Hasta La Creative!

Aegis wants you to know that they care about the green, man. The media company has bought UK/US shop Clownfish. Founded in 2002, Clownfish helps brands figure out how sustainability can improve business performance; matches brands with appropriate NGOs and performs general green ideation. It’s a strong brand headed up by the very sharp CEO Diana Verde Nieto.

Nice play for Aegis, but naturally, the company has decided to merge Clownfish into Isobar –
Aegis’ global digital marketing firm. Isobar is like a shark. It just swallows other agencies whole like in December 2004 when it ate up search marketing firm iProspect. Or when, in 2005 it chomped down on web build agency de-construct, creative agency Farfar, ecommerce specialist Molecular, UK creative agency Glue and the list goes on and on.

Hmm…those were all digital shops. Clownfish does the whole environment, bottom line thing. You know, this reminds me of when I found out that Mariah Carey got married to pseudo-pop star Nick Cannon. I knew right then that these two people had gone way off the reservation, lost their marbles. Reading about this merger is kind of like that. You just know it’s a bad idea.

More: And a Spokeswhore is Born
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Tina Brown’s new Web site, The Daily Beast, is aiming to be a smaller, less chaotic version of the World Wide Web itself.

We got this riddle in the mail bag today:

“Which CCO has had enough ‘medical procedures’ that his team is thinking that perhaps rehab might be a better place for him than a board room?”

Normally, we’d skip posting an item like this, but when we thought about the possible answers we realized that this could be a number of people. It all depends on what you consider a “medical procedure.” With the awards shows, the late night creative sessions, the pressure of being the boss and the fact that yes, some people are still living a Less Than Zero lifestyle, well it could be a long list. We had to chuckle. It’s actually a super long list.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — The Wisconsin Advertising Project of the University of Wisconsin is reporting today that the McCain campaign's decision to turn 100% of its advertising messages to negative attacks on Sen. Barack Obama last week — combined with the 34% of Mr. Obama's messages attacking Sen. John McCain — means that negative ads this time are outpacing those of four years ago in the race between President George W. Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

A new campaign from the Ad Council and Arnold New York hopes to eradicate the popular phrase “that’s so gay” as an insult. Each TV spot features teens being lectured by a celebrity like Hillary Duff or Wanda Sykes. While I appreciate the goal of taking homophobic lingo out of the mainstream, it’s hard to imagine these ads going over successfully with young viewers. Some advertising folks have already tried spinning “so gay” into a compliment. I also wonder if the campaign would be more effective if it tackled a wider range of mainstream insults like “retard.” The print ads focus on more jarring homophobic terms such as “faggot” and “dyke,” although they are almost definitely in a different class (for now, at least). I’m reminded of when someone used the phrase “that’s so gay” in front of a gay friend of mine, then looked to him awkwardly and asked, “Oh man, is it OK to say that?” My friend replied, “I don’t know, how gay was it?”

—Posted by David Griner

We reached out to Enfatico to get some clarification on three employees we heard were heading elsewhere. (Chief procurement officer) Cris Fortes‘ last day was 5 days ago, Gary Steele (global transition officer) bailed in April and is heading to Arnold in Boston, and CIO Mike Miller left back in March. So what’s the deal, Enfatico?

“Wanted to provide some contect [sic] around some of the reporting and your most-recent inquiry.

Per your last question, Mike Miller left Enfatico in March. He was appointed by WPP and was instrumental in helping Enfatico take shape. John Roulston-Bates, our CTO, has been with Enfatico since the early transition team. As we’ve continued to build out our own senior leadership team, we have made the strategic decision not to fill the CIO spot.

Gary Steele was part of the initial transition team. He left the agency in April, although he did continue to have a strategic consulting relationship with other members of the WPP family. Stephen Sonnenfeld, as you know, is our President of Consumer Solutions.

Generally speaking, while we do not comment on personnel matters, we did want to give some context around Cris Fortes, who has left the agency, as you have noted. For clarification’s sake, Cris was not a member of Enfatico’s Senior Leadership Team.

Finally, it’s important to note that there was a transition team and that over time, we have appointed and rounded out key members of our Senior Leadership Team. In the next week, we will be announcing additional appointments to our SLT.”

And we’ll be waiting to see who they’ve picked up. Let the commentary begin.

More: “Schematico’s CEO Responds to ‘Dumping’ Enfatico“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Marriott account has been with T3 in Austin for the last five years; but we’ve confirmed today that the client is headed to Continuity, a shop started by ex-T3 VP John McGarry Jr.. We contacted T3 this morning for comment, and below is their response.

“Yes, T3 will be transitioning off its five-year Marriott relationship ending in December. Marriott has chosen to consolidate its interactive business with Continuity due to the current state of the economy and budget restraints. We’ve had a very successful five years with Marriott and have won numerous awards including the hospitality industry’s marketing benchmark &#151 Adrian Awards. T3’s experiential site www.plugintomarriott dot com earned Platinum &#151 the highest industry honor.

As to your question regarding new business wins, you recently reported our ConocoPhillips, Robbins Brothers, Taco Bell and Intel wins. In addition, we are continuing to grow our current client business and given our strong hotel category experience, we will soon be exploring related prospects.

As a side note, we’re excited to announce the launch of our new T3 Web site – www.t-3.com. The new site represents T3’s mantra moving forward: ‘Intrigue, Inform, Inspire’.”

Source

More: “Update: The Good And Bad News From T3“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Mirrors don’t lie. That’s the tool this Erwin-Penland-created commercial for Clemson University takes.

Back in the day, there was a football player named Joe Namath. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, spoke to an audience of magazine executives visiting The Google campus yesterday.

According to Ad Age, Schmidt said the internet is fast becoming a “cesspool” where false information thrives.

“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” he said. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

“Brand affinity is clearly hard wired,” he proposed. “It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.”

So, The Google may not believe in “advertising” per se, but brands? Oh yes, The Google believes in brands.