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• Cut Kiefer Sutherland's Ford ads, Canada group says

  TORONTO (Reuters) - Kiefer Sutherland, star of the hittelevision series "24," should be cut from Canadian TV adspromotin

  g Ford vehicles after his second drunk drivingconviction, an advocacy group said on Friday

  Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada is demandingFord Motor Co of Canada pull ads in which Sutherland does thevoice-over.

  "Ford Motor Company has a wonderful opportunity to send Mr.Sutherland a fairly strong message," Andrew Murie, chiefexecutive of MADD Canada, told Reuters in an interview.

  "There should never be an excuse, when you can afford yourown driver or your own limousine, to ever get into thissituation. It astounds me that Mr. Sutherland would ever puthimself in this position."

  Sutherland, a Canadian and the son of actor DonaldSutherland, has been in a California prison since Wednesday,sentenced to 48 days in jail for drunk driving.

  He was arrested in September, when he was still onprobation for a 2004 drunk driving offense. He pleaded nocontest in October.

  Ford of Canada has not pulled the Sutherland ads. In astatement e-mailed to Reuters on Friday, it called drunkdriving a "very serious offense."

  "While Ford of Canada currently has a contract with KieferSutherland as the voice for some TV commercials, we areevaluating that position," Ford said in the statement.

  "Kiefer Sutherland is serving the sentence for his crimeand we are glad it appears that he will attend educationprograms and receive therapy," the company said.

  Sutherland is serving two sentences consecutively toprevent a conflict with production of the Fox Network show,which is on hold because of the screenwriters' strike.

  He won an Emmy Award last year for his role asterrorist-fighting agent Jack Bauer on "24," which averaged13.5 million viewers an episode in the United States lastseason. Fox is a unit of News Corp.

  (Reporting by Natalie Armstrong; Editing by Peter Galloway)

  ...(more) - 12 11 2007 2:56PM

• Marketing VP at Ford to Depart

  
  DETROIT Francisco Codina, group vp, North American marketing, sales and service at Ford Motor Co., will retire effective Nov.

  1 after 30 years with the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, the company said.

  Codina, 55, was appointed to his current position in February 2006, two months prior to the launch of Ford's "Bold Moves" ad push, which has included an online documentary on changes at Ford, "challenge" ads in which the Ford Fusion was successfully pitted in a driving contest against more popular sedans from Toyota and Honda, and a podcast series to promote the Edge crossover.

  During that stretch, Codina has been out front in promoting the company's dedication to "Bold Moves" and keeping Ford's marketing aggressive.

  Codina is credited with establishing Ford's brand marketing in Argentina and Mexico, where he served from 1994-97. Ford's U.S. sales dropped 8 percent last year, and sales through August are down 14.2 percent, per Autodata, Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

  Ford is seeking to replace Codina immediately and will field candidates from both inside and outside the company, a representative said.

  Ford spent $1.77 billion last year in U.S. major measured media, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Ad spending through the first half of 2007 was close to $900 million.

  The bulk of Ford's business is handled by WPP shops JWT, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather under the banner of WPP's Team Detroit in Dearborn. Other Ford roster shops include Havas' Euro RSCG (Jaguar), independent Doner (Mazda) and Havas' Arnold and independent Nitro (Volvo).

  -- By Steve Miller

  
  

  • Read more at Adweek.com
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  ...(more) - 09 26 2007 10:16PM

• MySpaceTV unveils first original drama

  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - MySpaceTV, the video wing of theonline community network, late on Sunday unveiled its firstoriginal Web se

  ries to give its users a television-likeexperience with the interactive benefits of the Internet.

  "Roommates" will track the lives of four women in their 20swho have recently graduated from college and are livingtogether in Los Angeles.

  The Web show debuts on Monday, October 22, and runs throughDecember 21 for a total of 45 episodes. A new, three-minutesegment will play each day, Monday through Friday at 4 p.m.EDT. Fans are expected to engage characters online andinfluence the plot.

  "There is an opportunity to interact with a show indifferent ways than have been done before," said Jeff Berman,general manager of MySpaceTV.

  "Roommates" will utilize a real-time "polling tool" inwhich viewers' opinions on characters and plot developmentswill be sought. Fans can chat online, as well as post commentson the characters' individual Web profiles. The informationwill be scrutinized and the plot changed, accordingly.

  Berman said MySpaceTV and the show's producers, Iron SinkMedia, had enough episodes to get the program started, andfuture segments would be taped as it progressed.

  "This was an opportunity for us to take some of the lessonsfrom online series to date and apply them in a show where weare directing the creative development and working with anestablished Internet producer," Berman said.

  Iron Sink has produced several Los Angeles-based Webseries, including "WeHoGirls" and "VanNuysGuys."

  With the success of video-sharing sites like YouTube, theWeb is seen as an emerging medium where advertisers can findviewers who previously might have been drawn to TV.

  Web shows like "LonelyGirl15" and "Prom Queen" have builtloyal followings among teenagers and young adults.

  MySpace is owned by media giant News Corp, which alsooperates the Fox TV network, and most U.S. TV networks arerapidly ramping up production of short "Webisodes" to recaptureviewers they may be losing to the Web.

  "Roommates" will be sponsored by Ford Motor Co's 2008 Focusautomobile. The car will appear in episodes and ads will be onthe show site.

  Berman declined to comment on the show's production cost orrevenue MySpaceTV will receive from Ford.

  ...(more) - 10 22 2007 2:42PM