Gate Worldwide Pulls a 'Professional' on Sacred Cows

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To promote its own agency merits, The Gate Worldwide produced a Hit List of Sacred Cows (pdf) it will happily execute on your behalf.

Irksome ethical heifers include "Marketing should be judged by sales," "Teams create the best solutions," "Success breeds success," and -- our personal favourite -- "The customer is always right." (We'd kill that shit ourselves. With a rusty scimitar.*)

The Hit List is going out to CMOs, along with the following message: "If any of these sacred cows are roaming your office, don't worry. The Gate Worldwide will help you kill them" -- followed by a name and a direct line you can call. Nice touch.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar-25-09    
Topic: Agencies, Poster, Promotions



Vampire Staked, Coke's Morning After, Obama 'Supports' Turkish Commerce

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- An account supervisor at Lowe in Zurich has asked us to yank a recent post featuring a vampire whose fangs are made of OB tampons. It's unapproved client work. (That means it's not running anywhere and, he says, it never will.) I guess this means God does exist.

- Quite possibly the most amazing brownies ever.

- Wisconsin rebrands. We're still not going.

- Coke Zero's The Morning After (always a promising title).

- George Parker says sorry for using one of his favourite pet names on Susan Bratton, but manages to get some pokes in about an interview she did with Julie Roehm. You remember her, right? No? Probably best.

- Obama's face for Turkish bank.

by Angela Natividad    Mar-17-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Commercials, Opinion, Television



BlackBerry Tears Apple to Shreds -- Figuratively, Anyway

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Agency Guava threw together this spot in which a Blackberry literally shoots through Apple. (Both are helpfully represented as fruits, and the tagline hypes BB's first-ever touchscreen model.)

Crystal-clear and slightly reminiscent of a long genre of late-'90s films where bullets penetrated human flesh at high-speed, ripping it to ribbons in slow-mo. (We like pulpy shit.) But I wouldn't throw myself behind the current iteration of BlackBerry's Storm for any amount of money, let alone pro-bono.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar-13-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Consumer Created, Video



Barbie's Birthday Ride, Defiled Desserts, Neo-Con's Golden Child

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- White paper in comic book form.

- Meg Whitman for CA gov.

- Two sides of Arnold -- the disgruntled and the loyalists -- come to blows.

- Neo-conservatism's golden child.

- Barbie's birthday Beetle.

- Ugh, dude. Only in Iowa.

- "If they did do it, you'd expect them to be flaunting it. Unless there's no one left in the fucking building to do it!"

by Angela Natividad    Mar-11-09    
Topic: Agencies, Online, Opinion, Political



ATTIK Out With NoiseFive

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It's round five. ATTIK, as it did four times before, is out with the fifth version of its "experimental design book," NoiseFive. The book chronicles the history of the agency from its humble beginnings in Huddersfield England to its expansion across multiple continents, the previous four Noise books and, the purpose of the books, an explosive orgasm of design.

Coca-Cola VP of Design David Butler described the book saying, "NoiseFive makes you think. What would happen if the world's biggest brands were all design-driven? The scale of impact on business and culture could be incredible. With NoiseFive, I am reminded of ATTIK's relentless focus on innovation and look forward to the future we're designing together."

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by Steve Hall    Mar- 9-09    
Topic: Agencies, Publishing



JWT's Anxiety Blog, Ogilvy's Recession Salve, Revisiting 'Like a Prayer'

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- Flashback to Madonna's banned Like a Prayer ad for Pepsi.

- Wolff Olins brings minimalist flickr magic -- and a forum for inquiry -- to "scientific" cosmetic brand Living Proof.

- Tracking (corporate accounts on) Twitter.

- The Guardian makes good observations about Twitter (scroll down to the bulletpoints).

- Ogilvy-branded solutions to a recession. Take that hype with a few spoonfuls of salt. Hat tip to our favourite mad man.

- JWT launches a blog called Anxiety Index.

- ScapeNation: another tween-targeting web destination, brought to you by Red Tettemer.



Spoofs for a Cause, Courtesy of AIA

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To promote the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Agencies in Action and Bill Oberlander at Cossette produced a triage of cynical spoofs on well-known ad campaigns. (See iPod and HSBC variants.)

The goal: to get Manhattan's agency creatives to volunteer at soup kitchens and food pantries at least once monthly. So far, six agencies have committed: Arnold Worldwide, Cossette, DiMassimo Goldstein, Gotham, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and TBWA\Chiat\Day.

In the event that you need more convincing, or just feel compelled to show your face at another social gathering, hit up the AIA kickoff reception on Thursday, March 12 at 7pm. It all happens at the Cossette office on 415 Mad Ave, 3rd floor.

More intelligence at the website.

by Angela Natividad    Mar- 6-09    
Topic: Agencies, Campaigns, Cause, Events, Poster



Ford to Give Away 100 Fiestas Social Media Style

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The ever photogenic Julia Roy and her agency, Undercurrent, are working with Ford on a program called Fiesta Movement. The automaker plans to give away 100 Ford Fiestas for six months complete with free gas, insurance, parking and a concierge service. The lucky 100 will be sent on "cool monthly missions" not unlike AT&T's Lost in America.

And oh yes, they must document their travels for public consumption. After all, it's the social media thing to do, right? And, yes, there will be tweets.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 5-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Promotions, Social



MoMA Shafts happycorp for ECD's Sins

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MoMA cut ties with happycorp after ECD/founder Doug Jaeger (kind of) admitted to enabling ad renegade Poster Boy to "vandalize" one of its subway print installations.

Well, that's not really all. He also hired a photographer to shoot him in front of them and expressed his interest in selling said photos.

MoMA's since shafted the agency and replaced the images. Too bad; we dug the final results. See Defaced Marilyn and Oil Spill Monet.

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 5-09    
Topic: Agencies, Bad, Brands, Campaigns, Good, Guerilla



Legs Clamps 'Net, Old-School Twitterati, Thinky-Thinky Print Pieces

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- Creatives on Craigslist. Yeah, it's sad. But not as sad as disseminating bulky PDFs about creatives on Craigslist.

- Legs, the content folk responsible for Diesel's "Pete the Meat Puppet," just launched its own website. Careful, desk cogs: it's ornamented with naked people, floating slowly about at extremely close range. (Like, close enough to see corns and butt freckles. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

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by Angela Natividad    Mar- 4-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Guerilla, Social, Sponsorship