Hasta La Creative!

The host says his decision follows “ill-judged comments” about Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee.

How excited Skullcandy must have been.

In the battle of headphone brands, competing with the insanely popular Beats By Dre product line must have seemed like an impossible task. Marketshare was decreasing rapidly. What they needed was a miracle, the kind of great idea that can rocket their brand back into the competition. What they needed was a celebrity endorser big enough to compete with Dr. Dre but cheap enough that it didn’t totally break the bank. But who could that be? How can you get someone who’s universally respect and beloved at a reasonable price tag?

And then, it became clear. Derrick Rose, Bulls star point guard and Chicago’s most cherished native son, was on his way back from an entire year spent cheering from courtside after sustaining a devastating knee injury. The narrative was already being written by Adidas: Rose was back, and better than ever. The story was one of redemption; an opportunity to tell off the critics who felt he was sitting on the bench when he was well enough to be back on the court. “The Return” is what Adidas called it. Rose had the charisma, the talent, the credibility and, much to Skullcandy’s delight, a relatively reasonable price tag due to his year spent in street clothes. It must have sounded almost too perfect to Skullcandy’s marketing team. As preseason rumors spread this fall about Rose adding four inches to his vertical jump, fives must have been highed, glasses must have been clinked, and the familiar feeling of optimism must have crept its way back inside the Skullcandy offices.

I wonder who was watching the game, a late November Friday night as the Bulls faced the Portland Trailblazers. Who saw Rose pivot awkwardly on his knee while fighting for the ball, and limp gingerly toward the sidelines? Who had to make the mournful phone call when it was reported the star needed emergency knee surgery? Who first gasped when news broke on Twitter that, oh God, not again. Who remembers the studio, Gentleman Scholar, who wanted to use the above spot as their showpiece? Who can see a billboard on the Kennedy Expressway and thinks “Skullcandy!” instead of feeling a toxic mixture or sadness and frustration brought the reminder that another cold winter in Chicago would go bye without seeing #1 on the court?

Man, sucks to be them, huh? By the way, the song that plays in the background is “Back to Ballin’” by Wale. HA!  Credits after the jump.

continued…

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Analysts will for the first time post messages on English-language websites that jihadists use to recruit, raise money and promote their cause.

Lordy, we’ve been inundated with tips that Deutsch has lost Microsoft, copy so blaring that it makes us want to revisit Newsies. But anyhow, here’s what we’ve heard so far that might clarify things, though we feel this isn’t as much revelation as it is realization. Remember, this is what our sources familiar with the matter tell us, and what they say is that the Redmond, WA giant has altered its marketing model to a project assignment basis, utilizing all their roster agencies, which still does include Deutsch as part of a Consumer Business a few months ago courtesy of MSFT EVP/advertising and strategy Mark Penn.

From what our sources tell us,  the current campaign running for the table (we’re assuming for Surface) was created by L.A.-based shop Omelet and CP&B remains a roster agency for consumer biz.   Along with Deutsch, fellow AOR Y&R will be producing the next b-to-b campaign and moving forward, all of of MSFTs roster agencies will be assigned work on a project by project basis. Phew.

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General Mills will appear in the Super Bowl for the first time since 1996, this time with an ad for Cheerios, the company announced on its corporate blog today. The ad for regular Cheerios represents the first time the brand has advertised in the Big Game.

“While Cheerios isn’t ready to reveal just yet what the storyline of the commercial will be, who will be in it or precisely when you will see it during the game (in the first ‘unscheduled time-out’), we can tell you that Cheerios is quite proud of its message,” the company said on its blog.

Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, is handling the spot. While General Mills did not comment on details, the blog post stated that the ad will be handled by the same creative team behind recent emotionally tinged ads such as this one below:

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Advertising Agency: Filadélfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Copywriter: Flavio Chubes
Art Director: Márcio Doti
Production Company: Brokolis
Director: Paulo Emilio Souto Fernandes
Director of Photography: João Elias Giovani

Last month, we brought you news of Rather, the revamped version of the brilliant and much-needed unbaby.me, co-created by Chris Baker. Rather is a great tool that lets you replace things you don’t want to see in your social media feeds — be it babies, sports, religion or the Kardashians — with things you do want to see, like cats. Because everyone wants to see pictures of cats. Baker was also responsible for “Charity Bribes” and a welcome attempt to send M. Night Shyamalan back to film school. Now, Baker has a new project, dubbed Hate With Friends.

Created in partnership with Mike Lacher and Tiger Wang, Hate With Friends allows you to select which of your Facebook friends you hate. According to the parties involved, “Seemed surprising that the internet hadn’t shelled out the opposite version of bangwithfriends, so we did.” Anyway, if they also hate you, both parties will be notified. You can kind of think of it as the opposite of Bang With Friends (apparently now renamed Down), although I suppose there are some circumstances where it’s not the opposite.

We’re not sure how useful Hate With Friends will be for people, or what happens once both parties have confirmed that they hate each other. A simple unfriending? Words With Friends grudge match? A duel at sundown? A titty twister? I imagine it will mostly be used as a joke, amongst friends who do not hate each other, although I’m sure there’s plenty of mutual hate going around on Facebook, seeing as how Facebook has all but destroyed the meaning of the term “friend.” If you’d like to find out if you have any Facebook frenemies, head on over to Hate With Friends. Let us know how it goes in the comments section.

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