Hasta La Creative!

Funny how Alex Bogusky is still seeing opportunities where brands and agencies are missing them. Case in point: A recent tweet to Liberty Mutual urging the insurance company—whose Winter Olympics ads are all about overcoming setbacks—to make a commercial about Heidi Kloser, the U.S. skier who was badly injured the day before the Sochi Games began.

USA Today has the story. "It was pretty much a no-brainer," says Bogusky, a fellow Coloradan and a big fan of Kloser's. He sent a direct message to Liberty Mutual, which got its agency, Havas Worldwide, working on a commercial. They filmed Kloser, 21, at home in Vail, Colo., where she had returned for surgery and rehab on her knee. Her parents appear, too, and recall Heidi's poignant question to them after the injury. (You probably remember Kloser walking with the help of crutches during the Opening Ceremony.) The ad, which you can see below, will air Wednesday night during NBC's Olympic coverage.

"At Liberty Mutual, we believe that with every setback, there's a chance to come back. And rise," says the voiceover for the company's anthem spot (also posted below), which has been running throughout the Games.

That fits Kloser perfectly, as she is already looking to 2018—although, as she admits to USA Today, "I'd rather star in a commercial because I won a gold medal."

We all know the purpose of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is to create spank-bankable material in a format convenient for reading on the toilet. But the baseness of its purpose doesn't mean it can't be creative. On the contrary, SI continues to boldly seek new frontiers of wankspiration.

Perhaps to counterbalance the rather immovable Barbie, SI put bombshell Kate Upton on a Zero-G plane and took photos of her floating about in swimsuits. The results really are out of this world.

The whole concept is brilliant. Think about it. What is the sole enemy of big, glorious boobs? Why, gravity, of course. And in these photos, Upton laughs in the face of physics, achieving superhuman results previously available only to superheroines.

The 2014 SI swimsuit issue lands on newsstands today.

Billionaire Carlos Slim plans to exercise warrants by the end of the year that will more than double his stake in the New York Times Co. to as much as 19%, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Mr. Slim, the world’s second-richest person according to data compiled by Bloomberg, owns stock warrants giving him the right to buy 15.9 million Times Co. shares at $6.36 apiece, less than half their market value as of yesterday’s close.

Once he exercises the warrants, he intends to hold on to the expanded stake rather than sell shares for an immediate profit, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Sometimes TV networks announce “relaunches” that ultimately amount to tweaking to the logo or sprinkling a new catchphrase throughout the same programming as before.

But HLN, sibling channel of CNN, seems to be taking a pretty serious leap into its new role as a hub for social media, introducing an initial development slate that includes a game show for internet addicts, a series curating satire cartoons and a new app.

The lineup comes after the cable news network said last month that it is repositioning itself as a home for the social media generation, bidding to reach millennial viewers by becoming the TV companion to the content they consume all day elsewhere.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Well, that didn’t take long. Just a week after word spilled out that DDB and Reebok were parting ways (yet again), the sports apparel/shoe brand has found a new lead global agency in San Francisco-based Venables Bell & Partners. VB&P won the assignment after a review conducted by SRI. In a statement, Yan Martin, head of global brand marketing for Reebok, says, “VB&P demonstrated a deep understanding of our brand purpose and culture and developed thinking and creative that excited everyone involved in the process. We’re confident that VB&P will help maintain the brand’s forward momentum and raise the strategic and creative bar for the Reebok brand.”

Reebok now joins a VB&P client roster that includes Audi of America, Intel and SKYY vodka.

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