Agency Spy

Love us or hate us, Down Low and myself are moving over to the Mamabistro site as of right now. FIND US HERE. No wukkas. There are full RSS feeds and a comments system ready to roll. The comments require you to register, but you know, most of you are making up the contact info anyway, so just do it again, yeah?

We will both miss this lovely WordPress site. I, especially, as this is where I launched this Agency Spy madness. Back then I thought it would be just a side gig. Now, it’s a lifestyle. Thank heavens for Down Low. Two is better than one for sure.

Thank you readers for making this blog fantastic! We hope that we’ve managed to entertain you; inform you (at least once in awhile), make you chuckle, get you commenting or thinking about all the advertising stuff that gets swept under the carpet (rigged awards, overlooked genius’, agency machinations). We hope we’ve been fair, too. Layoffs we try to tackle sanely. We skip all those tips about adulterous CDs. Don’t send us that stuff. We’re not going to post it. We also apologize when necessary. You can find a few of those within our just under 1650 postings. Whew. That many? You can also find some great ideas, shout-outs, applause or observations and not just from us, but from you, the readers. Often, you guys know better or more than we do, which is awesome. This two way street rocks.

We’re gonna keep this shit going as long as you’ll have us. So, before I get all weepy let’s shut this soliloquy down with a quote from The Game and 50 : “And I ain’t going no where/ So you can get to know me.” Amen.

x. Super Spy

Tribble points us to a new scandal for the downtrodden GSD&M. Seems the agency is getting sued. The Austin Statesman, spends quite a bit of time following the turmoils of the shop and from their pages, it seems:

“The lawsuit stems from a national advertising campaign that depicts a man waiting to check in for a flight who is asked by attendants to spin a wheel for a prize: a seat on a large plane. A song similar to the theme from “The Price Is Right” plays.”

The client, Southwest Airlines, is also named in the suit. The onus is on , owners of the show, to prove that consumers will be confused by the and say, head to the airline’s website rather than that of the iconic game show. You might think this is an impossibility. However, consumers can be daft. Totally daft.

Agencies and brands are always getting sued. With their army of lawyers, you’d think they could secure this kind of stuff out of the gate. For example - take the Addams Family themed spots created by BBDO for Mars’ brand M&M. The agency and brand cleared only some of the rights with the “Addam’s Family Foundation,” failing to clear incidentals on the usage rights for likeness of the characters portrayed in the print and TV spots. Mars is now being sued, though BBDO stays in the clear. Ryan Bowling, a spokesperson for Mars, said that it was the company’s policy not to comment on pending litigation. C’est la vie.

In case you missed it… Christ. The Hoff. Love it.

Back end to this spot is that normally, celebs sign a “death and disgrace” clause or separate contract. In the event of either of these things, the agency/brand gets their money back from the celebrity for tarnishing the brand. However, Hoff (being Hoff) was expected to fuck up and so, was not forced to sign. The spot went forward with agency Karmarama behind the wheel.. Don’t you know that David, just a day before the shoot, broke his arm by falling off a bike? Look closely at the spot and you can catch a glimpse of his black cast.

Love this kind of stuff. A reader suggested we ask you creatives for the details behind some of your favorite celeb commercials. Come on… did you watch Beyonce’s wig come off? Did you see Brit Brit puke while shooting a soft drink spot? Do tell… Email yeah? agencyspy at gmail dot com

Too bad that this 27-year old twosome are actually at the center of a media shit storm. You see, over at Creativity January and Scott are being credited with work they didn’t actually produce. The normally spot on journos at the mag must have been blind sided by the pair’s wildly Uniqlo vibe. A snippet from the article:

“When Vernon (art) and Ginsberg (copy) arrived in New York in 2004, it was to join Tribal DDB, where they worked on the bawdy “Shave Everywhere” online campaign for Philips’ manscaping appliance, the Bodygroom.”

First of all, Vernon and Ginsberg never worked at Tribal DDB. That would be DDB people. Big difference. This typo might have been a journalistic oversight. Shit, we do that all the time, but as many like to point out, we’re just a blog.

The duo won an Effie, while working at, yes, DDB for their wild posting campaign for the same brand, Bodygroom. They got some mojo for sure, but um…

“Shave Everywhere” was a much-lauded online campaign that took home a Gold Cyber Lion in Cannes and Pencils at The One Show and D&AD. Who wouldn’t want to take a little credit for it or alternatively, let a journalist give them some shine? However, just because you did wild postings doesn’t mean that you developed an entire online experience. Apparently, the pair sat in on one meeting where everyone got together to talk shop about the client. One meeting does not a website articulate, create or build. Steven Nesle (Tribal’s ECD) and Brook Lundy (the copywriter on Shave Everywhere) have got to be fuming that credit for their idea is going every which way. This is a small navel gazing industry. Did you guys think no one would notice?

The rest of the article has Vernon and Ginsberg rattling off the reasons why they make a good team. One reason is that they don’t take the business seriously. Maybe not, but seriously… You guys might want to write Creativity and get them to redact that whole paragraph there. It kind of looks like you’re complicit. People are talking. Think of your future and that other people take their work and this business very seriously. Another reason they work well together is that they have the ability to call bullshit on one another. So, hey… when you guys read this article - who called bullshit on who?

Too often credit is not given where credit is due. You’d think that creatives would at least correct journalists when this kind of stuff happens. Hos before bros? No, no… how about do the right thing? Yeah. That works.

David Verklin, CEO of Aegis Media Americas, is stepping down from his role later this year, his 10th at Aegis Media. Sarah Fay has been named the CEO of Aegis Media N.A.. Until now, Fay, 45, has been leading Carat’s U.S. operations. We loaded up video of Sarah and picked on Verklin just a little while ago. Check it out here. Aegis’ South American unit will now report to Aegis Media chief executive Mainardo de Nardis, as will Fay.

Adweek is reporting that David is getting out of advertising business altogether:

“I’m looking at a bunch of different alternatives. I don’t see myself coming back to the agency business.”

On the record, everyone over at Aegis denies that Verklin’s departure has anything to do with the loss of the $800M Kia business nor the $250M New Line account. Oh, sorry. They are “strongly” denying with Aegis Media chief executive Mainardo de Nardis pointing out that their “North American business has grown every year for 10 years.”

Whatever. Congrats to Sarah.

A very strange tipster asked us if we knew if Wayne Best was still the ECD over at Taxi New York. I’ll be honest. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about Taxi. They’re just kind of there, in the mix, but not on the top of the radar. So, we had to investigate.

If you try sending Best an email this is what you get:

“Begin forwarded message:

From: “Wayne Best”
Date: April 21, 2008 4:04:35 PM EDT
To:
Subject: Re: question

Thank-you for contacting TAXI Inc.
Wayne Best is no longer with the company. Please contact Samantha Lew for any of your Creative needs at xxxxxxx@taxi-nyc.com

If you are in need of further assistance please call xxx xxxx and our receptionist will be happy to direct your call.”

Wayne is also no longer listed on the agency’s website, but is listed on LinkedIn as still being with the shop. In March, Adweek was quoting him so, where in the world is Wayne? We contacted the New York office to get a clue. In the mean time, your guess is as good as ours.

[image source]

We got a rumour over the weekend about copywriter Eric Kallman and art director Craig Allen, a pair of TBWA/Chiat/Day, N.Y. creatives who were responsible for a lot of the Skittles work there under ECD Gerry Graf — well they were resigning and shuffling off to a new locale.

Since you kids all love the journalistic integrity SuperSpy & I try and put through here — I wrote Jeremy Miller — TBWA PR guy — this morning to try and confirm that it was the case.

Dick writes back (at 3:39 pm EDT):

“Already posted on Creativity online.”  (This is the contents of the entire e-mail)

Uh… thanks dickweed for your help & assistance.  Since we got scooped because of a wanker at TBWA — here is the link to the article.  They are off to W+K Portland and will be working on the Old Spice and Careerbuilder accounts under CD Mark Fitzloff, but also eventually hope to expand their repertoire on Nike and Coca-Cola.

Grey Worldwide has won the Honk Kong Tourism board account. The agency snagged a three-year contract covering 18 global markets, which Adweek is estimating to be in the $50 million value range. WPP’s MindShare will handle planning and buying on the business.

Sorry, but Grey landing this one causes a chuckle to tickle my throat. Hong Kong is cemented in many minds as a mover and shaker, idea, creativity and savvy business oriented republic in comparison to China or well, lots of places. So, how is it that death star agency Grey landed the account? Hmmm… Their last agency of record was DraftFCB, so maybe the board is blinded by the multiple worldwide offices? If that’s the case, then in three years the tourism board will be signing up with McCann.

Omnicom can’t stop. Won’t stop. The latest news is that the company has teamed up with a newly created NBC Universal production unit to create programs around sponsors’ products. It’s like Honeyshed, but with air of pretension. This is straight up selling. Forget the cool kids, let’s make some money!

NBC Universal Digital Studio will work with a division of Omnicom Group Digital to create web specific shows that allows advertisers to get in early and have some say in how their products will be featured. For an example, there’s the Rosario Dawson (so hot) project titled Gemini Division, which comes with sponsors Intel, Microsoft, UPS and Acura TSX. Dawson is not only the star, but a producer. The Hollywood Reporter is saying, naturally, the web version is really just a test to see if the program can fly in prime time.

Omnicom Media Group Digital chief executive Matt Spiegel said that this new method of creating shows is:

“a unique way of giving brands a seat at the table with writers and producers in developing episodic programming that ties directly to brand needs.”

Bravo to NBC for figuring out to be more flexible with content generation, as well as delivery methods, but um… doesn’t that sound awful? The part where CMOs are getting in on the creative level? Oh. Oh. So, bad. You deal with these guys all the time. Good idea machines? Not so much. Wishy washy, knock-kneed, consumer fearing blowhards? Hell, yes.

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Wow. We are depressed. One of our favorite bloggers, Copyranter, has called it game over:

“It takes too much of my time and too much of my life to publish every day.”

Now where will we turn when looking for early morning puns and double-eged pleasantries? We have got a feeling this isn’t going to be a faux-out either. Copyranter is no Jay-Z, no fame whore. When he says he’s done, we’re positive he means it. Sigh. Shit. He shall be missed. He shall be very missed.