xford University�s new professor of marketing has rubbished claims that product placement and advertiser-created entertainment programmes are the future of advertising. Dr Douglas Holt said the "marketing revolution" promised by so-called branded content, such as mobile phone company Orange producing the music show Orange Playlist on ITV1, would falter because it failed to create successful brands that gripped the public�s imagination.

The academic said brands became icons by telling stories that solved cultural contradictions. Despite vast changes in the media, the fundamental principles of creating iconic brands had not changed. "There�s not a lot of difference to how Marlboro was built in the US in the 1960s to how a great brand is built today; the fundamental principles are the same," he said. ... more