Agency Spy

Via adsoftheworld

Advertising Agency: Publicis Conceil, Paris, France
Chief Creative Officer: Olivier Altmann
Copywriter: Thierry Lebec
Art Director: Bénédicte Potel

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Deutsch NY promoted Stephen Murphy to executive VP, customer and data strategy and a host of others. link

Brent Smart was named EVP/MD of BBDO West. link

-Twitter reaches out to its premium accounts. link

-Luxury brands are embracing the web. link

-YouTube adds auto-captioning. link

-The ad industry added 800 jobs in September. Phew. link

-Conde Nast unveiled an initiative to build digital mags. link

-Digital firm Tribal Fusion welcomed former Yahoo! Europe Head of Ad Product Strategy, Tim Brown, as European General Manager.

-Digital media predictions for 2010. link

-You want your Black Friday list? You got it. link

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Forgetting to turn the caps lock off, Jerks in Your Area has another amusing post from this guy:

YO THIS SHIT IS THE BOMB IST A FUCKING DOPE ASS MATTRISS N THIS SHIT IS MAD COMTFORABLE!

I BET DIS SHIT LIEK 2 G'S AT SLEPY'S OR SOME SHIT BUT YO SINCE I FOUND IT BHNED THE PIGGLY WIGGLY IM JUS SLEEING IT FOR LIKE 12 BONEZ. I JUS GOT TO GET DAT CHEEZ T GET MY BLUNT ON YA HEARD!

N YO THIS MOTHERFUCKR IS FULL SIZED SO FUCK THAT TWIN SIZE SHTI!!!

Hair gel, the club Hunka Bunka (kid above for reference) and terrible grammar seem to be a plus.

More: "Your Contextual Ad Flub of the Day"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Mother NY appointed Farfar alum Nicke Bergstrom as creative director. Bergstrom--who co-founded Swedish firm Farfar in 2000 and won a Cannes Lion Grand Prix in the process--will report to ECDs Linus Karlsson and Paul Malmstrom and will serve with CDs Michael Ian Kaye and Tom Webster.

kstrong>More: "Mother NY Welcomes Eugene Fuller to the Fold"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you're Apple, Microsoft, etc., you might want to take advantage of pooing on this Google-branded toilet paper. While the Mountain Valley, CA giant hasn't said anything, Engadget offers a slogan that seems lost in translation: "Very long, soft, smooth. Of high vacuum, because you always!"

Via HuffPo

More: "Rupert Murdoch Wants to Boycott the Digital Newsstand"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Gitamba Saila-Ngita asks "Is Advertising Irrelevant?" in a post on his posterous, above a quote from Tim Manners' book, "Relevance: making stuff that matters". We'll be the first to admit that this quote is taken out of context, so the point of this post is not to lay it on Manners, rather discuss the proposition as a means to clarify where the business is currently sitting. Philosophy, sorta.

"...Advertising is no longer relevant and therefor no longer accountable because, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it does not help anyone solve any problems or live a happier life. It is simply an annoyance. Instead of addressing the question of how to make themselves relevant to consumers, advertisers tend to go in the opposite direction, which is to dream up new ways to disrupt our lives with their irrelevant messages." Anyway, communication is an ongoing process with a lot of noise and even more differentiation, to the point that it's often difficult to discern ads from news from phone calls. But that doesn't really matter because at the end of the day we only pay attention to the messages that a) move us or b) we have to pay attention to because it's our job or detrimental to our lives some how.

So how does advertising fit in and in what ways, if any, is it still relevant. This is your chance to anonymously defend what you do. But pretend your name is on the answer &#151 and let's see what you're made of.

More: Love the comments in this story

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lord help us, it's like the Wii but only holier. A new (faux) ad for some organization called Mass We Pray lets loose with some family fun in the name of crucifix-wielding, pew-sitting, rollicking good time. It's for a game called Dante's Inferno, but can't we just go back to Scrabble?

Via

More: "The Death of (Direct)TV Means the Resurrection of Jesus, Heath, JFK"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lord help us, it's like the Wii but only holier. A new ad for some organization called Mass We Pray lets loose with some family fun in the name of crucifix-wielding, pew-sitting, rollicking good time. Can't we just go back to Scrabble?

Via

More: "The Death of (Direct)TV Means the Resurrection of Jesus, Heath, JFK"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As of today, a certain shop has restricted employees' use of the inter Webs by blocking a few sites that require high volumes of bandwidth. The move is being pushed as a money saving strategy that in reality probably will do just that, despite leaving employees without access to content that is arguable valuable to their work.

We're told employees of this shop's offices can say goodbye to: YouTube, BBC, iPlayer, Spotify, Channel4, SkyPlayer and Google Videos &#151 each of which will eat bandwidth like a whale sucking krill.

First off, let's not worry about which shop is doing this. The question I'd like to pose is: does having access to these sites improve your ability to know what's happening out there or does it make it harder to do your work? Probably both, but let's pick a side, shall we?

Update: The agency just got back to us and informs that they're not blocked as of right now.

More: "Brand Loss Eckos Thru the Web"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Method brand cleaners might stare at you as you stroll through target, but at least they don't reside in your bath, waiting for you to sexily step in the shower (whilst nude), only to behave like a semi-drunk man who likes watching ladies in the shower. Also known as everyone.

More: "Mick Jagger's 17 Year Old Daughter Half-Nude in Hudson Jeans Campaign"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tips are trickling in telling us Campbell Ewald is laying people off today. If you know more about what's going on, please email agencyspy at mediabistro dot com. You can also Tweet us via @agencyspy, IM at agencyspy or call our tip line, 212.547.7935.

Update: Confirmed. Still no details.

Update 2: We've managed to get some details from an anonymous source. Word is about 30 people will be let go today, and the process will be similar to the last time &#151 ie cardboard boxes are prepared and people are being asked to leave immediately. Not sure if they'll be allowed to box up their things and leave or if they'll leave the boxing to HR. If you recall, the last round went this way, and laid off employees came back to the office and were handed their boxes outside. Like a drive-thru.

We're also hearing that EVP, Director Human Resources Debbie Osborn is not in the office today and that someone else is swinging the proverbial ax. That glass door must feel extra heavy today.

No word on how much severance is being doled out.

More: "Tony Hopp's Email to Campbell Ewald Staff About Chevy Review: Timid"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Last night was the launch party for Barry Diller's latest venture, Notional. You may know this young production company for their show 'Chopped' on the Food Network. The shop's lead, Ricky Van Veen, is best known for co-founding CollegeHumor.com. Ben Silverman, formerly of NBC Entertainment, will play a role as well &#151 though what that will entail is yet to be revealed.

In an interview with PRNewser's Joe Ciarallo, Van Veen explains the platform distribution model for his company's content as well as how he hopes to market the work. "We know how to market &#151 how to get the Web excited," said Van Veen, who is in his late 20s.

Maybe the most interesting part of the conversation came from Ciarallo's first question. Catching Van Veen somewhat off guard, Ciarallo asks the Web entrepreneur to explain his company in 10 seconds. Van Veen has said in previous interviews that if an idea can't be explained in 10 seconds or less, it won't make it on the Web. Increasingly, Web success is the overall marker for WIN, so be sure to watch and see what he said.

More: "College Humor: Exceedingly Legit"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today's guest was author and Fortune Editor-at-large Geoff Colvin, whose book 'Talent is Overrated' leans on 30 years of scientific evidence to show that our belief that talent is inherent is misplaced. According to Colvin (and aforementioned research) talent tends to be fleeting whereas true skill is honed over hours and hours of training. The best example of this is probably Tiger Woods.

Practically speaking this means we can all aspire to greatness, with enough training. How much? If you believe Malcolm Gladwell, 1,000 hours a year (or about 3 hours per day) for 10 years. Sounds daunting because it is &#151 and ultimately it means most of us will only be marginally proficient despite our aspirations for greatness. Moral of the story, says Colvin: practice.

More: Episodes of the menu

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Nothing like blasphemy in the morning, eh? This little girl's argument for the rejection of Christ is a convincing one, but a little weak when it comes to the logic factor. Both Christ and Bacon promise something we perceive as happiness. The former wants you to have forever-happiness (but the faith part means there's no guarantee) whereas with bacon, you get your pay-off immediately. It's a toss up.

As an aside, I happened to catch part of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "End of Days" last night, so I'm a little scared right now.

Via BuzzFeed

More: "KFC Creates Sandwich Stoners Everywhere Invented Years Ago"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Word came in this morning that Razorfish created a new position, presumably to bring the agency further into the social media fold. The role has loosely been described to us as director of word-of-mouth/social-media, and has allegedly been given to a former Fleishman-Hillard SVP of Digital Communications. We're not sure which.

We've contacted both Fleishman Hillard (a PR firm) and Razorfish but the agencies declined to give a name. Can't ever be sure why with these things, but we thought you should know Razorfish is stepping into that pool. Our best Googling returned only males, and all other indications point to a female.

So who is this mystery person and why has it been so hard to learn her name? Not important, but Razorfish has a social media department. And a patented tool (patent pending!) to measure social media. Our social media is a solid 8 inches. That was a penis joke.

Also, if anyone knows who stole Shiv Singh's signed social media book from Picasso, please burn it. I mean return it.

Also also, a colleague points out that there's a hint of irony to a story about a woman whose new role is word of mouth related, whose employment we learned about through the very same method but couldn't get a word from anyone's mouth about her name. Expect a spash in PRWeek or AdAge post haste.

Update: PRNewser reveals that the new hire is Cristina Lawrence.

More: "Shiv Singh's Wise Words On Social Media"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

-Saatchi & Saatchi NY named AOR for Mead Johnson in the U.S. link

-Leo Burnett will offer pro bono agency services to small business owners who win "The Leos". link

-My big thrashed Greek wedding comes courtesy of Heineken. link

-Digitas puts Ellen DeGeneres in a GMC Terrain. link

-Fox unleashes a branding bonanza for Avatar. link

-Google proposes FDA-friendly online pharma ads. link

-AT&T, BK and Volvo are all buying into New Moon mania. link

-Intel kicks off a digital e-card holiday campaign. link

-Question mark suit guy Matthew Lesko starts an anti-advertising campaign. link

-Seatvertising commences. link

-NYC & Company launched a "hyperlocal, fully experiential holiday campaign. link

More: "Wednesday Odds and Ends"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Effective January 4, 2010, current Ogilvy NY Chairman/Ogilvy North America CEO Carla Hendra will assume the post of Global Chairman of the agency's new Global Strategy & Innovation practice. According to the announce, the new unit was specifically built "to offer clients multidisciplinary strategic services that combine creativity with rigorous effectiveness."

At her new post, Hendra, who's been with Ogilvy for 14 years, will report directly to Global CEO Miles Young. In a statement, Young says, "Clients fundamentally want insights and ideas that accelerate their brands and business, and it is our goal to deliver on both superbly. As Ogilvy's primary driver of digital services, as well as founder of our strategic consulting business, Carla is the perfect candidate to advance innovation around the globe."

More: "Ogilvy Launches Big Apple Bike Share Program"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

TBWA\Chiat\Day's Jason Nichols directed this spot for Movember, the only month when it's acceptable to be a total bum and grow your dirtiest stache. Why? Because prostate cancer will kill your ass (heh).

Here's another, where one of the dudes goes "they got nothin' on this prostate" &#151 a line that should be added to the annals (heh, again) of history.

Via AdsOfTheWorld

More: "Everywhere, Mustache"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When R/GA lost the Digital AOR Amp business, the next question on everyone's mind was, naturally, where will the work land. We've got an inside line on the pitch, and our sources tell us Tribal DDB has taken Digital AOR status for this Pepsi brand.

The last work anyone saw from the brand was the iPhone app "Amp Up Before You Score" &#151 a contentious piece of technology from R/GA that despite getting client approval cost the agency lots of brownie points. It's not surprise then that given that PR fiasco the brand was quick to choose a new agency of record.

Other contenders included Proximity BBDO, Evolution Bureau and possibly Red Interactive, though we've yet to confirm that.

More: "Breaking: BBDO Detroit to Close Doors Jan. 29th"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Our original item about BBDO Detroit closing provoked a deluge of comments, debates and slagging as we expected. But one of the more intriguing comments to stick out from the maelstrom came from someone appropriately calling themselves "read this..." who touched on the severance issue affecting the agency's soon-to-be former employees. The commenter, who is either directly familiar with the issue or has been boning up on his/her employment law says:

"...Few current employees will be receiving ANY severance pay at the end of the contract. Hiding behind the rules of WARN, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, BBDO is cruelly denying any severance to employees with less than 13 years of full service. They can legally do this because they have notified employees of the intent to close the agency 11 weeks ahead of the closure, instead of the 8 week minimum required by the law. Had they waited three more weeks, a larger percentage of employees would've received a severance. This sleight of hand was promoted as 'a moral obligation to give our people as much notice as possible to plan for their futures.'

"Of course, BBDO is not legally precluded from offering additional severance to all the current employees who have worked above and beyond the call of duty during the last 12 months, including all who took an unpaid furlough. They've just chosen not to reward those people for their sacrifices and loyalty. That an agency the size of BBDO and a network the size of Omnicom can so callously leave their 'valued employees' without as much as a week's severance says more about the leadership than any quotes from the PR flacks ever could."

We checked the WARN fact sheet and here's what it says with respect to mass layoffs:

"A covered employer must give notice if there is to be a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce. Again, this does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer. These latter groups, however, are entitled to notice."

Anyhow, PR has responded with the following statement regarding severance:

"We are closing the BBDO Detroit office and have made the decision to give our people as much notice as we can so that they can plan for their futures. We are going to find jobs for as many of them as we can within BBDO Worldwide and Omnicom agencies. We are providing outplacement counseling, and we will be flexible so that they can attend interviews. By doing it in this way, no one will receive less money than if they had been laid off without this notice. In fact, 263 people will receive more money, and everyone will also receive two extra months of healthcare for themselves and their families that they would not otherwise have had."

More: "BBDO, Chrysler to Call it a Day in 2010?"

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.