Hasta La Creative!

The Democrats’ polished convention stands in contrast to the Republicans’ free-for-all. But Donald Trump has gotten where he is by defying the traditional media rules.

Some Fox News employees say there is an internal split inside the network, pitting those who support Roger Ailes against those who do not.

Why did the snail cross the road? To go shoot the curl, of course.

This new ad for Samsung frames the enterprising spirit (or, skeptics might say, the biological hardwiring) of a slug in a shell as as a source of great inspiration—namely, for surfers.

That may sound a little stupid, but the the marketers at the consumer electronics company know it—the minute-plus commercial, by Leo Burnett Chicago, somehow manages to be existential and lighthearted at the same time, musing on the inner life of a mollusk as a metaphor for a young boy who loves the sport of surfing.

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The Chicago office of Publicis Groupe’s DigitasLBi promoted two new leaders internally this week as its interim managing director and head of account services left to pursue other opportunities.

Morgan Carroll will fill the dual roles of ECD and MD and report directly to DigitasLBi North America CEO Tony Weisman, effective immediately. In another change, SVP/group account director Jessica Henrichs will assume the duties previously handled by Chris Reed, who was EVP/head of account management for both the Chicago and San Francisco offices.

“Anyone who has worked with Morgan has witnessed his collaborative disposition and determination,” says Weisman in a statement. “This combined with his already admired leadership and feistiness to get great things done fast will serve Morgan well in his expanded and elevated role. I’m very excited to see his leadership evolve with the new opportunity in this role.”

Carroll effectively replaces Davin Power, who was appointed to serve as interim managing director of DigitasLBi Chicago in April after the agency promoted former Chicago/San Francisco president Doug Ryan to oversee the entire North American network.

In his new role, Carroll will effectively manage all elements of DigitasLBi’s Chicago office including agency culture, accounts, talent management, growth and day-to-day operations while simultaneously continuing to serve as creative lead for clients like Sony Playstation, Sprint and MillerCoors. (GCD William Matznick led the latter account before going freelance earlier this year.)

The new managing director says, “I’ve been lucky enough to work with every capability in the Chicago office as the creative lead, and I know that the best things happen when we’re all working together. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to find even more places where we can successfully collaborate for our clients, not to mention upholding our culture for the 400+ people who call DigitasLBi Chicago home.”

Before joining DigitasLBi in 2014, Carroll spent more than a decade in various creative positions with the Deutsch organization in New York. While there, he worked on such accounts as IKEA, Monster.com, Sheraton and Anheuser-Busch, among many others. His work has been recognized by Cannes, the ADDYs, the ANDYs, the EFFIEs, the One Show and more, and highlights of his portfolio include DirecTV’s 2011 campaign “Football Cops” and “Perfect Match,” the 2013 Go Daddy Super Bowl spot starring one Bar Rafaeli.

A DigitasLBi spokesperson tells us that both Reed and Power have moved on and that the agency wishes them the best in their next endeavors. Power previously served as EVP and global head of client services for BBDO’s Chicago office while Reed spent more than 8 years at the same agency directing accounts and client services.

The Democratic National Convention continues to be a bigger draw than its Republican counterpart, as nearly four-and-a-half-million more viewers have tuned in for primetime coverage of this week’s dog and pony show.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the first two nights of the DNC have delivered an average crowd of 25.3 million viewers across ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, a tally that marks a 21% advantage over the 21 million viewers who watched the opening rounds of the Republican National Convention.

Midway through the four-night event, the DNC is also besting the GOP confab in terms of the number of demographically desirable viewers it is reaching. Thus far, the DNC is averaging 7.9 million adults 25 to 54 years old per night, which translates to a 6.7 rating and represents a 39% lift versus the RNC’s 5.68 million/4.8 rating.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

“Beat Bugs” a children’s show, is one of several shows whose creator uses licensing deals to feature iconic song collections in unusually extensive ways.

Adam Pesapane, known in the directorial world as PES, has signed to Blinkink. The Academy Award nominee returns to the world of advertising with Honda’s “Paper” campaign, which was added to the permanent collection at both The Museum Of Modern Art and The Louvre’s Museum of Advertising. PES has experience in short, playful object-based stop-motion filmmaking as seen in his under-two-minute film shorts — “Western Spaghetti,” “Submarine Sandwich,” and “Fresh Guacamole.” He has over 200 million views on YouTube and a million subscribers, making him one of the most followed on YouTube’s Film & Animation Channel List.

Framestore Pictures has signed Director Craig Zisk. He has directed episodes of more than 75 television series including “Fear The Walking Dead,” “Preacher,” “Parks & Recreation,” “American Horror Story,” “Weeds,” “Kingdom,” “Agent Carter,” “The Good Wife,” “The Big C,” Nurse Jackie,” “United States of Tara,” “Entourage” and “The Office.” He has also produced and directed pilots for networks like AMC, Showtime, NBC and ABC. Zisk has been nominated for Emmy and Golden Globes for both production and direction on “Weeds”, and he won a Golden Globe award for “Brooklyn Bridge” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” In addition, he has executive produced several series including The Larry Sanders Show, among others. His first feature, “The English Teacher,” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013.

Oliver Kember has signed to th2ng. He has directed work for Cadbury’s Rolo, Bose, Efes, Comeon Casino, Thomson Holidays, and Sotheby’s, along with short films and music videos. His film work includes the shorts “Loan Ranger,” “Amy,” and “30 Minute Break” for The Luka State, starring Thomas Sangster, which explores themes of domestic violence against men, and has been watched nearly two million times on YouTube.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

In what could be the understatement of the summer, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off a statement of the company’s earnings on Wednesday by saying, “Our community and our business had another good quarter.”

The social network had its best quarter ever, in fact, with $6.2 billion in ad revenue, an increase of 63% from the quarter a year earlier and an accelerated rate of growth.

In contrast, rival Twitter talked Tuesday about a slowdown in advertiser interest and posted just $600 million in revenue for the quarter.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) People pass over manhole covers in their cities every day without giving them a second thought, and yet these pieces of the urban landscape are often intricate, interesting and unique, so German art…