Hasta La Creative!

Woody Allen isn’t happy about being featured in American Apparel’s latest ads, and is suing them for more than $10 million. Allen, best known for movies he made 30 years ago, claims he was not contacted about, or compensated for, the use of his image, and the lawsuit asserts that he “does not engage in the commercial endorsement of products or services in the United States.” So, if anyone reading this wants to slap Allen’s face on their product, try it in Europe or Canada. Also, this being American Apparel, the ads could have been worse.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

LONDON – Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, has been appointed to the council of the Advertising Standards Authority.

The term “utopia” refers to an ideal society. So says Wikipedia, which isn’t 100 percent accurate, but we’re not living in a perfect world, so it will have to do. Sir Thomas More coined the phrase in a book written 500 years ago. More’s a saint, by the way, so that must have been one heck of a book. Fast forward a few centuries, and we get ITopia from Intel and Qtopia from Quicken, which, respectively, give users access to Intel engineers and financial planning information. Both sound great, if your vision of an ideal society involves IM-ing with chip-makers or filling out loan applications. (Oddly, mine does, but I’m working on that in therapy.) Starbucks, never one to pass on a java-related trend of either the caffeinated or high-tech variety, launched a community site soliciting ideas from customers on perfecting the brand experience. I asked them to also serve Dunkin’ coffee, so I could have more options, but I haven’t heard back. Such convenience is also part of my utopian vision, along with a strict ban on robots, cats, “muscle cars” and county music. Well, maybe those freaky, hairless cats are OK. The Dixie Chicks can lump it. UPDATE: Mr. Griner points out that his agency, Luckie & Co., recently did a “Foodtopia” campaign for Asheville, N.C. See a couple of the print ads here and here.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

LONDON – Yahoo! Europe has appointed Christophe Parcot as its vice president of sales, replacing Javier Zapatero, who is leaving Yahoo! after eight years.

Good Things Come to Those Who WHITE
A pint of the black stuff becomes a pint of the white stuff with the launch of a creamier new version: “Guinness White”.
Guinness is made from the same raw ingredients as regular Guinness Draught – hops, barley, water and yeast, but the barley is frozen instead of roasted, which provides the white colour.

I have to admit, this April Fools made me shriek in horror/delight (not even sure actually, I know I’d try it!) so they had me for a nano-second there, scaring the Guinness-purist in me and delighting my try-anything-new side.
Very cute. Announced at facebook, which I’m so not going to link to because, pshaw, pfft, facebook, how lame.
The joke however, fun-niiii.

read more

Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa demonstrate how powerful Osrams really powerful lightbulbs are. Answer, very powerful. This “forest” one is the creepiest looking but the kid in school (inside) is – in my humble opinion of course – the simplest execution of the idea. I’m not sure I want my lightbulbs this powerful.

Chris Saunders, Photographer
Mick Blore, Chief Creative Officer
Liam Wielopolski, Executive Creative Director
David Reid, Creative Group Head/ Art Director
Steve Anderson, Creative Group Head/ Copywriter
Simone Allem, Producer

read more

LONDON – ITV’s head of broadband Annelies Van Den Belt is leaving the broadcaster less than a year after the launch of its online video-on-demand service.

LONDON – School children are spending their time in the classroom surfing social networking sites such as Facebook when they should be paying attention in lessons, according to research.

Here’s one for all those who fancy giant women, I guess. The Campaign Palace Melbourne has really put the engineered in maternity bras for Target.

read more

LONDON – BJL has been appointed to handle advertising and online work for Lambrini wine.