Mom's a Slut. Men Are Free Loading Slobs. Happy Mother's Day

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I will admit I did not "get" this Mother New York-created Mother's Day video at first. I figured it was yet another sappy ode to a holiday that demands men to, in one day, must express their appreciation for the mom in their life with trite ditties such as a card or a meal at a restaurant as opposed to the daily verbal appreciation that truly expresses appreciation.

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by Steve Hall    May-13-08    
Topic: Agencies, Strange, Video



Creative Manager Pro Gets All Whatchamacallit Whosiwhatsit Workamajig-y

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This has to be a joke. Seriously. Creative Manger Pro, the agency software package that helps manage the creative and billing process, has changed its name to - um yea...this makes a hell of a lot of sense - Workamajig. Why? Because...um...as VP Ron Ause says, "The old brand did not properly reflect the product and organization behind it. Our old brand was too straight laced and did not properly convey what we are all about."

So...it's a product to help creative professionals manage the creative process and Creative Manager Pro doesn't properly convey that?

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by Steve Hall    May- 9-08    
Topic: Agencies, Tools, Worst



'Get the %#*&% Out of My Office Before I M16 Your Ass!'

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If you're a media planner or buyer, you're gonna love this new online game from Intergi. Are you sick of sales people bugging you? Tired of self-important AE demanding you revise that media schedule one more time so there's one m ore line on the flow chart between the online portion of the buy and the offline? Ready to tear the head off that pompous creative who thinks he knows media?

Having fun yet? :-)

by Steve Hall    May- 8-08    
Topic: Agencies, Games, Good



Publicity Ploy Gets Worst Copywriter Hired, Nets Agency Press

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Oh the games people play to get their name in the press or to land that dream job. For Yutaka Tsujino, the "disastrous" two years he spent at Crispin Porter + Bogusky wasn't enough to quench his creative needs. Now, after dubbing himself the World's Worst Copywriter and launching Yutaka Sucks, he's landed a job at Seattle's Creature because, well, Creature Co-Founder and Creative Director Jim Haven thought the job search effort didn't suck.

In the press release which had to be a nice break for the writer from the daily grind of monotonously shilling corporate dreck, Haven said, "Rarely do these kinds of stunts work unless they are brilliant. After visiting Yutaka's website and learning about his background and experience, we knew he was a perfect fit for Creature. We thought he was hilarious."

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by Steve Hall    May- 8-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Strange



Renegade Espouses Marketing as a Service

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It would be easy to toss off this Renegade video which espouses its belief marketing should be a service to consumers rather than an intrusive method to get people to buy stuff. It's not new and it's been voiced by many an agency eager to illustrate they know marketing has to engage, enable conversation, provide benefit, offer participatory experiences and provide a service that goes beyond an excuse simply to sell product.

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by Steve Hall    May- 5-08    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Social, Trends and Culture, Video



National Geographic Wins Three Ellies, Y&R Mails, Social Media Whitepapered

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- National Geographic hauled in three Ellies at the National Magazine Awards with The New Yorker and New York each getting one.

- PJA Advertising + Marketing is hosting Portfolio Night in Boston on May 8th at District.

- For some reason, some Y&R types created a Facebook group based on some big "reply all" email chain. Beyond that, it's totally unclear what the hell this is all about or why anyone would care.

- smashLAB has crafted a white paper on social media designed to be a primer for those clients who look at you with a blank stare when you utter the words "social media" in a meeting.

- Want on of those Flip video cameras all the cool kids have? Head over to Budget's Flip for Budget contest. Be sure to check out the rejected videos from Budget employees.

by Steve Hall    May- 2-08    
Topic: Agencies, Magazine, Research, Social



Journey Helps Modernista Art Director Journey to Colorado

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All that can be said about this video -- which Modernista created to say goodbye to Interactive Art Director Tim Blount as he heads to Boulder (for CPB? TDA?) -- is, um, there's definitely some hotties working at Modernista!

by Steve Hall    May- 1-08    
Topic: Agencies, Video



GoDaddy Diggs, Pix Clicked, Draft/FCB Boxes, Twitter Discussed

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-The boys at Diggnation Live had their way with the GoDaddy Girl last night. Or, rather, she had her way with them.

- PIXSTA, a UK-based company, launched an image-based online ad network which lets people click on various things in an image returning search results based on the object clicked.

- Draft/FCB Italy is moving and they've created a video to celebrate. George Parker doesn't like it but hey, it's better than looking at the faces of all that Draft/FCB ugliness, right? Kidding.

- During my dinner with the American Shelf Life crew in Boston last week, we discussed Twitter and the brands that are getting on board. Hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

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by Steve Hall    May- 1-08    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events, Online, Social



WPP Wants Rocket Scientists For Project DaVinci Dell Agency

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At the end of last year, Dell and WPP hooked up to create Project Davinci, an agency created solely to staff the Dell account in Austin and around the world. Recently, WPP took out an ad in the Austin Statesman looking for, well rocket scientists because, apparently, advertising people aren't smart enough to handle the seemingly daunting task of creating computer ads. That or they just wanted to write an oh-so-witty headline they could enter in some award show.

Poor Casey Jones. It seems his dream agency is taking a bit longer to get on its feet. Adrants reader illustrates the point with the photo caption, "...I was in the shower and it hit me, all I needed to do to save my ass was to go out and hire rocket scientists."

by Steve Hall    May- 1-08    
Topic: Agencies, Newspaper, Strange



OMD Gets Intel, AAAA's Twittered

- OMD has won Intel's $300 million media planning and buying duties besting incumbent Universal Mccann and Starcom.

- The PSFK Conference will be held in San Francisco July 17 at Fort Mason. Speakers booked so far: Adrian Ho, Zeus Jones; Andrew Hoppin, NASA; Chris Riley, Apple; Ed Cotton, Influx Insights; Eric Ryan, Method; Jean-Marie Shields, Starbucks; Mark Lewis, DDB; Rohit Bhargava, Ogilvy PR.

- Follow @ischafer on Twitter if you want to know what's going on at the AAAA conference today.

by Steve Hall    Apr-29-08    
Topic: Agencies, Industry Events