Showing archive for: “Advertising”
The Costs of Product Placement, Maserati Edition
In my academic research, I’ve studied contractual arrangements between manufacturers and retailers for premium shelf space, including slotting arrangements and category management contracts. Typically, a shelf space arrangement in the retail sector will involve the supplier compensating the retailer for some specified promotional shelving arrangement, e.g. end-caps or eye level space, or a share of ... The Costs of Product Placement, Maserati Edition
The FTC Loses in Ovation Pharmaceuticals
There are some new developments in the Federal Trade Commission’s consummated merger case brought against Ovation. Namely, the FTC has lost. TOTM readers may recall that I spent some time criticizing the Federal Trade Commission’s complaint, back in 2008, in FTC v. Ovation in federal district court in Minnesota. As I described the stylized facts ... The FTC Loses in Ovation Pharmaceuticals
State Antitrust Law in Action
A predatory pricing case in California under Section 17043 results in a $21 million fine awarded to one newspaper, the Bay Guardian, in a suit against a competitor, San Francisco Weekly (HT: Reason). The suit alleged that the SF Weekly was selling advertising below cost for the purpose of harming a competitor. A summary of ... State Antitrust Law in Action
Don Draper as rainmaker and filmmaker
As I discussed a few days ago, Mad Men is back. I saw two of my themes intersecting here – law firms, and filmmakers’ portrayal of business. Sunday’s first episode had protagonist Don Draper suffering the burdens of being the key guy in his office – what a law firm would call a rainmaker. As ... Don Draper as rainmaker and filmmaker
Copyright Trolls
A new business model for newspapers? From Wired (HT: Kevin Ohlhausen): Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad. Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose ... Copyright Trolls
Mad Men returns
I’ve described Mad Men as a wonderful illustration of my theory about how business is portrayed in film (here it’s television, but much of the theory still holds): [A]rtists are inclined to view business as not just different from but antithetical to what they do. Artists (at least modern artists) are into self-expression. In other ... Mad Men returns
Some Links
Intel and FTC settlement talks heat up (WSJ) Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal leads state AG crusade against Google’s Street View data collection (WSJ) Some good coverage of the FTC Workshop on the future of journalism, i.e. whether and how to save newspapers (here, here and here) Greg Mankiw on crisis economics New antitrust complaint against ... Some Links
Will the FTC Sue Apple?
I don’t know. But apparently, industry analysts preliminarily think not. I tend to disagree. At least, I think its far too early to be confident in either direction. Press reports, such as this one, are primarily relying on the report of an analyst who correctly points out that Apple’s market share would be an ... Will the FTC Sue Apple?
"Prosocial," Output-Reducing Collusion
One of my antitrust students recently pointed me to a television commercial that could inspire a great exam question. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the ad until I’d finished drafting this semester’s antitrust exam (which I’ve been grading…hence the absence from TOTM). The T.V. commercial trumpets an agreement among the members of the American Beverage Association ... "Prosocial," Output-Reducing Collusion
Some Good Reading in the Weekend Papers
1. The New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson gets it right (seriously!) on this shameful GM ad. The ad is misleading and, given that many folks are refusing to buy a car from a company on government life-support, materially so. My bet is that if GM weren’t a government-controlled company, and if the Treasury hadn’t aided ... Some Good Reading in the Weekend Papers
Assessing the claims that the Google-AdMob merger will "leverage Google's dominance" and also kill kittens
News items continue to pile up suggesting that the FTC is likely to challenge Google’s acquisition of mobile application and website advertising provider, AdMob. See this recent article from the Wall Street Journal. News reports today contain this quote from an anonymous source: “The staff (at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission) believes there is a ... Assessing the claims that the Google-AdMob merger will "leverage Google's dominance" and also kill kittens
The Economics of Celebrity Endorsements
Bob Greene (CNN) argues that celebrity endorsements are meaningless. Worse than that, according to Greene, celebrity endorsements necessarily amount to a raw deal for consumers: This is all elementary. If someone accepts cash in exchange for offering a positive evaluation of something, then the evaluation must be tossed out. It’s worse than meaningless. Yet in ... The Economics of Celebrity Endorsements
