It's sort of pointless for an agency to take legal action against a former employee if they end up going to another agency or starting their own agency and a few clients and former employees follow. First, no one forces an employee or a client to shift from the previous agency to the new agency. Agency people are big enough to make that decision on their own. Second, once a client makes the decision to leave, it's not like legal action is going to make them go back. And when the agency decides to somehow legally force an employee to stay when they've decided to leave and join the new agency, that's kind of pointless too. Short of shackles and a police escort, if someone doesn't want to show up for work, there just not going to.
more »
Blender magazine, Dennis Publishing's music magazine, and TAO Las Vegas are teaming to bring Blender Sessions at TAO Nightclub to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah from January 19th-23rd. The nightly series of live music performances for celebrities, filmmakers and film industry executives will be sponsored by Absolut, Budweiser and Yahoo and take place in the Asian inspired Park City satellite of Las Vegas' Tao at The Venetian Hotel.
more »
Eschewing the usual source for sound effects, Wieden + Kennedy London has created a two minute commercial for Honda UK and used a choir of humans to generate all the sounds in an ad for the new Honda Civic. The ad will be available, beginning today, as a video podcast. A microsite accompanies the ad which features a 3D-ish model of the car that people can view from different angles, a "making of" video and a service where visitors can sign up for a test drive.
Capitalizing on Friday the 13th fears, Greenpeace, through The Viral Chart, has released an online video (here too) that, with compelling imagery, claims building more nuclear plants is an invitation to terrorists 911-style. Sarah North, head of Greenpeace's nuclear campaign, said, "Millions of people could die as a result of a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant. This is a totally unacceptable risk. This film shows that building new nuclear power stations is a catastrophic gift to terrorists."
more »
Here's another one of those ads (found on Adland) creative types dream up while "concepting" in a dream world without clients. While the bouncing breasts thing will never get old, the least these creatives could have done was use a model that actually had breasts that bounced. Actually, the "model" is likely the female creative partner behind this who is perfectly satisfied with her breast size and agreed with her male partner to be in the spec spot, much to the male partner's glee.
ABC has rejected nine version of GoDaddy's Super Bowl commercial and GoDaddy CEO Bob Parson's says ABC is being hypocritical in its decision by citing the network's racy Desperate Housewives. Currently, GoDaddy ran its window Washer ad featuring Candice Michelle during the NFC WildCard game on FOX. Parson's has a verbal agreement with ABC for a placement in the game but nothing official has been signed. Likely, we won't know what the decision is until a day or two before the game. All GoDaddy's ads can be seen online here. Be sure to notice the consistency screw up between the shot of Candice in a white top without the GaDaddy logo and the shot following in which she swipes her breasts across the wet window in a shirt that has the logo.
UPDATE: Marcus Rhatigan from GoDaddy, who wrote and produced the Window Washer spot, wrote to assure us there was no consistency error writing, "There is no plain white shirt without a logo; didn't shoot one, there wasn't even one on the set." It was a lighting issue. The logo's there. We apologize for the error and look forward to seeing that logo all over Candice's chest during the Super Bowl. GoDaddy is currently reshooting for the Super Bowl. Come on, ABC, don't ruin the party.
Woe was Donny this past Summer with account losses from Monster, Old Navy, and Revlon not to mention that Speedo picture but things are looking up for his agency Deutsch which, today, was awarded with the return of its former $60 million client IKEA. Most recently, IKEA was with Secret Weapon and has returned to Deutsch without a review. Welcome back, Donny.
A couple years ago, Kylie Minogue did a lingerie ad for Agent Provocateur in which, after seductively writhing atopa mechanical horse, she wonders why the guys watching her can't stand up. Now, according to Eatmail, Agent Provocateur, apparently, is at it again with an even more tantilizing commercial called Spank. Eatmail's Emily teases us by offering up only a short, unbranded version of the spot so we'll just have to wait for the full version if and when it's released.
When the Carolina Panthers won the right last Sunday to take on the Chicago Bears, Bears fan Kevin Lynch, a partner at Hadrian's Wall agency in Chicago, knew just where to find some action. He emailed David Oakley, the co-CD of Charlotte's BooneOakley. The wager was simple: no points, winner take all. The loser will check their ego at the door and promote the winner's agency.
If Carolina wins, the Hadrian's Wall homepage will inform visitors that BooneOakley is a much better agency and direct people to the BooneOakley site for a week. If Chicago wins, the BooneOakley homepage will inform visitors that Hadrian's Wall is a much better agency and direct people to Hadrian's Wall homepage. The two agencies have even created dueling winners logos to go along with the bet.
Hmm. Perhaps the two agencies are merging and this is just a means to gin up some banter. Or, perhaps, it's it's just inline with an agency that celebrates its fifth anniversary by hosting a party at which two of the partners partake in a spoof wedding.
Coinciding with the launch of China CEO Tom Doctroff's book, Billions: Selling the the New Chinese Consumer, JWT China issued a press release with the headline, "Understanding and Embracing China's Different Worldview Is Main Theme of Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, by JWT's Tom Doctoroff," which offers 12 facts about the "Confucian Consumer." While the release may seem like yet another harmless attempt by a marketing entity to neatly lump together the traits of billions of people and slap a cute title on it, some who watch the country's culture closer have taken issue with the oversimplification and incorrectness of the 12 facts.
The main complaint is the trotting out of Confucius to "frame the market for American business people" writes the China Herald weblog that doing so "creates the illusion that there is one driving force in the Chinese market you can use as a beacon in an often chaotic situation." In an article on Danwei written by Jeremy Goldkorn who works in the Chinese ad biz, he offers a a point by point analysis of the release and ends with "bullshitting is part of the game in the advertising industry." While we have no idea who's right and who's wrong on this whole Confucian Consumer thing nor are we equipped to make judgement, we do know Goldkorn's statement is as true as the Earth is round.
|
|
