Agency Spy

Design/technology conference FITC is one of the parties behind this video, which besides begging for some "In a world..." stylings ala the late Don LaFontaine, tells us how the agency world will have vanished like the Mayans or the cast of The Facts of Life. Apparently "greed" and "arrogance" coupled with cluelessness and a more powerful audience are to blame for the demise in this clip, which we guess is jabbing at whoever's still stuck in a Mad Men mindset.

H/t @jasonzada

More: "Agency Life Gets the Ha-Ha Treatment"

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According to a source: "BGB New York/BGB New York has a huge 'ladies room' problem...Since January 2010, some one has been secretly taking dumps on the bathroom floor. YES! in the ladies room. last time this happened....YESTERDAY, THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010!"

More: "Blind Item: Which Agency's HR Director Wants Everyone to Know You're Fired?"

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-Hugh Jackman fulfills his duties as Lipton's global brand ambassador by showing off his moves in Rio. link

-The entire Nokia team at Swedish agency FarFar walked out. link

-Merrill Lynch asks Times Square passersby, "What Do You Want to Retire?" via an interactive billboard. link

-Digitas helped create a new app for MillerCoors dubbed the MGD 64 Pedometer. link

-GM takes on Kentucky legislators and auto dealerships in a new ad campaign. link

-Google will apparently bail on China in early April. link

-Joshua Brandau was named acting media director for Pereira & O'Dell. link

-Stella Artois launched a social media campaign and global competition to promote its affiliation with the Cannes Film Festival. link

-Why Hollywood should be afraid of the iPad. link

-Japanese ads never cease to amaze (video after the jump!). link

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"

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In your eager Friday think piece, we turn to a story from Wednesday. In it, a guy says social media marketing can replace advertising &#151 and cites the likes of Funny or Die (site) and AdMob (site) as examples. Here's that story. After the jump, some comments from advertising people that counter it.

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Surprised that BBDO went with a giant, fake looking breast for the upcoming Naked issue of Marie Claire? You shouldn't be &#151 they do something similar each year as a lead up to the special edition. Proceeds go to various charities &#151 and the naked bodies usually belong to some celeb who is too classy to take it off for, say, Playboy. To quote a random sound bite I heard yesterday, "there are far worse things in life than nudity."

Generally this is done in South Africa &#151 not sure if there's an American edition.

Credits and another execution after the jump. Via AdsoftheWorld

More: "Mick Jagger's 17 Year Old Daughter Half-Nude in Hudson Jeans Campaign"

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-Ogilvy Wins IKEA

-David&Goliath Among Those Facing Lawsuit for Kia Super Bowl Spot

-Just What is Crispin's Involvement with Gap Nowadays?

-Heineken Simultaneously Pleases Soccer Diehards and Their Girlfriends

-Israeli Agency Hacks, Ransoms Alex Bogusky's Facebook Fan Page

-Ari Merkin Reunites with Crispin

-Sometimes Tag Lines Come in Really Handy

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Slate V's ad critic Seth Stevenson recaps a little experiment he ran using Google TV Ads. Stevenson shows how you can infiltrate shows like Glenn Beck's by building a specifically targeted media campaign from the comforts of home for as little as $100. Whether it's an informal testimonial for Google TV Ads or not, Slate V's self-produced spot--which drove people to a website--aired 7 times during overnight reruns of Beck's show and a total of 54 times on four networks, netting 1.3 million total views in a week's span. Total outlay? $1,300.

More: "Glenn Beck Just Lost Fox 11 More Potential Advertisers (That's 57 Total)"

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The ad below from Germany (were you thinking anywhere else?) for a "scent" called Vulva Original wouldn't stand a chance with U.S. censors but it's still pretty tame compared to the NSFW first commercial promoting this alleged product as well as its over-18 site. Here, a routine workout serves a completely different purpose.

Via Illegal Ads and AdFreak

More: "Kotex Uses Fierce Colors, Vaginally-Aware Women to 'Break the Cycle'"

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Over the last couple days we've heard Organic is undergoing layoffs. One source asserts they've laid off the entire Detroit office. They have a Detroit office? Yes, they do. Another says they let go of half the office (which?) and that the last day is March 31. This is sucky. The agency did not respond to a request for info by the time this "story" was published.

Update: Sources familiar with the matter tell us that the layoffs in Detroit were "relatively small" though approximate numbers weren't revealed. They go on to add that there are still over 100 people working in the Detroit office and that the agency is "hiring people in a variety of different capacities."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the last couple days we've heard Organic is undergoing layoffs. One source asserts they've laid off the entire Detroit office. They have a Detroit office? Yes, they do. Another says they let go of half the office (which?) and that the last day is March 31. This is sucky. The agency did not respond to a request for info by the time this "story" was published.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Fourteen years after it was first proposed, the Food and Drug Administration has finally issued fairly sweeping regulations to prevent tobacco marketing/selling to youths.

As of June 22, the tobacco industry is banned from selling or distributing tobacco-branded apparel, using music or sound effects in audio tobacco ads, dishing out free samples of cigs and are limited to only using black-and-white for video ads and ads in teen-oriented print publications. With the last provision, however, the industry sued and a district court in Kentucky blocked implementation of it.

Surprisingly, Big Tobacco companies like Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds are in support and/or are already largely in compliance with the new FDA rules while those like Commonwealth Brands--the maker of Davidoff cigarettes among others--are none too pleased with the clampdown.

You can view the press conference about the FDA's new rules featuring Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after the jump.

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Here's a story about a copywriter, James Spring, who came to a crossroads in his life and decided to do something meaningful. In his formative days, Spring had been an amphetamine smuggler, operating out of the Baja peninsula of Mexico. Years later Spring became a copywriter, living with his family and working in San Deigo. As he neared his 40th birthday, Spring decided to do something meaningful, so he headed to Mexico to save two kids that had been kidnapped by their meth addicted, murdering parents. It all worked out in the end, but not the way he expected. Click here to listen &#151 fast forward to 11:30 and settle in.

After the jump, video of the kids reuniting with their grandparents.

Via This American Life

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We had to see it to believe it but yes that is the Oracle of Omaha, the boss of Berskhire Hathaway and now-outed Axl Rose fan Warren Buffett impersonating the G n' R frontman in this amusing clip for Geico (which BH owns).

According to reports, every year Geico produces a video at its annual meeting that features company employees and this 2 1/2-minute power ballad is just the latest addition. Considering how tiresome the Gecko has become, we'd take Buffett as the pitchman in a heartbeat. Hey, it worked for other bosses like Dave Thomas. Also, check out Vanity Fair's site to see how Buffett's performance in this clip ranks with ones from previous years.

More: "The Gecko Waves Goodbye to Glenn Beck"

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-Just what is Apple making developers do to keep the iPad a secret? link

-Greenpeace takes Nestle to task for contributing to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests and the brand has in turn dropped the palm oil company being held responsible. link

-YouTube and Viacom's copyright infringement case gets more heated as the former's accusing the latter of secretly uploading clips. link

-PETA is asking the company that's selling off Sex.com to donate the domain to them rather than auctioning it off. link

-Sony Europe's Twitter effort was a sales success. link

-Hyatt's Funny or Die campaign: We might have to side with Die. link

More: "Thursday Morning Stir"

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Dina Lohan will announce a new, green toothbrush tomorrow, called "The Aqua Freedom Green Lohan Brush" during a presser tomorrow in New York.

The next time you go out grab your T.A.F.G.L.B. and rest assured that you'll be able to wash the weed-and-hooker-spit taste out of your mouth before that 9 a.m. with the client, guilt free! Well, at least in the sense that you didn't waste any water &#151 whatever you did the night before, that's forever.

Yeah, or this is actually good for people in places without clean water. But still, good for whores.

More: "Lindsay Lohan Suing E*Trade Over Grey-Made Super Bowl Baby Ad"

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-Moxie Interactive appointed Lane Soelberg to SVP, business development and Los Angeles client services, and Chiat alum Christine Bensen to SVP, participant insights. link

-Those who've been watching Facebook will now be dependent on it. link

-W+K and Anonymous Content team up and tell us to "Stay Extraordinary" in a new ad for Diet Coke. link

-New York-based, Merkle-owned tech agency LogicLab hired Tony Sherman as director of product operations. link

-YouTube agrees to pay indie musicians in some capacity through its Partner Program. link

-Social media agency Attention lets us know that they're pro-Foursquare. link

-AMC's meth-filled hit Breaking Bad finds an ideal sponsor in Jolt. link

-Thanks to the World Cup, TV ad revenue in the UK is expected to grow by 20% in May. link

-Moms are once again the target in a new Facebook app from Fisher-Price. link

-Playstation jabs at Wii, Project Natal in new Move spot. link

-NERD/Neptunes co-conspirator Pharrell Williams is trying a different type of branding by designing lotion bottles for Kiehl's. link

More: "Wednesday Odds and Ends"

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Young & Rubicam's Chicago office has been named Agency of Record for Einstein Bros. Bagel Co., beating out three other agencies in the bidding process, according to a joint press release issued by the companies.

"We are absolutely thrilled to partner with the creative and inspiring Einstein Bros. Bagels brand," Kary McIlwain, President of Young & Rubicam Chicago, said in the statement.

Y & R Chicago will take on creative, digital, and media initiatives for the restaurant chain, which has over 350 locations nationwide.

More: Y & R New York 'Brings It' With Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Ads

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First it was ://www.mediabistro.com/Carl-Izzi-profile.html">Carl Izzi, but he didn't know enough about digital. Then Brian Anderson (story), but he wasn't ready for the work. Now GlobalHue has asked Brian Williams (pictured) to step and run the shop's burgeoning digital offering.

Details are foggy regarding Anderson's departure, but word is digital account and creative folks have been leaving (to the tune of 7-10 total) since the new year. Why? Same story: digital restructuring is best accomplished from the ground up.

Now it's up to Anderson's replacement, Williams, to right the ship. He won't be working alone. Joining the ranks as Digital ECD is MRM alum Michael Jacobs, who had been working solely on the GM business.

Williams too has MRM on his resume. Maybe that history will help the shop get its digital act together. Maybe not. A strong step in that direction would be to sway public opinion by sharing some successful efforts or at least managing rumors about journalistic impropriety. Sometimes though, you have to take one on the chin.

More: "GlobalHue's Kelli Coleman Reacts to Adweek Nod"

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BBDO has confirmed to us that SVP/senior creative director Scott Kaplan has left the agency (of his own choosing we're told) to go seek new opportunities as a freelancer. On what exactly remains to be seen but Kaplan spent over 5 years at BBDO and worked on projects for clients such as FedEx, Milky Way, HBO, eBay and Guinness. According to his LinkedIn profile, which seems to not have been updated as of yet, Kaplan spent two years each at Chiat NY and Devito Verdi as a copywriter prior to joining BBDO. The agency tells us that there are no plans to replace him at this time.

More: "BBDO Books Orbitz Creative Biz"

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DDB Chicago is saying farewell to its top new business executive, according to AdAge. Nancy Leibig, who has been with DDB since January 2007, was once the business development golden girl at Draftfcb.

Despite the much-publicized struggles DDB Chicago has recently faced, company sources attribute Leibig's departure to DDB's "restructuring [of] its business development function."

AgencySpy has also heard that DDB's Chicago office has hired a new Chief Creative Officer, though calls to confirm the rumor were not returned. The Chicago office has been without a CCO since the tragic death of creative head Paul Tilley in 2008.

Via AdAge

More: AdAge Takes Its Shot at DDB

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