Chief Marketer Staff

• Agencies

  Coors Shifts Focus Toward Multicultural Marketing

  Coors Brewing Co. is revamping it marketing strategy to target African-Americans and Hispanics in an effort to boost beer sales.

• Omnicom Launches Word of Mouth Shop

  Omnicom Group is now officially in the word-of-mouth business.

• Shareholders to Vote on Equifax Acquisition of TALX

  Equifax Inc.’s proposed acquisition of TALX Corp. will be decided on May 15 when the shareholders of TALX meet to vote yeah or nay on the proposal.

• Nickelodeon, Stride Right Team for Footwear Launch

  Nickelodeon and Stride Rite have teamed up in a marketing partnership under which the children’s shoemaker will sponsor an upcoming SpongeBob SquarePants marathon.

• Agencies

  Heinz Puts Kids’ Art on 200 Million Ketchup Packs

  H.J. Heinz Co. is giving 12 kids their 15 minutes of fame in school cafeterias this spring.

• News Brief

  BURGER KING: is testing a new drink, the Mocha BK Joe Iced Coffee, in an effort to gain market share from specialty coffee chains

• Short Cuts

  America Online has launched AOL Search Marketplace, a new search advertising service based on Google’s AdWords advertising technology, for targeting sponsored links to Web pages.

• Letters to the Editor

  Richard, Richard, Richard!

  How testy you are on a sunny April Monday morning! Perhaps it’s the fact that the thermometer hasn’t a clue that it’s spring — but you really were a little hard on our friends (yours and mine and several million others’) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Agencies

  Loose Cannon: The Met’s CRM Efforts Punk Out

  “I don’t understand it,” Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten said after record label EMI, outraged by the band’s behavior, voided its contract. “All we’re trying to do is destroy everything.”

  I don’t know about “everything,” but an incident involving the Sex Pistols and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I’m a member, shook my view of customer relationship management. Rotten the nihilist would be pleased.

• Mail Stream: A Report on Incoming Direct Mail

  The 36-page SimplySoles spring 2007 catalog is chock-full of leading-edge fashion footwear. The Center for Biological Diversity’s 6″ x 9″ package urges recipients to contact their senators in support of polar bear protection. The mailing also bears an ask ladder of $15/$25/$50/$100/other. And the latest catalog from Hanks Clothing provides basic apparel for everyday farm life.