Hasta La Creative!

In a separate development, Fox News announced that Greta Van Susteren was leaving the network, effective immediately.

I was drifting through cyberspace recently, not really absorbing the words in front of me, when I came across a sentence that tripped me up, so to speak, and forced me to pay attention.

That sentence read: “The pain you feel is capitalism dying.” The writer went on to explain that it hurts because we are inside this dying system, we are inside this unsustainable form of civilization while it is undermining the life support system we call Earth, and what is perhaps most unsettling about this is that it’s not yet clear what comes next; nor is it obvious that the global problems we face even have smooth, painless solutions. The hour is dark and a bright new dawn is not guaranteed.

 “The pain we feel is capitalism dying.”

The words left an impression on me I think because they describe that strange, existential ache that we probably have all felt at some time or another, when contemplating how we should live our lives in a world that seems so tragically off track. I am referring here to the emotional or what one might even call the spiritual challenge of living in an age of crisis; of living in an age when the myths and stories that have shaped and grounded our cultures and even our identities have begun to breakdown, unsettling our sense of purpose and place in a fast-changing world.

But this crisis of meaning in our culture, if I can put it that way, presents itself to us, I think, as a heavily disguised but tantalizing opportunity. One of the most promising aspects of the biological world we live in is that the cycles of nature embrace death and decay as a necessary part of rebirth – as anyone who composts knows very well – and if we understand this, then we can see that as the existing form of life deteriorates in the face of environmental limits, new ways to live will inevitably evolve, and are evolving, like green shoots peeking out of the widening concrete cracks in capitalism. Our challenge is to face this inevitable breakdown with defiant positivity and set about turning today’s crises into opportunities to reinvent ourselves, our cultures, and our economies in more localized, more resilient, more humane ways. We are, it seems, like tiny microbes inside this massive, decomposing system, being challenged to work creatively in our own small ways, building the soil from which a diversity of new worlds can emerge. In short, I would say that we are being challenged at this moment in history to compost capitalism, and in the rich soil of resistance bring renewal to our task, our collective task, to seed a new Earth story.

–       Sam Alexander is co-director of the Simplicity Institute and a lecturer at the University of Melbourne

The post The pain you feel appeared first on Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment.

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Marc Pritchard might have said it best: “Frankly, your complexity should not be our problem, so we want you to make that complexity invisible.”

Addressing agencies at Ad Age’s Digital Conference in April, the Procter & Gamble Global Brand Officer added that “our expectation is that over time, our agency partners, whoever we choose, are going to be able to integrate [all of the workload], so you can get the production out, the distribution out as well as the creative out.”

It’s not just P&G. Amid a movement toward transparency, marketers broadly are demanding that agencies simplify processes while still delivering a complex array of marketing services specific to their needs. They want to cull agency lineups, using fewer agencies or at least a single agency or other party to lead the multidisciplinary throng. Making that happen gets even tougher as media continues to fragment, increasing marketer demand for advertising and other content to feed a growing array of channels, and for a wider variety of providers from outside the tradititonal agency world to fill the void.

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Impulse shopping could soon be a thing of the past, according to research by Iris Worldwide, which found that 0% of Generation Y and Z shoppers surveyed admitted to making spontaneous purchases while shopping in a store.

They appear to be so caught up in both gaining approval and exerting influence on social media that every purchase comes in the context of a whole cycle of posts, likes and tags.

Peter Wilson, planning director at Iris London, said, “It’s claimed behavior. But the important thing is that it’s true in their eyes. It even applies to relatively disposable, trivial purchases like choosing KFC over McDonald’s everything needs to be pre-validated. The attitude was, ‘No. I don’t do that at all.’ And why would you? They are wary of making a purchase that doesn’t meet the standards of their peer group or is culturally out of step. It’s too big a risk. And it’s easy to mitigate that.”

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Chinese search giant Baidu has long been associated with a vast array of paid advertising options that are snapped up by the highest bidders. But a recent shakeup in China’s search regulations may well be the beginning of the end for Baidu’s “pay your way to the top” model.

It’s been about four months since a major advertising scandal shook Baidu; it started when a student died after trying an experimental cancer therapy he found through Baidu’s paid advertising.

Following mass outrage and an investigation by the Chinese government, the fallout from the scandal has seen an overhaul in the rules governing search ads, along with major changes to the entire structure of Baidu’s paid advertising offering and its user experience in general. This in turn has had a dramatic effect on how brands should undertake their marketing strategy on Baidu, since paid ads are now less prevalent because of stringent verification procedures and higher competition over reduced ad space.

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21st Century Fox settled its sexual harassment lawsuit against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes from former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, apologizing for the way Ms. Carlson was treated.

“21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit. During her tenure at Fox News, Gretchen exhibited the highest standards of journalism and professionalism. She developed a loyal audience and was a daily source of information for many Americans,” the company said in a statement. “We are proud that she was part of the Fox News team. We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.”

As first reported by Vanity Fair, Ms. Carlson received as much as $20 million as part of the settlement, according to a personal familiar with the agreement.

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Snapchat’s impact on the ad market is growing as it approaches $1 billion in revenue in 2017, according to new figures from eMarketer.

Snapchat will collect $367 million in ad revenue in 2016 and grow that figure 155% next year to $935.5 billion, eMarketer said Tuesday. It’s the first breakdown of Snapchat’s mobile ad business by eMarketer, which studies the digital ad market worldwide. The figures reflect the revenue that Snapchat keeps after it shares some with partners.

Snapchat has been developing its ad business with innovative mobile formats such as sponsored animated lenses. It has been working with top brands to design ads that fit the platform, which is based on people sending friends videos that disappear within 24 hours (although it recently added a “Memories” function to save some).

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Australian branding agency Hulsbosch has appointed Simon Hong to the role of executive creative director. He has over 20 years of experience, and most recently worked as a global principal at Wolff Olins.

On assignment in Seoul as executive creative director at Cheil Worldwide, he oversaw experiential marketing for Samsung. Prior to Cheil, he was based in Sydney, where he was a founder and creative director for the brand consultancy Re within the M&C Saatchi network.

Melissa Nelson has been named to the new position of president, Publicis Seattle. Nelson was named executive vice president and managing partner for the T-Mobile business in December 2015.

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Hearst Magazines on Tuesday promoted Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles to the newly created post of chief content officer. A few hours later, the company named her successor: Michele Promaulayko.

Ms. Promaulayko is a Cosmo veteran, having served as executive editor from 2000 to 2008. She also served as editor in chief of the Rodale mgazine Women’s Health and most recently edited the now-shuttered Yahoo Health digital magazine.

In a prepared statement, Hearst Magazines President Dave Carey said Ms. Promaulayko “has a proven track record as a media brand-builder and a leader.” Mr. Carey also praised her for being “well-versed” in the history of the Cosmopolitan brand.

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In the most recent edition of the Ad Age Presidential Campaign Ad Scorecard, we noted that Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is “spending on ads in key markets in an attempt to reach the national poll threshold (15%) needed to qualify for the presidential debates,” the first of which is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Of course, he and his running mate Bill Weld will tell you that they’re in it to win it, but in reality, with Gov. Johnson polling at around 10%, his campaign has lately taken on a somewhat meta approach: He’s effectively campaigning to be allowed to debate. In other words, he’s campaigning to be allowed to continue to campaign — because if he can’t take the stage at the debates, then his candidacy will amost certainly lose its modest momentum as the Trump vs. Clinton Show drowns out the Libertarian message.

In a web video titled “Good Points,” released on YouTube on Labor Day, Team Johnson serves up soundbites from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders; both men seem to suggest that the 15% threshold is unfair (“it’s probably too high” is how Sen. Sanders puts it).

Continue reading at AdAge.com