DETROIT (AdAge.com) — While General Motors Corp. and other big automakers are trimming their 2008 ad budgets during the industry's dismal sales year, Audi of America is bulking up.
(TrendHunter.com) Think Jerry Seinfeld, ?Puffy Shirt? episode. You know? the famous shirt with ruffles all over it? If you?’re picturing it now, you?’re clued in to yet another ultra-glam, new fashion trend. Ruffles are…
LONDON – The national airtime sales contract for Jazz FM has been awarded to First Radio Sales, the sales outfit owned by UTV and The Local Radio Company, the group behind the station’s relaunch in October.
The New York Post sat down with a bunch of big deals to discuss diversity a little while ago. The article starts off with a short profile of Billie Williamson, Ernst and Young’s newly appointed, Americas Inclusiveness Officer. OMG. These corporate bullshit titles kill me. You’re a corporation. Just go with the whole lingo. Don’t make up new, huggy feely shit. Are we at summer camp? Should I run for the Camp Akinowa Cheer and Happiness Leader this year?
The Post also invited Ron Meraz, managing director of the office of diversity for Merrill Lynch’s Global Wealth Management division; David Lipscomb, vice president, diversity and inclusion at Sovereign Bank; Donna Pedro, chief diversity officer at Ogilvy & Mather; and Jino Ahn, the founder and CEO of Asian Diversity, Inc. While diversity is an issue for all companies, naturally, I was most interested with what Pedro’s two cents would be. The answer? Nothing new. She did say:
“This is not an overnight, let’s-change-an-organization type thing. It’s a process. And it’s really all about good talent. How do we capture the new talent coming in? And how do we manage them when they’re here? Because if you’re just looking at numbers, you’ll have constant attrition and turnover. It’s about, “Does the culture sustain those differences?”
How many times are we going to hear that swill? The real question is what these guys are going to do about it. Oh wait! Pedro has a plan:
“We also have what we call an employee advisory counsel, and we educate in a very different way as opposed to the traditional training. We’ve taken each of the multicultural months and done something fabulous. For example, for Women’s History Month, we invited Paola Gianturco, a photojournalist who documents women’s human rights issues around the world, to come in and show her photos, which was a phenomenal way to educate people. [Asian-American author] Jenny 8. Lee came in with her book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” during Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. We do quizzes online. I even threw a concert. And it’s that engagement that’s important. When people start interacting, what they work from is their similarities.”
Asking a woman to come in to speak, a concert, quizzes online? Hmm… and how has this boosted diversity at Ogilvy? Look, I’m not against engagement, but lets get real. Ken Wheaton‘s spanking of the agencies who didn’t show up at The New York City Commission on Human Rights is just another example of how da biz is all talk, no action when it comes diversity. Not one advertising agency made the list of Diversity magazine’s top 50 this year.
Let me help you guys out with my list of 8 rules for advertising agency diversity. Drum roll please…
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
(TrendHunter.com) Suicide is a story we hear all too often among the rich and famous (unfortunately, regular young people as well), and one we really cannot wrap our brains around. Why would someone so successful, so young,…
LONDON – Independent News & Media, owner of The Independent newspaper, has seen its half-year profits plunge 35.6 per cent because of poor consumer confidence and challenging trading conditions.
LONDON – Ford has signed a broadcast sponsorship deal to promote its Ford Ranger pick-up model on Virgin 1.
ITV has signed a deal with Premier Rugby and Guinness to broadcast a new weekly Guinness Premiership rugby highlights show.
(TrendHunter.com) The iBasket has a double life as a laundry basket and washing machine. The device starts automatically once full to clean and dry your laundry, then finally sends a message to your computer to tell you…
LONDON – Schoolmates networking website Friends Reunited attracted a record 5.5 million unique users during July, according to Nielsen research. The figure was just two million in April – a month before the site relaunched, abandoning its subscription model to broaden its appeal.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — With their extraordinary TV ratings, the Beijing Olympics have captured the gaze of nearly everyone in the media and ad business. Back on these shores, however, there's another contest that has begun to absorb attention: whether broadcast TV can rebound from an awful season and keep ad dollars flowing into its coffers.
LONDON – Experian QAS has won a contract to supply its QAS Pro address validation tool to gym chain Fitness First.
LONDON – The BBC is planning to lure comedian Harry Hill away from ITV with a £4m deal, which could include presenting a new version of ‘The Generation Game’ on Saturday nights, according to reports.
(TrendHunter.com) Hurricane Gustav and the Farmers’ Almanac are just two of the latest reminders of global warming. In short, “global warming is putting hurricanes on steroids,” according to a new report entitled “Increasing…
John Heath, former group planning director at McCann Erickson, has broken free of the death star to join The Gotham ad agency. He’ll be the group planning director for the shop.
Also joining him will be Lyle Tick has also joined the shop as group managing director and managing partner. Tick spent the last three years at mcgarrybowen. The 33-year old oversaw accounts like Reebok and Verizon. At Gotham, he’ll be running the less fun Bausch & Lomb and yellowbook.com accounts. Both will answer to the man upstairs, Peter McGuinness, who has been CEO over there since March. He took over for Gunnar Wilmot who is now the SVP, market development for McCann Worldgroup operations.
Don’t poo-poo the moves just yet. Gotham is having a pretty good 2008 having picked up Sony Ericsson and pushing their work on Remington up to global duties. Gotham still hold Maybelline, which surely Heath is ready for considering that McCann (shockingly) still has L’Oreal under its banner.
Still, something needs to be done with your website, Peter. Really now.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
Let me get this straight. Levi’s “Onion Peel” spot by Cutwater, breaking this coming Monday during Gossip Girl, shows the reverse transformation of a corset- and fishnet-wearing supermodel into an average gal in Capital E jeans? I sat through the 90-second Fellini-esque monochrome clip thinking: She dolls it up again at the end … right? No way. She’s beautiful just being herself. Her Levi’s-branded self, but it’s advertising, after all, and it’s about as deep a message as we’re likely to get in an apparel spot this year. Um, Levi’s … there is a sequel where she dresses all sexy again, or undresses, which would be even better? … Right?! … Here’s a spot that Fellini did direct. It’s not for jeans, but it should appeal to guys because it’s simplistic, colorful and silly. Mmm, yes, that’s the stuff. My brain just stopped working. The man was a genius. Bravissimo!
—Posted by David Gianatasio
LONDON – WPP’s bid for market research firm TNS looks likely to be successful, after German firm GfK ended merger talks with TNS.
This visually arresting spot by Euro RSCG Chicago for Invesco PowerShares shows a man going inside his own brain and seeing his ideas personified—as a bunch of little people and one giant. I’m not ready to face my ideas in the flesh. For one thing, I doubt my ideas would wear suits like this. I don’t even own a clean pair of pants. The ad was directed by MJZ’s Dante Ariola, whose last name is almost naughty. He did a nice job, but I hope the giant stays inside the guy’s brain. If he gets out, he’s liable to crush us all, or at least brag like a jerk over his “ideas about investing.” What’s the plan—buy low, sell high and sink the profits into time shares in Myrtle Beach? Good luck, you giant freak—you won’t even fit through the door!
—Posted by David Gianatasio
SYDNEY – Australian newspaper publisher Fairfax is planning to cut 550 jobs at its papers in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand as part of a restructuring plan aimed at saving A$50m (£23m).
LONDON – Bliss, the national charity for special care babies, has launched a new brand identity for the first time in 10 years including a new logo, strapline and website.
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