According to a West Coast source, it’s fast a trend at 5353 Grosvenor Blvd. to abandon ship.
“Lara Palmer jumped ship to become founding Creative Director at Taxi, Vancouver. Zach Watkins, Blake Kidder and Patrick Almaguer all headed to Wieden Kennedy, Amsterdam. David Steinke moves a few hours east to Crispin’s new Boulder office. Craig Crawford returns to Team One, while partner, Rui Alvares, is going to Lowe Bull in South Africa. Doug James goes freelance as his art director, Chuck Monn hops over to the secretive Media Arts Lab. Lastly, another undisclosed creative is said to be on his way to Arnold Boston.”
If that assembly line of flip-offs weren’t bad enough, apparently the coveted $100+ million Playstation account is also heading for the door, with Infiniti potentially fast on its heels.
The agency’s still got a few good hands holding it up, though it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case for long. Creative Director Curt Detweiler, who did some acclaimed integrated work and TV spots for Nissan, is – according to the source – being courted with an ECD offer outside the network.
And Patrick O’Neill, who was integral to the “Hunger Gets what Hunger Wants” campaign for Ballpark Franks, is reportedly looking eastward for his next opportunity.
All this leaves Rob Schwartz at the helm of a once-stunning creative colossus. We’d play the violin, but, oh, we don’t know how.
Maybe McBride was onto something with his parodied slaughter at the agency’s SF arm.
