Hey, wait a minute Ad Age. We did our survey first and it was a split decision. Oh wait. You have all those old, conservative readers and we have all the cool new kids. Now we get why the survey results differed. It seems Adrants readers enjoy working with Julie Roehm-ish drama more than Advertising Age readers. Eighty one percent of Advertising Age readers feel Wal-mart made the right move in firing Julie Roehm. What's that they say about research? Oh wait, we don't want to nullify out own survey results now do we?
Looks like the belle of the big-box ball is losing suitors. GSD&M President Roy Spence states, "I want to thank Wal-Mart for inviting us to re-pitch the business. I have decided to decline. We helped build Wal-Mart from $11 billion in sales to $312 billion. We declare victory [...] and we are moving on."
January marks the end of the 20-year relationship and GSD&M is apparently stoked "about the prospect of chasing retail accounts that Wal-Mart's business long kept the agency out of."
GSD&M remain mum on all that Julie bullshit but there's little doubt the issue is an unsavoury contributor to the slicing of the cord.
Finalists from the previous review still running for the red-hot $580 million account include Ogilvy & Mather and Interpublic's Martin Agency. Roy's image at left courtesy of AdAge. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
Carat Fusion is injecting a bit of common sense into the out-of-control agency Christmas card trend and rather than trying to create something that's funny or cool or witty that just comes off as dumb, the agency has created something that refelcts what Christmas is all about: giving. The agency's Carat Fusion Holiday Cookie Maker lets visitors decorate gingerbread cookies. For each cookie decorated, the agency will donate $1 (up to a limit of $5,000) to Save the Children. Now that's a Christmas card.
Whether she's trying to drive readers to her blog or develop business for herself doesn't really matter. What does matter is Lotus Child's (yes. apparently, that is her real name) effort to stop marketers from beginning their Christmas promotions too early. Claiming promotions beginning in November and October are just too over the top, Child has created a petition called Take Back the Holidays. So if you think we're getting overzealous with our Christmas advertising plans, head over to the petition and check it out.
- Cynopsis reports, "Peter Boyle, who portrayed the often cranky father in the CBS comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, died Tuesday in New York after suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease. He was 71 years old."
- Does this agency do any client work or do they sit around all year creating Christmas card videos?
- Chick-Fil-A has released a Ames Scullin O'Haire-created commercial promoting the SEC vs. ACC rivalry.
- We're reading George Parker's Madscam. We like it. We're not done yet but one YouTube user has and has published a video review of the book.
Back in the day, a Christmas card was just that, a card sent to clients thanking them for their business. Of course, that expanded to vendors, friends, family and the with the advent of the Internet, the entire world. What was once a simple secretarial...uh...administrative function has now become the hottest job on December's traffic list. Check out this entry from UK agency Proximity which dragged out the entire agency to appear in the thing. I guess one has to wonder what happens to general agency productivity on client work during Christmas card production week. Perhaps a footnote attached to the card acknowledging the amount of resources transferred from actual client work to Christmas card production is in order. Oh screw that. We're waiting for An Agency.com Christmas: The Movie.
Oh, and speaking of the Christmas card movie, here's one from Barkley. Something about a spaceman. We lost interest after a few minutes.
Oh, but any card that simply has the chipmunks singing and agency heads bobbling is a winner in our book. Sorry, we're easy to please. This one's from Tinsley Advertising. (Just who is that girl in the yellow bikini?) OK, OK, that sound loop is making our head explode!
We sometimes wonder why anyone in their right mind would want their ass crack revealed for the entire industry to examine but, apparently, someone over at Crispin Porter + Bogusky wants (practically begged) all of us to see Director of Broadcast Rupert Samuel's ass which he bared (sort of) at the agency's recent two office (Miami and Boulder) holiday party. Bogusky himself was on hand as well dressed as Willy Wonka. Oh the things we do to bring you important ad industry news.
Given available facts, when queried on their opinions about whether or not Julie Roehm should have been fired from Wal-mart, the industry is clearly undecided and split right down the middle. Based on a survey of 509 Adrants readers, 250 think she should have been fired and 259 think she should not have been fired. Hardly conclusive and, well, hardly relevant either. It's just interesting to see where the industry sits on this issue.
Ads involving carriages in a desperate race against crocodiles, tigers, spherical killer rocks and Satan always make for promising fare, which is why Oregon Trail was so popular, and which is also why this Nissan ad by Curt Detweiler via TBWA\Chiat\Day is so awesome.
Curt's new to LA having just come from TBWA Paris and this work suggests he merits some watching - for slapstick entertainment value if nothing else. And by the way, that image at left has little to do with the video but lots to do with QuickTime being douchey. It is, however, part of the TBWA Nissan campaign. Try not to get confused. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
With all the news and analysis last week regarding Wal-mart's Julie Roehm, let's get down to the most important issue at hand. Do you think Julie Roehm should have been fired? Take a quick yes or no survey here.
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