Hasta La Creative!

The New York Police Department and BBDO New York are taking the search for missing persons beyond the milk carton. In a project called “Invisible Faces,” the face of a boy who disappeared six years ago will now appear on a store window mannequin in an effort to reinvigorate the search and possibly lead to his return. BBDO created the concept, and worked with the NYPD to execute it.

Seven-year-old Patrick Alford Jr. went missing from his foster home in 2010; his face, aged to 13 years old, has been sculpted onto a mannequin in the store window of jacket brand K-Way, which has a store located in SoHo, one of Manhattan’s most well-trafficked shopping neighborhoods. The mannequin is clothed in a similar red t-shirt to the one Patrick was wearing when he disappeared.

“Increasing public awareness is the key to generating leads,” said Lt. Christopher Zimmerman, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Missing Persons Squad, in a statement. “The more people are aware, the better our chance to be successful.”

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CA Technologies has partnered with CNN on a data-driven mobile app called CNN Politics, which launched Thursday.

The app, which is built with CA software, tracks the latest polling, delegate, voting and fundraising data for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and is the latest effort in CA’s “App Culture” campaign, which broke earlier this month.

“We are trying to elevate CA and make CA more visible, particularly to audiences we don’t normally reach that well,” said Lauren Flaherty, CMO at CA Technologies.

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Rovi Corp., which provides on-screen guides for pay-TV listings, has agreed to buy digital-video recording pioneer TiVo Inc. in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

Rovi will pay for $10.70 per share in cash and stock, according to a statement Friday.

Much of TiVo’s value to Rovi derives from intellectual property related to its development of DVRs. TiVo successfully settled several patent infringement lawsuits over the devices in recent years, including with Alphabet’s Google, Cisco Systems and Dish Network.

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Few thought the cable guys could crack Hollywood.

But now Comcast Corp. — from Philadelphia, no less — seems well on its way to building what may be the next Walt Disney Co. Its agreement Thursday to buy DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. for $3.8 billion will, if completed, mark the next step in Comcast’s ascent to the heights of the American entertainment industry, a trajectory that seemed unlikely five years ago.

In 2011, when Comcast bought NBC Universal and combined its cable business with pay-TV networks including USA and Bravo, the Universal film studio and theme parks were almost afterthoughts. Yet in the years since, CEO Brian Roberts and his entertainment CEO Steve Burke have found both can be good businesses.

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In early February, Cond Nast’s Wired took a stand against the rise of ad-blocking technology, which was being used on more than 20% of visits to the magazine’s website.

It gave ad-blocking Wired readers two options: whitelist Wired.com, allowing ads to be served as intended, or pay $1 per week for an ad-free version of the site.

“We know that you come to our site primarily to read our content,” Wired said in a note to readers at the time, “but it’s important to be clear that advertising is how we keep WIRED going: paying the writers, editors, designers, engineers, and all the other staff that works so hard to create the stories you read and watch here.”

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The Olympics are coming to Snapchat. The app scored a deal with Comcast’s NBC to show highlights from the 2016 Summer Games, the first time the U.S. network has agreed to share video of the sporting contest.

Snapchat will set up a dedicated channel on the mobile app for the games in Rio De Janeiro. News site BuzzFeed will curate short clips and behind-the-scenes content into a Discover channel on the app for two weeks, while Snapchat creates daily “live stories” using content from NBC, athletes and sports fans at the scene.

“We have never allowed the distribution of any game highlights off NBC’s own platforms,” said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. But Snapchat “really effectively reaches a very important demographic in the United States, and is very important to our efforts to assemble the large, massive audience that will show up to watch the Olympic Games.”

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Argonaut has named longtime Goodby, Silverstein & Partners executive Robert Riccardi as its CEO, a newly created post.

Mr. Riccardi had been at Goodby for 23 years in a variety of roles, most recently managing partner. When he first joined the agency, he oversaw the account of American Isuzu Motors, then the agency’s biggest client. He also played a key role in winning Porsche of North America, the California Milk Processor Board (“Got milk?”), HP and eBay, among others.

“Hunter and I are proud and humbled that a talent the caliber of Robert would be willing to join us in helping to lead Argonaut into the future,” said Rick Condos, who is chief creative officer, along with Hunter Hindman, in a statement. They are also among the founding partners. “He is not only the smartest guy we’ve ever worked with, he’s a great friend as well.”

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Green cleaning ads are getting a decidedly new look, as Method launches a campaign via connected TV, digital, outdoor and in-store that encourages people to joyfully make messes with the confidence that natural products can clean them up.

The new effort from Muhtayzik/Hoffer and digital shop Essence shows in highly stylized slow-mo sequences people making intentional messes using a leaf blower on birthday cake, throwing fruit into a fan or hitting meatballs with golf clubs with the slogans “fear no mess” and “Method: Clean ingredients for dirty play.”

Method will put $12 million behind the effort, which won’t make it to conventional TV, but will appear on connected TV devices, YouTube pre-roll, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, the Viggle app, in-store and elsewhere out-of-home. The latter placements are meant to “stop pedestrians in their tracks by presenting a surprising video loop where each mess execution is seemingly endless and magical.”

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Greg Beyer, an editor at the Huffington Post, sent an email to colleagues on Friday explaining why he passed on a pitch from a reporter who flagged a New York Times story about Uber. He had cited a company partnership with Uber as a rational for rejecting the pitch.

Mr. Beyer’s email telling a reporter to “hold on this one please as we’re partnering with Uber on our drowsy driving campaign” was reported Thursday by Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple.

The Huffington Post said Wednesday that Editor in Chief Arianna Huffington was joining Uber’s board of directors. The revelation a day later of Mr. Beyer’s email seemed to undermine the Huffington Post’s argument that its newsroom could still cover Uber impartially.

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In contrast, currency changes added 823 million euros ($913 million) to the revenue of Paris-based Publicis Groupe, an 11.3% boost to its top line even as organic growth came in at just 1.5%.

Exchange rates last year had an outsize impact on revenue of global agency companies as reported in home currencies. At Omnicom, foreign exchange movements reduced worldwide revenue by 6.6%. In a typical year, Omnicom expects exchange rates to boost or shrink revenue by 1% or 2%.

Last year’s foreign exchange effects, or FX effects, were the result of a strong dollar and weak currencies elsewhere, in part reflecting the relative strength of the U.S. economy compared with some other markets.

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