Lee Iacocca has formed a venture capital company, Iacocca
Partners, to finance interactive video systems. That technology
could be used for in-flight airline video gambling. Iacocca, the
keynote speaker at last week's World Airline Entertainment
Association, predicted that within 10 years, airlines will make
more money from gaming, movies, games, phone calls and shopping
than from tickets (USA TODAY, 10/10)....Mercedes-Benz of North
America began a major ad campaign last night, "unusual in its
humorous tone and in the audience it is trying to reach." The
campaign is the first big effort from a new creative team at
Interpublic Group's Lowe & Partners/SMS. Two of the four new
spots were slated to air on ABC's "Monday Night Football" (W.S.
JOURNAL, 10/10).... Temerlin McClain, a unit of Bozell, Jacobs,
Kenyon & Eckhardt Inc., has been hired by Southland to develop a
corporate-image ad campaign for its 7-Eleven stores (W.S.
JOURNAL, 10/10)....Evian will title an indoor volleyball tour
reaching four-cold weather cities this February: New York,
Boston, Washington and Minneapolis. The AVP event will air on
the MSG Network when the tour goes to New York (INSIDE MEDIA,
10/5-18 issue).... Reebok moved its $5M golf shoe ad account to
Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston from Mullen, Wenham
(AD AGE, 10/10 issue)....RJ Reynolds said it will launch Salem
Preferred, a cigarette designed to reduce the "lingering, stale
smell of cigarette smoke" (BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS, 10/11)....In
Philadelphia, Michael Rozansky notes the new interest in pre-paid
phone cards. "The cards were supposed to be used only to make
phone calls. But advertisers have seized on them as a powerful
new promotional tool," as well as a collectors item. Images on
the cards include the '69 Mets and O.J. Simpson's mug shot
(PHILA. INQUIRER, 10/11)....NFL players Bruce Smith, Emmitt Smith
and Steve Emtman will be on the screen as well as the field next
week with the debut of the movie "Little Giants." The film,
produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, in
cooperation with the NFL, features youth teams called "Dallas
Cowboys" and "New York Giants." John Madden also appears in the
film (THE DAILY)....Michael Hiestand gives a "Thumbs-up" to
marketers facing a legal battle over a "brand name worth fighting
over." The NBA's '94 No. 1 pick, Glenn Robinson and marketers
with whom he has aligned are suing sportswear company Fortune
Dogs Inc. over the rights to the brand name "Big Dog" (USA TODAY,
10/11).
