Google named world's No 1 brand
Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk,
Monday April 21 2008

Google: tops the BrandZ top 100 list for the second year running.
Google has topped a list of the world's most powerful brands, with new research estimating its value to be $86bn (£43bn).

WPP-owned research company Millward Brown puts Google at number one in its annual top 100 global brand power list for the second year in a row with a 30% year-on-year increase in its value.

Google beat General Electric to the top spot, with the NBC Universal owner's brand value estimated at $71.4bn.

The next most valuable brands are Microsoft at $70.89bn, Coca-Cola at $58.2bn and China Mobile at $57.2bn, according to Millward Brown.

"Google's rank has been driven by fantastic financial performance and equity value," said Peter Walshe, the global account director at Millward Brown.

The top five remained unchanged year-on-year, with each company recording an increase in brand valuation by between 15% and 39% compared with 2007.

However, Millward Brown's annual BrandZ research, which takes into account the financial performance of a company combined with a measure of brand equity determined by a 100,000-strong global consumer survey, produced a number of changes in the ranking of the brands that make up the remainder of the top 10.

IBM's brand value increased by 65% year-on-year to $55.3bn, moving the technology company up three places in the BrandZ list to sixth spot.

Apple was the biggest mover in the top 10, and a new entry, moving up nine places to rank seventh, with a massive 123% increase in brand value to $55.2bn.

"Apple's 123% rise has proved to be from a mix of a slue of innovative products such as the iTouch, iPhone, Leopard and computers for which consumers have given the brand a lot of credit," said Walshe.

Fast food giant McDonald's brand value grew by 49% - in eighth at $49.49bn, while Nokia was up 39% and in ninth at $43.9bn.

Cigarette giant Marlboro was the only marque to drop in the top 10, down four spots to 10th, with a 5% drop in brand value to $37.3bn.

"You have to remember that these are global valuations," said Walshe, explaining why in an anti-smoking era the tobacco company still did so well in the ratings.

"The business is expanding in markets including Asia and South America. It is only in the west that we see decline. Its brand contribution [to the brand valuation] is also extremely high."
Mobile operator Vodafone was the top-ranked British brand, up 12 places on the back of a 75% increase in value to $36.9bn (£18.5bn).

Millward Brown tracks 50,000 brands globally, which are whittled down for its annual BrandZ top 100 list.

French MPs back law to bar media from promoting anorexia
· Bill specifically aimed at 'pro-ana'
Offenders could face jail and fines up to €45,000

French MPs yesterday approved a ground-breaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness.
The bill, which would bar any form of media, including websites, magazines and advertisers, from promoting extreme thinness, encouraging severe weight-loss or methods for self-starvation, is the furthest any parliament has gone in the fight against anorexia and its public portrayal.

The law is specifically aimed at what French MPs called pro-anorexia "propaganda" websites. These sites, loosely termed "pro-ana" often support anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical disorder, sometimes personifying the condition as a girl called "Ana". The blogs and forums, which have developed in the US since 2000 and grown in France over the past two years, often include talk-boards frequented mainly by teenage girls and young women with advice on how to get through the pain of extreme hunger after eating a yoghurt a day, or how to hide extreme weight-loss from parents or doctors. Some use pictures of excessively thin models as "thinspiration" for self-starvation.

The law, which will go before the French senate next month, allows judges to imprison and fine offenders up to €30,000 (£24,000) if found guilty of inciting others to seek to become dangerously thin by depriving themselves of food to an "excessive" degree. If a victim dies, the offender risks three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.

Last week French MPs, fashion industry leaders and advertisers signed a separate voluntary charter on promoting healthier body images after a long consultation following the anorexia-linked death of a Brazilian model in 2006. Spain banned ultra-thin models from catwalks in 2007.
But Valery Boyer, the centre-right MP who tabled the bill, said the voluntary charter did not go far enough.

It is not clear whether the proposed law could affect the fashion industry or fashion magazines over use of models who are extremely thin. In an interview with Associated Press, Boyer said the legislation, if passed, could enable a judge to punish those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose "thinness altered her health". She said: "We have noticed that the socio-cultural and media environment seems to favour the emergence of troubled nutritional behaviour, and that is why I think it necessary to act."

The French health minister Roselyne Bachelot said the law would allow "a larger public debate" on anorexia and its 30,000 to 40,000 sufferers in France.

Opponents said the bill was too vague in defining "extreme thinness" and describing who might be punished for promoting it. Leftwing opposition MPs largely abstained from yesterday's vote.
Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture, said he was not aware how broad the proposed legislation was, but opposed sweeping measures.

Mail raises cover price by 5p
Stephen Brook
guardian.co.uk,


The Daily Mail increased its price to 50p today - prompting rival title the Daily Express to accuse it of "staggering hypocrisy".

Associated Newspapers' flagship daily said its 5p price rise was due to higher fuel charges, printing, production and distribution costs.
"We remain committed to bringing you the best-value package available through continued investment in the highest quality journalism, bigger papers and colour on every page," the Mail said in a statement to readers on page 2 of today's paper.

The price rise means that the Mail is 10p more expensive than the Daily Express, a fact its middle market rival wasted no time in pointing out on its front page today.

"10p cheaper than the Daily Mail and 10 times better," the Express proclaimed, before launching a virulent attack on the Associated Newspapers flagship, also on page 2.

The Express labelled the Mail "hypocrites" for the price rise, while the paper is running a campaign against cost of living increases.
"With great fanfare, the Mail duly announced its cost of living index. Funny that. Mail bosses couldn't have picked a better moment, because from today they've added their own unwelcome boost to inflation by putting up the cost of the Daily Mail by 5p to 50p," the Express said.

"It's just another fine example of staggering hypocrisy. This is an organisation that campaigns against waste and plastic carriers yet every weekend it wraps magazines and supplements in pointless polythene bags.

"Day in, day out it produces thousands of trashy free newspapers which nobody wants and which clog up our streets and our public transport until they end up in a landfill site.

"The Daily Express is not in the business of conning our readers with gimmicks and insincere campaigns. We promise to keep our 40p cover price for as long as is humanly possible because we know how much that means to you. The Daily Express is honest and offers the best value. And right now, that really counts."

On Saturdays, the Daily Mail remains 70p, while the Mail on Sunday costs £1.50

Text one is ‘The Sun Online’ homepage , the purpose of this text is to keep audiences informed of the day’s top stories. Text two is the’ BBC News report about the Tiananmen Square massacre’ (04/06/89), the purpose of this text is to inform audiences about what has happened during the massacre.

The BBC is an institution whose purpose is too inform, educate and entertain. Whereas the sun is a tabloid red top newspaper and was set up by Rupert murdoch who also owns myspace and sky. It rivals with the Daily mail.

The Tiananmen Square massacre is a piece of hard news it talks about an event which has happened worldwide and is there to make the audience aware of the situation, unlike the sun where majority of the stories are soft news they talk about the issues of celebrities and there daily life’s. The sun mainly targets the ‘white van builder man’ whereas the BBC report aims to target educated people who are aware of worldwide issues.

Sex sells and the sun is the home of the famous page three girl. Women on the sun newspaper are there to be objectified and are only there to sell the newspaper they have no real purpose and are there for the male gaze (laura mulvey). Women are there in every section dressed scadly clad or even naked. This demeans women and puts them in a negative representation. However the reporter in the BBC news story is a women and this represents women in a higher position. She uses an authoritive voice. But this reporter is still injecting the audience with the BBC’s ideologies and values through the hegemony (hypodermic needle model) she injecting them with white ideologies and values.

The sun is an online homepage. The internet is growing fast and today everyone is using the internet it is an easier way of gaining a larger audience.

Therefore both texts use females to sell their product and represent the ideologies and values that they are sending out.

Clicks may sound alarm for Google

Andrew Clark in New York
The Guardian,
Saturday March 29 2008

Google has suffered a second consecutive month of weak growth in advertising clicks, fuelling concern that the high-flying internet search specialist is suffering in the economic slowdown.

Statistics compiled by the research firm Comscore showed a 3% year-on-year rise during February in Google's "paid clicks" - the number of times users hit advertising links on its website. Although the number is an improvement on January's zero growth, it amounts to a sharp slowdown compared with monthly increases of between 25% and 40% last year.

Google maintains that the deceleration is a consequence of its strategy of focusing on quality. The Silicon Valley firm has been trying to eliminate accidental clicks and has been working with advertisers to make sure that links relate closely to users' search queries.

But the slowdown has contributed to a 36% slump in Google's shares since the beginning of the year and analysts are divided on whether the company's confidence is justified.

Scott Kessler, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said: "It's almost unfathomable that the company has not seen an impact from an economy that we believe is in the midst of a recession."

Others were more sanguine. Rob Sanderson, an analyst at American Technology Research, said the number of clicks is less important than Google's revenue, which is based on the clicks converted by advertisers into sales. "It's not clicks that advertisers are really buying."
Google's shares edged up in early trading on Nasdaq, reflecting relief that the numbers were no worse.