Hasta La Creative!

McGarry Bowen, one of the largest independent ad boutiques in New York, has given in to its Japanese suitor, according to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal.

In buying McGarry Bowen, Dentsu will be acquiring an agency with a solid reputation and close ties to big marketers. Its clients include Hewlett-Packard and J.P. Morgan Chase. McGarry Bowen had about $57 million in revenue last year.

The deal also comes about six months after Dentsu named Tim Andree, chief executive officer of Dentsu America, its first non-Japanese executive officer, a move that suggested the firm was getting more serious about the U.S. market.

Mr. Andree, a professional-basketball-player-turned-marketing-executive, was behind Dentsu’s purchase last year of Attik, a small San Francisco firm that works for clients including Toyota Motor and Coca-Cola.

Dentsu hopes to receive 30% of its revenue from outside Japan by 2010.

(TrendHunter.com) Target decided that giving plain plastic gift cards wasn’t really that interesting anymore so the marketing folks came up with the idea to offer a digital camera that doubles as a gift card. Now Target…

(TrendHunter.com) So a big muckety-muck noticed that after 10 p.m., the crowd changed dramatically at Denny’s restaurants. Gone were the high schoolers and college age drunkards looking to get some grub before heading out…

LONDON – The Marks & Spencer gang is all here for its latest Christmas extravaganza, and they’re joined for the second year by none other than Take That.

In the ad above, rock’n’rolla Ozzy Osbourne tries to order coffee, tell a cabby where he wants to go, and share his feelings with his therapist. But when his inaudible, mumbled words don’t travel, he resorts to texting his wants, via his Samsung Propel.

It struck us as odd to see Ozzy submit himself to this kind of self-deprecation. When ‘The Osbournes’ were on MTV, producers solved Papa-O’s mumbling problem with subtitles &#151 and we barely noticed his verbal follies (though watching him stumble around was definitely disheartening).

But to watch him eek out even the most basic communiques, unsuccessfully, took us out of the realm of “ha ha Ozzy can’t talk” and dropped us right in, “Good Lord, Ozzy can’t talk and Samsung is using that to sell phones”.

Maybe we’re being too picky here, but the notion that a phone can replace one’s ability to communicate verbally is absurd. Text will never replace the intonation of the human voice &#151 and we will do well to remember that cell phones (et cetera) are a tool, not an alternative.

More: “The Landing Of Google’s Android“

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Much like their African-American counterparts, Afro-Latinos have the ability to set trends for their cultures as well as other cultures. This is a ripe area for marketers.

Having reaped share gains from a controversial Australian ad featuring an animated beaver, Kimberly-Clark's Kotex U brand is extending the campaign, despite complaints from consumers.

(TrendHunter.com) Aya Hirano, anime star, Japanese pop singer, took a major fashion hit when she showed up on the web wearing a bikini all farked up.

However, switching the bottoms with the tops didn’t seem to hurt her…

The troubled economic situation has claimed yet another casualty. Steak n Shake, a diner-style restaurant chain located throughout the Midwestern and Southern United States, is in trouble. Shares have hit a 52-week low, and brand spankin’ new chairman, Sardar Biglari, is cutting vendors and answering to shareholders.

Advertising agency, Young & Laramore, has been cut from the budget rolls. The 66 person advertising agency in Indianapolis has been handling the creative on Steak n Shake for 18 years. Eighteen years! Agencies wish they could hold a client down like that. Kudos to Y&L.

President of Y &L, Tom Denari, said it would be a blow to the agency, as Steak n Shake was in the top of the shop’s roster along with the Goodwill. Yet, Denari is saying that while adjustments will be made, lay-offs are in now way imminent.

“It’s common when new leaders take over that this kind of event would take place,” Denari added. “It happens pretty frequently in the (advertising) business. The fact that we had such a long relationship is pretty unique in the industry. And I think a lot of it was based on the success of the work we did over the years.”

Ain’t that the truth. We wish Denari and his team the best.

More: Have You Seen The Axe? Hang Out With Erik Proulx
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Advertising Agency: Facto saatchi & saatchi, France
Creative Director: Fabrice Boutin
Art Director: Sébastien Ruyssen
Copywriter: Jean-Guillaume Pascaud
Photographer: Laurent Diat
Published: March 2008