If turkey is the national dish on Thanksgiving, on Super Bowl Sunday it's pizza, wings, seven-layer dip and beer.
Now Dannon plans to bring yogurt to the party. The company will?debut its?first ever ad during the game Feb. 5?featuring its?Oikos Greek yogurt brand.
The spot, featuring b-list actor John Stamos, comes at a time when popularity of Greek yogurt is soaring. Partially for that reason, the company felt comfortable spending ?in the $3.5 million range? for the 30-second spot, said , Dannon spokesman Michael Neuwirth.
?It?s not to change snacking habits during the Super Bowl obviously,? he said. ?But we?re in a category of food that continues to grow. It?s a long-term trend.?
And for exposure, ?there?s no better way to do that than the Super Bowl.?
The spot, which will debut online in the days before the Super Bowl XLVI, features a woman enjoying Oikos at her breakfast table. The ?alarmingly handsome? (Neuwirth?s words) Stamos enters the kitchen. She offers a bite to Stamos. Then he offers her a bite, but pulls it back at the last second to eat it himself. A few more teases later there is a battle between the two that ? well, Neuwirth said, you?ll have to watch the ad.
It has no dialogue.
Actor John Stamos and a young woman share, and then don't share, some nibbles of Oikos Greek yogurt in the company's first-ever Super Bowl ad.
?
A woman eating yogurt? For breakfast? John Stamos? Isn?t Dannon concerned that?s a bit feminine for the big game?
?The yogurt-buying public is broader than you think,? Neuwirth said. ?More than 80 percent of households have yogurt in the refrigerator at some point during the year.?
?The business environment is right for us. Especially with the sustained interest in Greek yogurt.?
Greek yogurt, which is thicker than ordinary yogurt, with more protein and less fat, now?accounts?for a quarter of U.S. yogurt sales, according to The Associated Press.?Neuwirth said the appetite among male customers is increasing.
In any case the?battle-of-the-sexes theme is a?tired-and-true Super Bowl tradition, as much a part of the game as?the pratfalls and talking animals that dominate ads during the big game.
?Anecdotally we?ve heard (the commercial) has a strong appeal to men, for in some cases the same attributes? as women, he said.
Each year, a few companies take the risky plunge and try advertising for the first time on the nation's biggest televised stage. With a reported cost that has risen this year to as much as?$4 million for 30 seconds plus production costs, it?s a bet that does not always pan out (ask Pets.com).
?We started our company in 1942, Neuwirth said. "We?re not a technology company that?(has)?an untested model. We understand there is a higher expectation of quality and creativity. But this ad is very different from our everyday ads.?
Dannon, based in White Plains, N.Y., is a unit of France's Danone.
Columbia Business School's Andreas Mueller awarded 2012 Arnbergska prizePublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sona Rai sr2763@columbia.edu 212-854-5955 Columbia Business School
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Professor Mueller with the prize for his research on the composition of the unemployed during recessions
New York, NY -- Columbia Business School is proud to announce that Andreas Mueller, Assistant Professor, Finance and Economics, was awarded the 2012 Arnbergska Prize by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the amount of 70,000 kronor. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen the science's influence in society.
The award recognizes Professor Mueller for his research on the compositional changes in the pool of unemployed workers in the United States from 1979-2008. The research presented evidence that in recessions, the pool of unemployed shifts towards high-wage workers, a finding that has not been documented previously. Professor Mueller showed that a possible explanation for these patterns is that firms face tighter borrowing constraints in recessions: they would like to keep their highly valued employees but cannot do so because these workers are too expensive relative to their current productivity.
Mueller's research spans a broad spectrum of issues in macroeconomics and labor economics. His focus is on unemployment and, more generally, the interaction between the business cycle and labor market. He has also done extensive research on the job search behavior of unemployed workers. He received a Ph.D. from the Institute of International Economic Studies (IIES) at Stockholm University.
The Arnbergska Prize was first awarded in 1903 to chief engineer Johan August Brinell for his work concerning the properties of iron and steel. The award is named in honor of Dr. Johan Wolter Arnberg, who was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884 and was a lifelong supporter of progressive artists, economists, and scientists. Today the award is bestowed annually to recognize achievements in technical, economical, and statistic sciences.
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About Columbia Business School
Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School seeks to provide a truly global business education that lasts and evolves over a lifetime, preparing students for strong leadership in any industry. The School's cutting-edge curriculum bridges pioneering academic theory with industry practice, imparting not only functional skills, but the entrepreneurial mindset required to recognize and capture opportunity in a competitive business environment. Beyond academic rigor and teaching excellence, the School offers programs that are designed to give students practical experience making decisions in real-world environments. The strength of its ideas, the breadth and accessibility of its alumni network, and the extent of its connections to New York City combine to make Columbia Business School one of the most innovative and dynamic business communities in the world. The School offers MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) degrees, as well as nondegree executive education programs. For more information, visit http://www.gsb.columbia.edu.
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Columbia Business School's Andreas Mueller awarded 2012 Arnbergska prizePublic release date: 26-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sona Rai sr2763@columbia.edu 212-854-5955 Columbia Business School
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Professor Mueller with the prize for his research on the composition of the unemployed during recessions
New York, NY -- Columbia Business School is proud to announce that Andreas Mueller, Assistant Professor, Finance and Economics, was awarded the 2012 Arnbergska Prize by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the amount of 70,000 kronor. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen the science's influence in society.
The award recognizes Professor Mueller for his research on the compositional changes in the pool of unemployed workers in the United States from 1979-2008. The research presented evidence that in recessions, the pool of unemployed shifts towards high-wage workers, a finding that has not been documented previously. Professor Mueller showed that a possible explanation for these patterns is that firms face tighter borrowing constraints in recessions: they would like to keep their highly valued employees but cannot do so because these workers are too expensive relative to their current productivity.
Mueller's research spans a broad spectrum of issues in macroeconomics and labor economics. His focus is on unemployment and, more generally, the interaction between the business cycle and labor market. He has also done extensive research on the job search behavior of unemployed workers. He received a Ph.D. from the Institute of International Economic Studies (IIES) at Stockholm University.
The Arnbergska Prize was first awarded in 1903 to chief engineer Johan August Brinell for his work concerning the properties of iron and steel. The award is named in honor of Dr. Johan Wolter Arnberg, who was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1884 and was a lifelong supporter of progressive artists, economists, and scientists. Today the award is bestowed annually to recognize achievements in technical, economical, and statistic sciences.
###
About Columbia Business School
Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School seeks to provide a truly global business education that lasts and evolves over a lifetime, preparing students for strong leadership in any industry. The School's cutting-edge curriculum bridges pioneering academic theory with industry practice, imparting not only functional skills, but the entrepreneurial mindset required to recognize and capture opportunity in a competitive business environment. Beyond academic rigor and teaching excellence, the School offers programs that are designed to give students practical experience making decisions in real-world environments. The strength of its ideas, the breadth and accessibility of its alumni network, and the extent of its connections to New York City combine to make Columbia Business School one of the most innovative and dynamic business communities in the world. The School offers MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) degrees, as well as nondegree executive education programs. For more information, visit http://www.gsb.columbia.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Standard & Poor's will likely downgrade Greece's ratings to "selective default" when the country concludes its debt restructuring, but that will not necessarily destroy the credibility of the European Union, an official with the ratings agency said on Tuesday.
"It's not a given that Greece's default would have a domino effect in the euro zone," John Chambers, the chairman of S&P's sovereign rating committee, said in an event organized by Blooomberg Link.
(Reporting By Walter Brandimarte, Daniel Bases and Steven C. Johnson)
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The Philadelphia Union are preparing to sell star striker Sebastien LeToux to a European club. Story coming on Fox Soccer. #WowIl y a environ 1 heurevia Twitter for BlackBerry?Retweeted by 81 people
DETROIT (AP) ? That clunker in America's driveway has reached a record old age, but there are signs that people may be growing confident enough in the economy to get a whiff of that fresh new car scent very soon.
The average age of a car or truck in the U.S. hit a record 10.8 years last year as job security and other economic worries kept many people from making big-ticket purchases such as a new car.
That's up from the old record of 10.6 years in 2010, and it and continues a trend that dates to 1995, when the average age of a car was 8.4 years, according to a study of state vehicle registration data by the Southfield, Mich.-based Polk automotive research firm.
However, Polk Vice President Mark Seng says that a rebound in sales last year and expected growth for the next couple of years is likely to slow the growth rate in the age of cars as a whole in America. Polk has not predicted if or when the age will start to drop, but Seng doesn't see that happening for at least two or three years, if not longer.
"It's going to take the good economy several years of very high sales again, and people being willing to let go of those older vehicles that they've been holding onto," Seng said.
Last year, auto sales rebounded a bit to 12.8 million vehicles, especially in November and December, when sales were unusually strong. In 2010, U.S. sales totaled 11.6 million after hitting a 30-year low of 10.4 million in 2009. Polk expects sales around 13.7 million this year, rising by about 1 million per year through 2015, when they reach about 16 million. That's back to around what industry analysts consider normal, and approaching the U.S. sales peak of 17 million in 2005.
But even a 1 million per year sales increase will have little impact on the average age because there are more than 240 million cars and trucks on the roads in the U.S., Seng says.
The aging of the American auto fleet has been a big boon for repair shops and companies that sell replacement auto parts, and Seng expects that to continue. He says people can hang onto their cars longer because automakers are making them far better than they did in 1995, the first year that Polk began tracking the average age.
Shares of major auto parts stores, such as AutoZone Inc., O'Reilly Automotive Inc. and Advance Auto Parts Inc., have easily outpaced the S&P 500 index since late 2007 when the recession began.
Polk also says the number of vehicles in the U.S. has been falling since 2008, but that trend reversed itself last year. In 2010, there were 240 million cars and trucks registered in the U.S. That grew slightly to 240.5 million last year, the company said.
The aging vehicle trend and relatively slow sales have kept auto companies and parts makers from hiring new workers in great numbers, and that helps to hold unemployment at relatively high levels. Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent ? still high, but the lowest level in three years.
But that started to change last year as sales started to rebound. Last January, Ford said it would hire 7,000 workers over the next two years. During the summer, GM said it would add 2,500 at the Detroit factory that makes the Chevrolet Volt electric car. Volkswagen hired 2,000 for a new plant in Tennessee, and Honda added 1,000 in Indiana. Just last week Chrysler announced plans to add 1,250 jobs at two Detroit factories next year, mainly to build a diesel version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The industry will add 167,000 jobs by 2015, a 28 percent increase over current levels, predicts The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Government estimates show Americans spent roughly $40 billion more on new cars and trucks in 2011 than in 2009. Based on annualized figures from the first quarter of 2011, new-car spending totaled $206 billion, or 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product, Commerce Department data shows. That compares with $166 billion in 2009, about 1.2 percent of the country's economy.
Polk said the average age of a car in the U.S. last year was 11.1 years, while the average truck was 10.4 years old.
In 2010, the average age of a car was 11 and the average truck was 10.1 years old.
A-ha! The puzzle has been solved. The National Enquirer has discovered he identity of Khloe Kardashian's father, and the answer is a killer:
O.J. Simpson!
Following the ridiculous, unproven rumor that Khloe is the product of an affair between Kris Jenner and a mystery man, this tabloid has now published an equally ridiculous and unproven rumor: that the former Buffalo Bills running back and likely murderer was that man.
Scandalous! Khloe looks JUST like O.J.'s daughter, Sydney!!!
The cover story should actually come as good news to the family. It's given Kim Kardashian a chance to prove she's not a robot, as she actually made us laugh with the following Tweet in response to this report:
The Golden Globe Awards honor the best in film and TV.
Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have made contributions to neither, unless you count the latter's train wreck marriage drama unfolding on E!
It actually is scripted, so many we should. In any case, all three celebrity gossip staples were on hand for a GG after-party Sunday night, for whatever reason.
There are no winners at life among this crew, but someone must emerge victorious in THG's latest Fashion Face-Off. Vote for your favorite style star below!
(AP)? LOS ANGELES ? Gusty, dry winds have moved into Southern California, increasing the potential for wildfires.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department says it has up to 300 additional employees on standby as the winds bring low humidity and high temperatures ? conditions ripe for fast-moving brush fires.
Fire crews are enforcing parking bans on some narrow hillside roads in fire-prone neighborhoods. Cars in the way of fire engines can be ticketed or towed away.
The National Weather Service says the offshore winds, which began late Saturday, will continue through late Sunday afternoon, when "red flag" warning for fire danger are set to expire.
The weather service reports gusts exceeding 70 mph in some mountain areas.
The California Highway Patrol says several trucks were blown over on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County.
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Public release date: 26-Jan-2012
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