Hasta La Creative!

If it wasn’t already clear enough, a panel today at Advertising Week pretty much assured that the ANA and 4A’s are going their own way when it comes to solving the rebate issue.

Issues around media transparency will likely be solved “on a more individual marketer-to-agency basis versus having a global solution because of different perspectives in the membership of 4A’s,” said Tony Pace, chairman of the Association of National Advertisers, during a panel at Advertising Week.

The 4A’s was originally slated to speak during the Trust Forum panel on transparency, but the association pulled out of the discussion a few weeks ago to put more energy into educating its members.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. will be asked by their controlling shareholder, the Redstone family, to explore a merger, according to a person familiar with the matter.

National Amusements Inc., the Redstones’ holding company, is expected to send letters to both media giants as soon as this week to request their boards establish independent committees to consider a combination, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Shari Redstone, who has taken an active role in oversight of both companies with her 93-year-old father Sumner in frail health, has been considering a merger of CBS and Viacom to create a more powerful media empire, Bloomberg reported last month. But CBS shareholders may blanch at the idea of taking on Viacom’s struggling cable networks and movie studio.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

A group of self-described nerds from Silicon Valley has banded together for one goal: elect Hillary Clinton.

Nerdz4Hillary, a fundraising campaign spearheaded by venture capitalist Dave McClure, is aiming to raise $100,000 to contribute to the Democrat’s bid for the presidency. It has already received commitments totaling $50,000 from Eric Ries, author of “The Lean Startup” who’s developing a stock exchange for private companies; Leanne Pittsford, founder of advocacy group Lesbians Who Tech; and staff from PayPal Holdings and other technology companies.

Mr. McClure, a founding partner at VC firm 500 Startups and “chief troublemaker” at Nerdz4Hillary, is reaching out to what he calls the “average Joe” nerds in the tech community for the rest. He expects them to contribute smaller donations of $100 to $500 each.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

It’s official. BlackBerry, the Canadian company that invented the smartphone and addicted legions of road warriors to the “crackberry,” has stopped making its iconic handsets.

Finally conceding defeat in a battle lost long ago to Apple and Samsung Electronics, BlackBerry is handing over production of the phones to overseas partners and turning its full attention to the more profitable and growing software business. It’s the formalization of a move in the making since Chief Executive Officer John Chen took over nearly three years ago and outsourced some manufacturing to Foxconn Technology Group. Getting the money-losing smartphone business off BlackBerry’s books will also make it easier for the company to consistently hit profitability.

“This is the completion of their exit,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners. “Chen is a software CEO historically. He’s getting back to what he knows best: higher margins and recurring revenue.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, a pair of salt and pepper shakers try to have a conversation using Google Duo, but keep getting interrupted; chaos and violence rule in the world of “WWE 2K17” in a 2K Games spot set to the contrastingly cheerful soundtrack of Petula Clark’s “Downtown”; and lowest prices of the season are promoted in the latest from Kohl’s.

How many breaths do you think you take a day? It’s approximately 25,920, according to Training Mask’s new ad for its “performance breathing device.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Outdoor, PR
AP THAILAND

World’s first football field that challenges the conventional rectangular field by introducing the “Unusual Football Field” concept. The Unusual Football Field is an unorthodox football field that redefines the boundaries of the traditional rectangular field. 

This project is the brainchild of AP THAILAND, a highly renowned real estate developer, in collaboration with CJ WORX, a digital agency firm in Thailand. The concept originated from an idea called “Think Space,” with the goal to transform a small and irregularly-shaped field into a practical football field that still allows fair play between teams. 

The idea questions the limits of space in order to illustrate our brand’s belief that “Space can change one’s life.” The Unusual Football Field was developed in Khlong Toei community, a highly populated area in Bangkok which is believed to have no usable space left. However, in reality, there are numerous asymmetrical spaces scattered across this district. AP THAILAND decided to design a field for playing football, which is the most favorable sport in Thailand, in order to promote relationships among the people in the community. 

This unusual football field has proven that designing outside boundaries can help foster creativity used to develop these useful spaces. We hope that other communities will adapt this idea to change their own irregular space into an area for organizing various activities, under the concept that “Any abnormal space can achieve the highest benefit.”

Advertising Agency:CJ WORX, Bangkok, Thailand
Executive Creative Director:Saharath Sawadatikom
Creative Director:Thanasorn Janekankit
Art Director:Nittaya Chananukul, Saharath Sawadatikom
Copywriter:Rattasak Mututanondh, Thanasorn Janekankit
Project Manager:Nutcha Mauthorn
Production House:Meour

Print
Hershey’s Caribe

Advertising Agency:Y&R, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Creative Director:Sylvia Soler
Associate Cd:Javier Claudio
Art Director:Javier Claudio
Retoucher:Otto Canchani

Outdoor, Print
Nagem

4K Ultra High Definition TVs have four times as many pixels as Full HD TVs so you can see more details. To show this, we create these ads to the largest regional tvs dealer.

Advertising Agency:Blackninja, Recife, Brazil
Creative Director:Bertone Balduíno
Head Of Art:Rodrigo Bonfim
Art Director:Bruno Moura
Copywriter:Márcio Nazianzeno
Illustrator:Bruno Moura

Media, PR
Fédération Française de Cardiologie

Advertising Agency:Les Gaulois, Puteaux, France
Executive Creative Director:Xavier Beauregard
Art Director:Sabrina Bourzat
Copywriter:Jennifer Hodara
Director:Tristan Séguéla
Sound:HRCLS