In pressure cooker,

GRIFFIN BREAKS SILENCE ON

marketers lay the

TIME INC., WHAT LIES AHEAD
blame on advertising

Seven months since his ouster, publishing exec talks about getting
off the ‘main line’and what he feels he accomplished at the TW unit

■ BY RANCE CRAIN rcrain@adage.com

Shops end up in cross hairs as GM, Gap, break
unwritten rule not to publicly critique the work

■ BY RUPAL PAREKH rparek@adage.com

IF A THERMOMETER was placed on marketing departments right about now, the mercury would be rising faster than you can say ROI.

There are higher expectations and stepped-up accountability for chief marketers— and anyone else up and down the chain who has a hand in directing a company’s advertising efforts. The heavier burdens mean companies are more vocal about their failures on the ad front, oftentimes publicly laying blame at agencies’ doorsteps.

Last month, Gap Inc. CEO Glenn
Murphy bluntly told analysts on an
earnings call that he was “disappointed”
with marketing efforts for the compa-
ny’s largest brand, Old Navy. Around
the same time, adland was agape over
General Motors’ Global CMO Joel
Ewanick doling out grades for his high-
ly-regarded agencies, Goodby,
Silverstein & Partners and Fallon, to the
press. And when Groupon’s
Tibetan plight-themed Super
Bowl spots were deemed taste-
less, CEO Andrew Mason
vented to Bloomberg
Business Week about its work
with CP&B, saying he placed
too much trust in the agency.
“We learned that you can’t
rely on anyone else to control
and maintain your own
brand,” he said.

It’s an about turn from a time when companies were reluctant to talk about ad partners at all, let alone criticize them publicly.

And it begs the question: Isn’t this a partnership? Where does blame for bad

See MARKETERS on Page 22

MURPHY:

Gap Inc. CEO was blunt about ads.

JACK GRIFFIN IS OUT TO prove there’s life after Time Inc.

Fired seven months ago as CEO of the Time-Warner unit, he has established Empirical Strategic Advisors, a consultancy for media and related technology companies and investors.

And it wouldn’t have happened if the Time experience hadn’t forced him to get off the “main line,” he said last week in an interview at the Harvard Club in Boston—his first in-depth chat with the media since his dismissal. Mr. Griffin has a major client and an office in Boston in addition to his New York office on Park Avenue South. He was upbeat and relaxed, and at the same time his comments were very precise, as if he had been thinking about what he wanted to say for a long time.

“Absent any hyperbole, this has turned out to be the most extraordinary experience of my life,” he said. “I

See GRIFFIN on Page 20

The economy’s latest casualty: America’s baby bottoms
Whether due to penny-pinching or parent laziness,infants are getting short-changed

■ BY JACK NEFF jneff@adage.com

BABY BOTTOMS IN the U.S. look to be in worse shape than ever, and the economy—or inattentive parents—may be to blame.

Sales of diaper-rash cream are up, rising for the third straight year on a unit basis, even though the number of babies has kept declining over that period. Data suggest that babies are getting diaper rash more often because parents are changing their diapers less.

The number of babies ages 2 and
under in the U.S. fell about 3% to 8.1
million last year, based on data from the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which
tracks the number of live births. Yet
SymphonyIRI data show unit sales of
disposable diapers fell 9% in the 52
weeks ended Aug. 7, three times as fast
as the population of infants. At the
same time, unit sales of baby ointments
and creams rose 2.8%, despite fewer
babies.

ALSO INSIDE

How many times a day do you change your baby’s diaper? Well, it depends on what country you are in. Hint: The U.S. isn’t the most frequent.

See DIAPER RASH on Page 21

See PAGE 21

NEWSPAPER

LOOKING FOR BIG BOY? TRY JAPAN

Several fast-food chains that used to dot the U.S. landscape are harder—or nearly impossible—to find here, but are thriving in markets like Aruba and Vietnam.