Hasta La Creative!

Hyundai’s new campaigns is brilliant. The premise is relevant for millions of Americans. You see, under the “Hyundai Assurance Program” if you lose your job within a year after buying one of their vehicles, you can return it. Not kidding. The rules are simple: customers stricken by misfortune outside of their control, such as becoming disabled or getting laid off. Customers must also have made at least two payments on the car already.

This is the first car ad in years that has actually caught my attention. Mostly because of the message, but also because the spot is easy to digest, simple and actually gives you a reason to buy the vehicle. Nice work Richards Group. Maybe Mazda and Doner should take some notes.

More: “It’s All About Who You Know: AethnaHealth Shifts Media Account To Digitas“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

On Thursday, January 8 at 11 AM, the NAACP and the civil rights law firm of Mehri & Skalet will announce the Madison Avenue Project, an initiative created to address the advertising industry’s alleged “long history of widespread racial discrimination.”

While advertising-fueled website page takeovers are nothing new, they don’t usually integrate quite so intricately as this one does for the Ford F-150 on the new ESPN site.

Une superbe galerie et des exemples très parlants de body painting par l’artiste australienne Emma Hack. Entre illusion et images de nu apparent, elle met en scène des motifs fusionnant avec le corps humain.

To help launch the new ESPN Web site, the sports news company teamed up with Ford and our favorite spokesman, Mike Rowe, for a front page take-over that actually works. Check it out here.

Thanks Denver Egotist, The.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Over on the ad layoff blog, Please Feed The Animals, a new section kicked off to help jump start your new year. Agency insiders are giving their two cents to the blog on the state of hiring in the industry. The first insider to be in the hot seat is Ernie Schenck, author, creative director and Contributing Editor for Communication Arts. He’s got some nice advice, but our stand-out line was:

“If you get in, put your head down, do amazing work, entrench yourself in the culture, entwine yourself in the success of your clients, and for God’s sake, go beyond the assignments.”

Hell yeah.

More: More Job Hunting Tips

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

A few weeks ago we asked you if you know which agencies (if any) are serving the GLBT community. You responded, including in your comments names like McKinney in North Carolina, YesDesign Group in Los Angeles and Tiffany Hughes, a CD at Metric Interactive. What we noticed about your responses is that they were devoid of names like BBDO, CP+B, JWT and those other big agencies we sometimes talk about.

So from this we gather that either very few agencies want to tap into this financially viable community or, what is more likely, no single shop is dedicated to serving just that market. Case in point, Zig, which produced the campaign you see above (and after the jump). Their very short ads point out how different gay couples are from “the rest” (tongue in cheek of course). But the campaign was a one off &#151 fuel for future GLBT related work, but not a direction, per se (nothing wrong with that in any way, shape or form). Click play.

Anyway, we’re kind of amazed that an agency hasn’t formed to serve this highly lucrative market. A report sponsored by the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce found that the GLBT community has $712 billion in buying power. So much for “untapped” markets, eh? This reminds us of that time when you guys realized teens spend money. Remember that?

Before we get our undies in a bunch about the ever-present need to change with the market, let’s take a look at what’s already there &#151 a group of people with a lot of money who probably wouldn’t mind seeing a lady propose to another lady in a Zales spot. Just sayin’.

More: “The Soup Wars: Campbell’s Targets $650 Billion GLBT Community“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

No predictions for me. I couldn't have guessed in a million years what 2008 would bring, although I'll be forever grateful that my meager savings didn't end up in Bernie Madoff's hands. Instead, let me offer up what's on my agenda for the next year. If nothing else, you'll see how one agency is getting ready to launch into 2009.

The Travel Channel, which hosts one of our favorite shows (No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain) has selected Razorfish New York as their interactive agency &#151 as such, the shop will rebuild travelchannel dot com, which currently sucks.

The win should help offset the recent embargo on Razorfish’s work for Conde Nast mag Details. And though the agency hasn’t revealed how much they’re bringing home with this win, they do plan to, “refocus the website while delivering a state-of-the-art interactive experience for all visitors. Razorfish plans to create a sense of consistency and ease of navigation, highlight television extensions, and promote the recent incorporation of interactive offerings on TravelChannel.com.”

Great, now only if they would add something about getting a discount on food from Les Halles, Bourdain’s French steak house, which is stellar btw. Fingers crossed!

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More: “Inside Conde Nast’s ‘Ancillary’ CutBacks: Details & Razorfish“

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The New York Times unveiled a display ad on its front page, despite decades of fear that advertising there could contaminate the journalistic product or brand.