With the party conference season under way and a General Election on the horizon, there are concerns that UK laws as they stand cannot police the new digital arena that the campaign will be fought in, .
Since 1983, all election candidates have been required by law to provide an imprint on unsolicited campaign direct mail and leaflets to alert voters to who it comes from.
But in the wake of the US presidential election, UK parties will seek to use text messages, social networking sites, campaign videos and internet advertising.
The Electoral Commission says it is "good practice" to include imprint details on campaign websites. But candidates are not required to do so.
And the idea that tightly-worded campaign text messages or tweets should carry an imprint from its sender "seems implausible".
BBC.co.uk, 18 September 2009
Sir Martin Sorrell's very candid Wall Street Journal interview
In a candid interview , WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell admits he misread the economic tea leaves. "We were too optimistic," he tells the WSJ. WPP saw its profit for the first half of 2009 plunge by almost 50%.
Other nuggets from the interview:
- Google is a much friendlier "frenemy" than they were six to nine months ago, Sir Martin said. "We are still their biggest purchaser of search ads."
- "We invest about $9 billion in people ...You can't bring the average headcount rate down in line with revenues that are falling at the rate they are falling at the moment; it's just too painful and demotivational. The number of people in the company was down by about 7% by the end of July, compared with Dec. 31, 2008. It continues to fall at a rate of about 1,000 a month."
- Companies are spending 13% of their marketing budgets on digital but this "should be up at 20%. It's just natural conservatism, resistance to change and inability to adapt to change. I believe when digital budgets get to 20%, which will be in four or five years, we will be spending 30% of our time online.
Wall Street Journal, 22 September 2009
Coca-Cola's green marketing credentials ‘fall flat'Coca-Cola's new ad campaign urging recycling shows that sustainability is back on the marketing and advertising agenda,. But Coke's Keep It Going - Recycle looks like an ad "a local council could have knocked up" and "belongs in the insincere category," Barrett says.
The Guardian, 21 September 2009
The 20 weirdest ads on Craigslist of all time
presented a selection of some of the most bizarre adverts on the Craigslist classified ad site. At number 7...Middleaged woman seeks person to rent her bathroom: "I am a female in my mid 60's and I am looking for a room mate. Times are tight and I need some extra money. I am willing to rent out my bathroom in my 1 bedroom east village home."
Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2009
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