privately held, that have complementary interests and are willing to serve the fast-food chain on a nearly exclusively basis. McDonald's would not discuss how it plans to reassign existing Simon Marketing projects.

This article reports that Procter and Gamble Co. and Unilever eliminated commissions paid to U.S. advertising agencies, and replaced them with incentives or fees. The 15 percent commission is a standard that is out of step with integrated marketing issues. The recession is increasing attention on agency compensation.

The article reports on the purchase of True North Communications by the Interpublic Group of Cos. for $2.1 billion. However, questions remain on how True North will be integrated, how to get Wall Street's approval of the deal, and how the partners will handle the conflicts. INSETS: How it came together;The question: Who will be next?, by Mercedes M. Cardona;Strength in siblings, by Richard Linnett and Wayne Friedman.

The article focuses on television commercial director Henry Corra's clout on Gateway Inc.'s $250 million advertising business. Corra has upset the efforts of D'Arcy Masius Benton and Bowles, McCann-Erickson Worldwide and Fallon to win the Gateway account. Corra claims his relationship with Gateway founder and CEO was accidental.

The article focuses on Pepsi-Cola Co. North America's $55 million advertising campaign for its latest product, Diet Pepsi Max. The beverage is a cross between a diet soda and an energy drink. The company's aim is to successfully market the product to men, a feat no diet soft drink has ever accomplished. The drink's marketing budget is triple what Pepsi usually spends to introduce a product. New soft drinks have had difficulty earning market share in the past decade.

The article reports on the decision of the McDonald's Corp to enlist a group of mothers to act as quality correspondents and citizen consumer reporters who will spread positive messages about the company and its products. The mothers will be invited to visit farms where the company's ingredients are grown, and visit behind the scenes at restaurants to monitor cleanliness and quality.

The article reports that fast food chain Wendy's International Inc. (Wendy's) announced it would evaluate all options to raise a shareholder value, including a sale. Wendy's will show an advertising campaign to franchises by early June 2007 in hopes of releasing some pressure caused by increased competition from other fast food chains. The article offers a discussion of what the Wendy's ad campaign may include as well as the chain's current business plans.

This article reports that the restaurant chain Chili's has fired its longtime agency, Omnicom Groups GSD&M following the worst same-store sales in history. The $125 million dollar account was lost soon after the company lost a portion of its $580 million Wal-Mart account. Further GSD&M has lost duties for Pepsi-Co to sibling Element 79. The author believes that Chili's woes can be partially blamed on a lack of promotion.

This article reports on the issue of obesity and how it is affecting the food industry. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued compulsory requests for information from 44 food, beverage and fast-food restaurant chains to look at their kid-marketing practices. Many companies are worried that they are scapegoats for a national trend. Senator Sam Brownback admits that changing advertising will not stop obesity, but he suggests it is one step in the process.

The article reports on the plans of Pepsi-Cola North America to introduce a red, limited edition version of its highly caffeinated Mountain Dew soft drink that will carry the name of the "Halo3" video game which is played on Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console. The soft drink is being marketed as the first soft drink created for and co-branded with a video game.

The article reports on talks which have begun between McDonald's Corp. and National Basketball Association stars LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. The talks have been put into place in an effort to get the basketball players to star in a remake of McDonald's successful "Nothin But Net" commercials which began airing in 1993 and ended in 1994.

The article reports on coffee infused with herbs including ginseng and yerba. The convenience store chain 7-Eleven markets its Fusion Coffee as an energy drink. The chain is collaborating with newspaper company USA Today to promote the product. The nutritional value of the coffee is examined. Products manufactured by the Coca Cola Company are also discussed.

The article reports on former Beatle Paul McCartney's deal to have his album set for 2007 release produced and distributed through the entertainment division of Starbucks. The deal is said to typify the search for a new business model in the music industry. The decline of radio, record stores, and overall CD sales are noted. McCartney's live tour sales are compared to his recent disappointing album sales. Other well known artists with nontraditional marketing deals are given. INSET: Genius loves company.

The article states that the fast food restaurant McDonald's is offering customers the opportunity to choose between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola drinks at several of its restaurants. The possibility of this initiative benefiting Pepsi and having negative effectives for Coca-Cola is discussed. Pepsi products are offered in bottles and cans at participating restaurants while Coca-Cola products remain in the drink fountains.

The article focuses on several ways in which the Starbucks coffee chain has lost its brand experience, including using flavor-locked packaging that killed the fresh-ground-coffee aroma in their stores, adding prepackaged foods and day-old pastries, and installing automatic espresso machines that destroyed in-store ambience. Comments from several authors, including Joseph Mitchell, Seth Godin, and Mark Gobe, are presented discussing how Starbuck's should proceed attempting to reclaim its authentic image.

The article discusses a video of dozens of rats in a New York City Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell restaurant that has been leaked on the Internet. The video is an illustration of the impact that the Internet has on corporate public relations, which makes it so that any company crisis is instantly made globally available. INSET: Work the web.

The article reports that Coca Cola executives are making a conscious choice to replace the term "carbonated" with "sparkling" when speaking of their products. The article reports that beverage manufacturers are moving away from the term carbonated because the term makes people think of high-calories. Industry insiders claim the sparkling designation encompasses more of the products that beverage manufacturers are offering, including high-energy drinks.

The article discusses McDonald's global brand strategy study and its shifting of U.S. marketing duties for its $100 million breakfast account. The company reported record-high revenue and they doubled profits for 2006. McDonald's reassigned its U.S. national breakfast business to two of its largest field-marketing agencies: Havas' Arnold Worldwide in Boston, Massachusetts and Moroch Partners in Dallas, Texas.

The article discusses how Saatchi & Saatchi's and Kevin Roberts' Lovemark branding have taken over the advertising account of the fast food company Wendy's. Wendy's move to Lovemark may have been prompted by board pressure to improve sales to the levels of rival brands such as McDonald's, which continues to post impressive gains over tough prior-year comparisons. The decision ended Wendy's 26-year partnership with Gary Steele, executive vice president of McCann Worldgroup.

The article looks at Burger King's adver-games, which are video games co-produced with Microsoft's Xbox division that feature the company's characters such as it ubiquitous King and Whopper Jr. According to Mike Vorhaus, managing director of Frank N. Magid Associates, Burger King is getting a highly engaged advertising vehicle in the hands of hard-to-reach gamers.

This article discusses a fraudulent internet scam known as phishing. According to the authors, companies send false promotions using recognizable product logos like Coca-Cola or McDonalds merely to acquire personal financial information. E-Bay and PayPal have reportedly developed strategies to discourage phishing.

The article discusses McDonalds Corp.'s decision to not change the type of oil it uses for frying, despite mounting pressure from rivals such as Wendy's and KFC, which have cut trans fats from their menus and Burger King, which will start testing new oil within 90 days. Despite the health advantages of oils which contain no trans fats, the company feels that they would effect the taste of their french fries negatively. INSET: The skinny on trans fats.

The article profiles Brad Ball, the former McDonald's senior VP-chief marketing. Ball has joined Moroch Partners, one of the McDonald's advertising agencies, as senior partner to open a Los Angeles office. Ball will lead Moroch's expansion in digital and emerging media and branded entertainment using his most recent experience as principal and owner of Ball Entertainment Group.

The article reports that Pepsi Corporation is planning to unveil a huge advertising campaign themed "Feel the Pepsi." The campaign, which is budgeted for $50 million and being managed by Omnicom Group's BBDO, will attempt to recapture the spirit of Pepsi's iconic 70s ads. It is excepted that at least one of the commercials will be shown during the Super Bowl. INSET: Mountain Dew-over.

The article reports that McDonald's USA is searching for a successor to chief marketing officer Bill Lamar who is considering leaving his position in 2007. He Lamar helped fuel a turnaround at the company's domestic units, to more than 40 months of same-store-sales gains from the negative. Since being named to his post in August 2002, Lamar oversaw the launch of Dollar Menu and premium products from McGriddle breakfast sandwiches to gourmet salads and coffee, and introduced digital marketing. INSET: Behind the scenes of Mike Roberts' departure.

The article reports that global beverage giants Coca-Cola Co. and Nestle are targeting two new foodservice concepts credited with creating superpremium brews that can be served up by ordinary coffee-counter jockeys rather than highly trained drink masters. Nestle is developing a gourmet-coffee system that allows upscale foodservice customers to mix concentrate with water to create a variety of drinks. The companies are hoping to beat Starbucks at its own game as specialty brewed drinks grow at a 6% to 7% annually.

The article considers the decision of Wendy's to compete against other fast food restaurant serving breakfast meals. Wendy's only reluctantly waking up to a market test of breakfast because of the failure suffered by the company after a five-year test, followed by an advertising campaign to launch a menu for the eggs-and-coffee crowd.

The article deals with the growing size and sales of hamburgers in the U.S. in 2006. Orders of brawny burgers, especially cheeseburgers, have grown four percent in the 12 months ended in February while regular burgers grew just one percent, according to NPD Group. The secret is that these buzz-inducing products ooze as much machismo as they do fat. It helps that dieting is at its all-time low. Denny Marie Post of Burger King was quick to point out that the burgers are more about simplicity than size.

The article reports on the beverages offered by Ardea Beverage Co. as of May 2006. The Airforce Nutrisoda line combines exotic flavors, vitamins, minerals and amino acids in slim 8.4-ounce cans. Ardea has adopted the nightclub strategy from the same trend bank as energy drinks, mixing its health-boosting beverages into margaritas and martinis. According to Joe Heron, founder and president of Ardea, they do not sell the cocktails as health drinks.

The article deals with the corporate espionage issue in the U.S. While there have been stories over the years of organized criminals who have infiltrated companies, the bigger threat lies within company ranks. U.S. companies lost up to $59 billion in proprietary information and intellectual property according to a 2002 survey by the American Society for Industrial Security International and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Examines the prospects facing the carbonated soft drinks industry in the future. Morgan Stanley predicts soda volume will fall 1.5% annually for the foreseeable future despite a spate of brand makeovers by the nation's biggest soft-drink marketers. Today, five of the top 10 liquid-refreshment brands--Gatorade, Minute Maid, Tropicana, Aquafina and Dasani--are noncarbonated. That explains why U.S. carbonated-soda volume declined for the first time by 0.2% in 2005, according to Beverage Digest.

The article reports on a survey from Spencer Stuart which revealed that the brief average tenure of chief managing officer (CMO) in the U.S. has decline from 23.6 months in 2004 to 23.5 months in 2005 and 23.3 months for 2006. According to Jeff Bell, corporate VP of global marketing of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, the shorter tenure is in part a reflection of the change from failing traditional-marketing approaches to less-defined and more dynamic approaches.

The article discusses whether American Idol marketers in the U.S. could possibly get good value at prices as much as $25 million, as of May 2006. Negotiations with existing sponsors are already under way, and Fremantle Media North America, which sells the sponsorships with Fox, is talking to fast-food, electronics and health and beauty marketers with a view to adding another partner.

The article reports an update on the dispute between author Eric Schlosser and McDonald's as of May 2006. McDonald's Corp. public relations officer Bridget Coffing want to rebut the facts laid out by Schlosser in his book "Fast Food Nation." According to Coffing, Schlosser did not provide an accurate portrayal of McDonald's. But McDonald's continues to deny a report citing a document sent to franchisees that McDonald's would use a truth squad to discredit the message and the messenger. INSET: Who's after Schlosser?.

The article reports on a survey which revealed that chief executive officers (CEOs) in the U.S. finally say that chief marketing officers (CMOs) deserve a seat at the executive-management table. Survey results from 278 marketing, sales and management executives to be released at the fourth annual Spencer Stuart CMO Summit in Chicago, Illinois indicate that while CMOs have made strides in gaining respect within the upper echelons of management, CEOs are not filtering that support down the ranks.

The article reports on the stay-calm advertising campaigns launched by major marketers in the U.S. to stave off a panic endemic over the prospect of avian flu in the country in 2006. Producers and fast feeders McDonald's, El Pollo Loco, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, Subway and KFC, are waging a massive marketing-communications program singly and through trade associations to reassure consumers that eating chicken is safe.

Reports on the reaction of the Burger King Corp. franchisee owners to the Manthem commercial spot created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky for the food chain. Concept behind the advertising spot; Percentage of increase in the store sales of operator and owner Mahendra Nath; Information on the living workshop included at the annual convention of Burger King in Orlando, Florida. INSET: Who are these Super Fans?.

Reports that fast-food chains in the U.S. are offering meals for hours between dinner and breakfast. Comments from Bob Golden, executive VP at consultant Technomic; Action taken by McDonald's to cater to its late-night customers; Change made by Taco Bell on its late-night offering. INSET: Next in line?.

Reports on the effort of Subway Restaurants to wrest control of its $400 million advertising fund away from its owner-operators. Reason for the decision of Subway; Information on the contract of Subway with its franchisers; System sales of Subway in 2005.

The article discusses the impact of the inventory reduction of Wal-Mart on manufacturers and marketers. The reason behind the decision of Wal-Mart to reduce its inventory is discussed. Companies affected by the inventory reduction include Procter & Gamble and Spectrum Brands. The decision of Wal-Mart to reduce its inventory will have a significant impact on the company.

The article reports that Burger King will partner with Microsoft's Xbox to create video games built around the mascot of the restaurant chain. An overview of the game is provided. The games will retail through Burger King's restaurants during a five-week December promotion. Burger King expects to sell nearly 7 million games.

The article reports on the formation of an independent organization in 2006 by a group of powerful Wendy's franchisees, who are fed up with more than a year of sales declines and what it sees as a lack of voice in marketing, to get the management's attention. We deserve to be heard, said Dave Norman, chief financial officer and general council for DavCo, Wendy's largest franchisee and spokesman for the new association. Same-store sales at franchisee-owned stores fell at Wendy's, with U.S. franchise sales down 3.1% for all of last year.

The article reports on Starbucks' deal with Lions Gate Films to co-produce Akeelah and the Bee and share in the film's profits. The move could rewrite the way marketing partnerships are formed in Hollywood. In this case Starbucks did not help finance the film, co-produced with Lions Gate and the Mark Cuban/Todd Wagner-owned 2929 Entertainment, but will share in all its profit streams, from box office to DVD, soundtrack and merchandise.