Entries from September 2010 ↓

Young & Rubicam is working with Goldman Sachs to improve the Wall Street firm’s reputation, as it begins to emerge from years of public scrutiny regarding it pay and business practices.

According to The New York Times, Goldman’s “Progress is Everyone’s Business,” campaign is running in national, regional and local newspapers and on various web sites, all of which lead readers to GoldmanSachs.com/Progress.

Here’s some copy from the microsite:

Progress is when a city raises the capital it needs to keep vital projects going. It’s when students and teachers get new classrooms, and local businesses find new ways to grow. Progress is investment in renewable energy that helps protect the environment. In today’s connected world, progress is everyone’s business. At Goldman Sachs, we help make progress happen.

Not everyone’s ready to buy this message, of course. AltTransport writes, “It’s never too late for redemption, especially where a little greenwashing is concerned.”

Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, also found little reason for the wind turbines in Goldman’s ad campaign. “It just looks like a lot of breast-beating, but doesn’t really get to the heart of: how has this company changed in a way that I can find them trustworthy?” she said.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed McCann head man Nick Brien in advance of Advertising Week. I like what he says about being open to change.

WSJ: What’s the biggest threat to the advertising marketing business today?

Mr. Brien: Ourselves. If we don’t continue to innovate our business models and become much more obsessed about training, developing and attracting talent, we will have an industry that is not equipped.

Our biggest competition is media companies like Meredith Corp., who are sharpening their marketing skills. Meredith beat us for some of the Chrysler business. [Meredith does direct marketing and social media tasks for Chrysler.] If you don’t recognize who your competition is, you will underestimate them.

It’ll be interesting to see just how far agencies are willing to go to remake themselves. To me, the obvious lesson from Meredith is that media and marketing are two sides of one coin, so if you’re in one, you’re also in the other.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Chevron is pursuing legal action against one of its small shareholders.

Antonia Juhasz, who runs the energy program at San Francisco-based advocacy group Global Exchange, used her 14 shares to attend the Chevron annual shareholders meeting and disrupt it. She was removed from the meeting and arrested outside after blasting Chevron’s environmental record and starting a derisive chant, according to people at the meeting.

The incident has led to the hobbling of one of the oil company’s most vocal critics. Ms. Juhasz said she now must limit what she says publicly about the company for fear of hindering her defense.