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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Marketing for Altoids and Life Savers is curiously weak. That was the startling admission from Wrigley’s CEO, who told investors ad efforts for the two brands were under-marketed when they were owned by Kraft Foods and have not been much better since Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. purchased them for $1.5 billion last year.

‘Limited’ support
Bill Wrigley Jr., the mastermind behind the deal, blindsided analysts at the company’s annual meeting last week when he said the brands, along with Creme Savers, had received “limited marketing and innovation support” and will require more significant investment than previously thought — at the expense of earnings — in order to grow.

“When [Wrigley] bought the business, they saw a certain level of distribution and thought they could maintain it without extra marketing spending, but that distribution continued to deteriorate,” said Credit Suisse analyst Rob Moskow.

Although measured-media spending on the brands rose in 2005 to a total of $50 million, up from $33 million in 2004, those efforts were still dubbed “quite weak” by Lehman Bros. analyst Andrew Lazar. Lazar surmised that Wrigley “was hesitant to invest aggressively behind these brands until it had a better sense of the innovation pipeline and had its own merchandising programs.” But he said the aftermath of Kraft’s underinvestment, coupled with the disruption of the transition to Wrigley’s ownership, resulted in disastrous sales declines.

CEO Bill Wrigley Jr. said Altoids and Life Savers will require more of an investment in marketing than previously thought. —————————————-

Altoids sales fall 17%
Lazar’s analysis of ACNielsen data shows Altoids sales fell 17% since Wrigley’s ownership, while Life Savers dropped 8%, and Creme Savers plunged 33%.

Moskow predicted Wrigley will have to add at least $10 million in spending to the trio, whose annual sales total are roughly $400 million.

Since the June acquisition, ads for the three brands are all remnants of Kraft’s efforts, but much is said to be “in progress” from Altoids agency Leo Burnett, Chicago, and Energy BBDO, Chicago, which works on Life Savers and Creme Savers.

Adding brand support
According to spokeswoman Jessica Schiller, “We are adding brand support at more significant levels to regain awareness and the presence of these brands.” Building the innovation pipeline will also be crucial.

Analysts were clearly surprised by the near-term hit to earnings as a result of unexpected marketing costs, but the prognosis is good. Wrigley’s “strategy of spending to grow the brands will work in the long run, but it is going to be a little painful in 2006,” said Moskow.

(AP) One of Norman Rockwell’s most famous paintings was found hidden behind a fake wall in its owner’s home, proving that the version the owner had long displayed was a forgery, family members and experts said.

They believe that the owner, illustrator Donald Trachte Sr., made the copy of “Breaking Home Ties” himself in the early 1970s, decades after he bought it from Rockwell and made it the centerpiece of his art collection.

Donald Trachte Jr. said his father, who drew the syndicated comic strip “Henry,” had no financial motive.

“I think he just wanted to tuck these in the wall for his kids,” the son said in Thursday’s Berkshire Eagle.

Trachte died last year at 89 and apparently never told anyone the secret of his prized painting, which appeared on the cover of “The Saturday Evening Post” in 1954.

The canvas shows a father and son sitting on a truck’s running board as the boy leaves for college. Scholars of the folksy painter consider it one of his best works, in the same stratum as “Rosie the Riveter,” which sold for nearly $5 million in 2002.

Trachte bought the painting from Rockwell for $900 in 1960, when the two were neighbors in Arlington, Vt.

Experts said Trachte probably made the copy in about 1973, when he and his wife were going through a bitter divorce. The settlement let him keep the Rockwell.

Experts and Trachte’s family members had puzzled over inconsistencies between the Post cover and the canvas they assumed was an original. Among other things, the coloration and boy’s face seemed different, but experts blamed poor preservation and sloppy restoration work.

Then, last month, conservationists determined the painting had not been restored.

Trachte’s sons became more convinced that the work on their hands was a fake. A few days later, while scouring his father’s studio, David Trachte, 54, noticed a gap in the wood paneling. He and his brother pulled it out, revealing the real Rockwell and other paintings his father had apparently copied.

“It is hard for me right now; I have not uncovered enough to know when or why he did it,” said Trachte Jr., 59.

The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge will display the original painting, along with Trachte’s replica.

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Museum: http://www.nrm.org