Hasta La Creative!

News Corp is moving its new London operation, including News UK (formerly News International), HarperCollins and Dow Jones, to The Place building, dubbed ‘Baby Shard’, along London’s South Bank.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A couple of days ago we reported that money-losing Maxim, the men’s magazine that was put up for sale in March, is fetching bids in the $20 million range — less than a 10th of the price its owners paid six years ago. Who’s in the running to grab the title? Good question — and one that Maxim publisher Alpha Media Group, which is controlled by creditor Cerberus Capital Management, is currently declining to answer.

And so meanwhile, for today’s edition of One Rude Question For… — our excuse to lob blunt questions at assorted media figures — Ad Age’s “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco decided to hit up Keith Blanchard, who helped introduce Maxim in the U.S. and served as its editor-in-chief (2000-2004) during the “lad mag” glory days.

Dumenco: Seriously, who the hell is crazy enough to buy Maxim?

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Les auto-portraits d’Alicia Savage sont emprunts de poésie et de délicatesse. Entre poses lascives et envols vaporeux, elle se met en scène et laisse le spectateur entrer dans son monde aux frontières de la réalité. Des clichés superbes dont les couleurs et la lumière incitent à la fois au voyage et à l’introspection.

Hmm. After viewing some of the Translation-created work for a new 85-country Budweiser campaign which features Rihanna and Jay-Z, we can’t help but think they could have summed up the entire campaign with a tagline like, “Just Do It.”

Oh wait.

Continuing the Made in America music-focused campaign which kicked off last year with a two day event in Philadelphia that grossed $5 million and boasted 80,000 attendees, the campaign will closely marry promotions with the two musical artists as well as support Jay-Z’s Legends of the Fall tour with Justin Timberlake.

Jay-Z and Rihanna are featured in two new Mark Romanek-directed commercials. The campaign will also include limited-edition packaging, digital, out of home and social media.

Of the campaign which breaks July 15, Translation CEO Steve Stoute said, “As the program develops, we’ll be working with the team to figure out how it takes shape. Music is very elastic, so the program has to be fluid because you’re dealing with the consumer and their evolving tastes.”

Virou tradição o lirismo da comunicação de perfumes vir acompanhado de uma dupla: ator/atriz + diretor/a do momento. Baz Luhrmann, Frank Miller, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Martin Scorsese, Guy Ritchie, David Lynch, Wes Anderson e Sofia Coppola, por exemplo, já dirigiram Nicole Kidman, Evan Rachel Wood, Natalie Portman, Audrey Tautou, Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Scarlett Johansson, Marion Cotillard e outros em diversos comerciais do segmento na última década.

A mais recente dobradinha é entre David Fincher e Rooney Mara, que repetem a parceria de “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (me recuso a utilizar o título-spoiler em português). Ambos promovem aqui Downtown, a nova fragrância da Calvin Klein, sem fugir das irritantes convenções do gênero ao emular uma atmosfera cheia de estilo mas sem significado.

Alguém poderia apelar para as pretensões artísticas da obra, mas corto meu braço fora como David Fincher pouco se importa com isso. É só estética, e fim. De qualquer maneira, tem filmagem P&B com cameras RED, slow motion e “Runaway” do Yeah Yeah Yeahs como trilha sonora, se isso serve de atrativo.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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But why are they keeping it hush-hush if so? We called the agency for the digital age’s NYC hub and the person we spoke to didn’t have a contact number for the office and said she “didn’t think so” when asked if R/GA Portland had opened its doors. Hmm, well, for the last few days, we’ve been getting tips like this: “rga portland open for bizness. snatched up best creative from chicago office.” OK, perhaps the grammar doesn’t lend to its legitimacy, but the agency, which just took over for Razorfish on Samsung’s U.S. digital account, is officially hiring in the PDX and has been as far back as January.

Normally, R/GA’s PR folks are happy to send us announces boasting new office openings, which have happened quite often over the last year alone, but now they’ve been unusually unresponsive. Who knows, perhaps they’re formalizing things including staff and even the press release, but whatever the case, the office in Portlandia would be the 13th in the network. If anyone has a contact or knows who the R/GA Chicago creative is who headed to the Northwest, give us a shout in the tips box or at agencyspy at gmail dot com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Cramer-Krasselt is establishing the agency’s future management team by elevating two execs, Marshall Ross and Karen Seamen, to vice chairman and president, respectively. As part of the move, agency leader Peter Krivkovich is giving up his president title — after 25 years — and moving into the post of chairman-CEO.

Although there’s no timeline for his retirement, the move is part of a succession plan for Mr. Krivkovich. He joined Cramer-Krasselt in 1981 when he sold his Chicago agency to the shop, and has been CEO since 1998.

The agency ranks as the second largest U.S. independent shop. In addition to its flagship has offices in New York, Phoenix and Milwaukee. Its clients include Heinz, Porsche, Corona and Panera Bread.

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