By Mae Anderson, Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The E-Trade baby will finally stop talking.
In the investor site's new ad, the baby — who looks like a harmless, adorable tot but talks like a character out of "The Wolf of Wall Street" — is upstaged by a cat named Beanie that sings. The tot quits in disgust at the end of the ad.
"That's it, I'm done. I'm out of here. Amateurs," the baby says in the ad. E-Trade confirmed it is "retiring" the baby and will go in a different direction with its next ads.
E-Trade began its "talking baby" campaign in 2008 during the Super Bowl, at a time when online investing was not as common. Having a talking baby trade stocks was a way to show people that E-Trade's investing services were so simple even a baby could make money trading stock on the site.
"It served its purpose when it first launched, to make it seem like anyone could trade online," said branding expert Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of branding firm Landor Associates. "But now online trading is so common the baby has lost its mission."
E-Trade's management has also changed. The company named banking industry veteran Paul Idzik as CEO in January 2013, and he has signaled a need for a new direction in marketing, replacing the company's chief marketing officer last summer. The company also switched ad agencies from Grey to Ogilvy & Mather.
E-Trade had created new talking baby spots for each Super Bowl since 2008, but sat out the big game this year.
There's no word on what the New York company's next marketing campaign will be, but Landor's Adamson said the talking baby will be a tough act to follow.
"It's an advertising icon so it will be hard to follow that with something as memorable," he said.
Sean “Diddy” Combs seeks bail, citing changed circumstances and new evidence
Sean "Diddy" Combs filed a new request for bail on Friday, saying changed circumstances, along with new evidence, mean the hip-hop mogul should be allowed to prepare for a May trial from outside jail.
Lawyers for Combs filed the request in Manhattan federal court, where his previous requests for bail have been rejected by two judges since his September arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees, while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
He has been awaiting a May 5 trial at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.
In their new court filing, lawyers for Combs say they are proposing a "far more robust" bail package that would subject the entertainer to strict around-the-clock security monitoring and near-total restrictions on his ability to contact anyone but his lawyers. But the amount of money they attach to the package remains $50 million, as they proposed before.
They also cite new evidence that they say "makes clear that the government's case is thin." That evidence, the lawyers said, refutes the government's claim that a March 2016 video showing Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend occurred during a coerced "freak off," a sexually driven event described in the indictment against Combs.
They wrote that the encounter was instead "a minutes-long glimpse into a complex but decade-long consensual relationship" between Combs and his then-girlfriend.
The lawyers argued that the jail conditions Combs is experiencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn violate his constitutional... Read More