Hasta La Creative!

Consumers may want to fit in, but Gap’s celebration of blandness misses the mark, writes Nicola Kemp.

A federal judge in Manhattan found that the music service violated copyright law by uploading nearly 6,000 songs without permission.

The app, FireChat, which allows messaging without the use of cellular or Internet connections, gained use amid rumors that the Hong Kong government would cut off Internet access.

Netflix and the Weinstein Company said that they planned to release a sequel to the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” simultaneously on Netflix and a select number of Imax theaters.

This week, the 11th annual Advertising Week will bring more than 95,000 people to 23 venues around New York. The conference looms large on calendars in the marketing and media industries. Here’s a look at the numbers behind the event.

Tickets

Attendees expected: 95,000+

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The pioneering digital music store said Monday that it would no longer carry music from the major labels Sony, Universal and Warner.

• Read more about Lena Dunham asks artists to perform for free on her book tour
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These agency tours of The Barbarian Group are pretty impressive. But you know who’s not that impressed? Fellow New York agency Barton F. Graf 9000.

When Barbarian Group released its Vimeo video showing off its giant, snake-like, resin-poured “Superdesk,” Barton F. Graf responded with its own video about its own enormous piece of continuous furniture—called the floor.

Last week, Adweek went into the Barbarian offices for a closer look, and got to see the agency’s waterless hot tub (see below). But once again, Barton F. Graf ups the ante with a waterless kiddie pool. Look at how childlike and playful it is. Clearly it must produce better ideas than the hot tub does.

Obviously Barbarian is cool, but it will never be the coolest.

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Erwin Penland teamed up with production company Harpoon Picures for a visually striking tribute to Alaska, celebrating the network’s arrival in the 49th state.

The well-shot 30-second spot highlights some of the state’s natural beauty before concluding with the Verizon team showing up and saying, “We’re here Alaska.” The ad celebrates the fact that Verizon’s expansion into the territory has made the company Alaska’s largest and fastest 4G LTE network. Harpoon was able to assemble a team and put the spot together over the course of just several days.

“A project like this reminds us that it takes more than a great director to produce a great spot,” said Chris Miller, Harpoon’s director of new business development.”Harpoon put all our best problem solving skills to the test and our amazing production team deftly pulled off every challenge presented to them in an incredibly short amount of time.” (more…)

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