It's hardly been three days, and already the shoving match between Google and Microsoft over this -- not to mention the growing list of greed-sparked suitors for Yahoo's hand -- is really, really old.
To provide comic relief, Luckie & Company's Rethink Everything launched Yahoocrosoft. The site hosts a spoof news article where -- in some insane universe not far from our own -- Yahoo counteroffers to buy Microsoft for $44.7 billion.
We're hoping the article will at some point make way for spoofy cartoons, which can't possibly be far behind.
Advertising Age just named Tribal DDB Worldwide (the Quintippio guys!) Global Agency Network of the Year. This is the first time a digital shop's won over traditional houses.
Congrats, you crazy digital sauce-sipping kids you. As for everyone else? Well, Andy Berndt comes to mind.
Andy Berndt, once of Ogilvy and now of Google, got up in front of a bunch of marketers last week and said, "Google is not starting an ad agency."
MarketingVox (i.e. me in less knee-slapping form) compares this statement to that made by Google's Alan Eustace pre-Android. You know the one: "We're not doing a mobile phone."
Google may not be starting an ad agency, but you don't have to start an ad agency to make life hard for ad agencies. (And hey, maybe that's just what you slackers deserve.)
One more time: "Google is not starting an ad agency." Think about everything that sentence leaves out.
Show of hands if you believe Andy.
In support of his ongoing theory the advertising industry is filled with BDA's aka Big Dumb Agencies, George Parker has unearthed an interesting analogy that involves monkeys and classical conditioning. The net result of this exercise explains perfectly why BDA's (and most other big companies) can never get out of their own way and achieve greatness.
So if you want to laugh and, at the same time, realize that, yes, you too just might be one of those monkeys trapped in a perpetual hell of repetitive behavior without knowing why, give this a read.
LaBov & Beyond is this delicious mesh of old-fogeyness and "I swear I'm cool, I swear!"-ness.
When we last covered them, they were trying to generate creativity with a whiteboard website. This time around, they're spreading word that LaBov & Beyond isn't an agency at all. Latest positioning statement: "LaBov, the Un-Agency Agency."
Wondering what LaBov & Beyond is? We're not sure, but we bet it involves a lot of super-expressive words that don't actually say anything. See PDF.
But hey, we're into their earnestness. LaBov vibes like a dependable bunch, even if not flawlessly hip.
And if you haven't heard, here's Trumpet Groups riff on the RFP, its Request for Problem. The agency, changing the direction this sort of communication usually flows, wants marketers to submit their problem to which the agency will reply with a solution...for free. Of course, Trumpet hopes their solutions are so good the marketer will call for more work and pay next time around.
It's an interesting approach. Or you could just label it yet another example of agency laziness, in this case making the client do all the upfront new business legwork. But we're sure that's not the case here.
Finishing up its work for Porsche as the account shifts to Cramer-Krasselt, Carmichael Lynch, which landed Subaru without review in November, has released its last work for Porsche. To launch the Cayenne GTS in the states, Carmichael Lynch created a new TV spot and, along with Fabric Interactive, a new website which is currently counting down to the vehicles January 28 launch.
In the commercial, a Cayenne driver ascends the mountains overlooking LA and, in a nod to some sort of urban myth, revs its engine to which other Porsches respond. It's really that simple. The site doesn't have much on it for now other than the spot itself, a countdown clock and a little engine rev thingy. Hopefully, we'l see more January 28th.
Wendy's, apparently not pleased with its red wig campaign, may be leaving Saatchi & Saatchi, AdScam's George Parker reports. A Saatchi source tells Parker production has ceased on all work. George didn't like the red wig campaign citing its lack of relevance to the brand and its lack of message content.
We're not sure we agree. Following the death of iconic Dave Thomas, Wendy's work hit a low point. We think the red wig campaign succeeded in eliciting a "whoa, that's pretty good in a weird sort of whacked way" reaction. Whether it sold any hamburgers we know not.
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- George Parker is sick of Facebook, it's plethora of stupid applications and the insanity of a "24 year old billionaire wanker" gets rich using people's information without asking their permission.
- Legendary ad man George Lois makes an appearance on this week's Studio 360, Public Radio International's syndicated weekly show about creativity.
- TNS Media Intelligence forecasts media spend to increase 4.2 percent in 2008 with growth slower in the first half than the second. The Olympics and political spending will contribute significantly to that figure. The biggest increase (14.4 percent) will be seen in internet display advertising.
- AdWeek has named Goodby U.S. agency of the year and Wieden + Kennedy global agency of the year.
This is personally sad. Not because I knew the guy but because I read a book of his (one of the few ad books I've made time to read) and feel like I know him. Yes, Phil Dusenberry, a man I never knew but a legend in the advertising world died at 71 December 29 after fighting lung cancer for the past year.
Dusenberry was a star at BBDO who many credit with turning BBDO into the creative powerhouse it was and, in some cases, still is. He of Michael Jackson Pepsi fame and creator of many memorable taglines such as GE's We Bring Good Things to Life, Dusenberry began his career in the Mad Men days of 1962 as a junior copywriter at BBDO. Apart from a seven year stint running his own shop, Dusenberry spent his entire career at BBDO rising through the ranks until he became Chairman of BBDO's North American operations.
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