KFC has a new celebrity wearing Colonel Sanders’ signature white suit and goatee–Reba McEntire, who stars in a new 60-second spot promoting the fried-chicken chain’s new Smoky Mountain BBQ flavor. A 30-second version of the ad from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland will air during Sunday’s Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS. McEntire replaces the noncelebrity…
From the files of the Super Bowl Ad Archive. Originally published in February 2017.
In 1997, Super Bowl XXXII and its broadcast network Fox welcomed a commercial from a novel ad category: dot-com companies.
“Buy, finance, lease and insure cars and trucks at no cost on the internet at autobytel.com,” the voice of Leonard Nimoy told viewers in the ad:
McEntire the colonel is on stage at a honky-tonk bar, and when she starts singing, the audience goes nuts. She tosses her white cowboy hat out into the revelers, revealing a quick cut of the “real” McEntire, who catches the hat on her head.
Wearing a wig, facial hair, glasses and a fringed, sparkly white suit, McEntire dons a look similar to that of the nine male celebrities who have starred in the ever-changing Colonel role. She’s the first woman, and the first music superstar, to play the part, which originated with Darrell Hammond in May 2015. Her spot, from KFC agency Wieden & Kennedy Portland, is also the first one to feature dancing policemen.
“I grew up with Kentucky Fried Chicken,” McEntire said in a KFC statement. “It’s part of my story, and I’m so excited to now be part of theirs. I’ve held a lot of roles in my lifesort of like the Colonel himself but this is certainly the most unique one yet.”
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal broke the news of a lawsuit filed by Nancy Mucciarone, a former associate director on the Dr. Pepper account at IPG’s Initiative, in which she and her lawyers Seth A. Rafkin and Jennifer Bogue accused client representative Justin Whitehead of “sexual assault” and “battery.”
The suit also named Initiative and IPG as defendants, claiming that they retaliated against Mucciarone after she reported the August 2017 happy hour incident in which Whitehead allegedly “pulled [her] shirt open and groped her breast” as she “repeatedly told him ‘no’ and pushed against his chest to get away from him.”
IPG and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group confirmed that Whitehead was fired soon after Mucciarone reported the incident. Since news of the case broke, however, IPG has offered a different version of the narrative than the one presented in the filing.
Today, Initiative CEO Amy Armstrong also issued an all-staff memo calling the situation “unfortunate” and stating that the lawsuit “mischaracterizes our actions.” In the memo acquired by AgencySpy, she used the opportunity to encourage staff to come forward with similar complaints and told employees not to discuss the case with the press.
The document filed in District Court on Tuesday reads: “When Plaintiff told Initiative management inside the bar about the attack, they minimized it and advised her not to go to HR right away. When Plaintiff did so anyway, Plaintiff’s supervisor and the person responsible for the Dr Pepper account, one of Initiative’s biggest clients, launched a campaign against Plaintiff to drum up a false record of poor performance and get her off the account and out of Initiative. She succeeded.”
The response that IPG presented to AgencySpy directly contradicts this account. Their statement says that on August 29th, the day the incident occurred, Mucciarone and “her direct supervisor” discussed the offense and that he “suggested they coordinate with a more senior person from the client before telling HR.”
The firm then states that she reported the incident formally on September 5, that “an internal investigation commenced immediately” and that Whitehead was fired by the client two days later. According to IPG, “multiple members of the senior executive team [then] spoke with [Mucciarone’s] direct supervisor about his two-business day delay in reporting the incident to management.”
IPG declined to identify the now-former supervisor in question, but both the WSJ account and the company statement indicate that he received a written warning about the delay and that he was told to attend a mandatory “Respect in the Workplace” training session before being fired just over a month later “for other issues.”
According to the filing, Mucciarone told Initiative leadership soon after the report that she wanted to continue working on the Dr. Pepper business, which was both the agency’s largest account and the only one she had worked on during her tenure. IPG’s statement says she “decided to remain on the account and felt supported by her direct supervisor.”
However, the holding group claims that, “since there were other DPSG employees present during the incident,” Mucciarone later began to feel “uncomfortable continuing to work on the account” and that “she was offered the opportunity to work at the same level on comparable pieces of business.”
The court document tells a different story. “Within a matter of weeks, Initiative’s Chief Communications Design Officer, David Stopforth, called Plaintiff into an unplanned meeting to ‘see what we can do with you,’” it reads. “He went on to tell her that she could not continue to work on the Dr Pepper account, Initiative’s largest account and the one she had worked on her entire tenure at Initiative.”
The two parties also disagree on the nature of related interactions between Mucciarone and agency leadership. According to IPG, “HR and senior management closely monitored Nancy’s situation with a number of in-person check-ins to ensure she felt safe and supported while she continued working on the DSPG account.”
But the filing claims that Initiative management “almost immediately … turned on” her. Specifically, it claims that a new EVP, managing director Linda Cronin “became suddenly critical of Plaintiff at almost every turn” and demanded “an inordinate amount of work.” The document also includes an email exchange characterized as “condescending and confrontational.”
Mucciarone then reportedly approached Danielle Dorter, IPG Mediabrands’ SVP of employee relations and legal compliance, regarding her new supervisor; the filing claims the latter executive was “appalled and told Plaintiff she would look into the matter.” The following day, Stopforth scheduled the aforementioned meeting in which he allegedly told Mucciarone in no uncertain terms that she could not continue working on the Dr. Pepper account.
Regarding Mucciarone’s claims about her new manager, IPG’s statement reads, “Nancy missed a critical deadline for an important client-related effort, and Linda provided feedback that was critical of Nancy’s performance on this deliverable … she was not demoting Nancy, removing her from the account, or taking any other such action.”
It then claims that she “expressed a desire to not work directly for Linda” and was offered both the option to remain on Dr. Pepper and to consider “other openings on a comparable account at the same title and compensation level.”
“We were taken aback when she never returned to the office and alerted us to her resignation via her attorney,” the statement continues. “It was at this point that we learned Nancy had filed suit and had named Initiative as a defendant–from her attorney, after she resigned.”
IPG did not mention Stopforth by name or directly address the filing’s claim regarding the meeting at which he allegedly told the plaintiff that she could not continue working with this particular client.
“Despite multiple opportunities, IPG has never rebutted the claims regarding Stopoff, and the CEO of Initiative has since directed all employees not to talk to the press,” said Seth Rafkin today when reached for comment on the case.
Here is the full memo from Armstrong:
Hello,
By now, you may have heard about a very disturbing incident that occurred mid-last year between a former employee of ours – Nancy Mucciarone – and one of our DPSG clients.
It’s an upsetting situation – one that we wish never happened – but it did… and I want every one of you to know that we reacted swiftly and decisively to protect Nancy. We launched an internal investigation the day we found out about what transpired, immediately informed the client (who terminated their employee that day), and offered Nancy the opportunity to either stay on the DPSG business or to make a lateral move to another account. Our team repeatedly checked in on her to make sure she felt safe and comfortable moving forward, and we were sorry when she chose to resign. Nancy filed a lawsuit yesterday that mischaracterizes our actions, as we know our people and our client took meaningful and proper actions
in our response to the incident.At Initiative we are committed to creating an environment where everyone always feels safe and comfortable, free from unlawful harassment or retaliation from anyone – manager, colleague, vendor, or client. If any of you are the victim of inappropriate behavior, please immediately tell your manager and/or someone in HR. We won’t tolerate this behavior and will take immediate action to deal with the situation to continue to protect our employees.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let your manager or someone in HR know, and we’ll address your concerns.
Or come to me. I’m always available to answer any question you may have.
Should any of you get contacted by the Press, please do not comment as this is a legal matter. If needed, please refer any press inquiries to Scott Berwitz, SVP, Corporate Communications for IPG Mediabrands.
Thank you everyone.
Amy
-Nómades and Red Urban launched a “We Are Bold” campaign for Tecate (video above).
-Groupon released OKRP’s full Super Bowl ad for the brand.
-Data-driven, multicultural communications agency Bold Culture released “The Black Paper,” the first in a series of white papers.
-Grey is launching an AR experience during Big Game ads for Ally.
-The first jury presidents were announced for the 2018 Cannes Lions.
-Female baby boomers “don’t pay attention to advertising” according to a new study.
-WPP CEO Martin Sorrellwhat he learned shares from WPP getting hacked.
In a new investigation headlined “An Inside Look at the Accounts Twitter Has Censored in Countries Around the World,” BuzzFeed says it has “has identified more than 1,700 Twitter accounts that have been blocked in at least one country” following requests from “national groups and governments.”
The report by Craig Silverman and Jeremy Singer-Vine, published this morning, notes that Twitter regularly issues a “transparency report in which it shares the number of requests received from different governments” but it doesn’t release a list of the “specific accounts it has muzzled.” So BuzzFeed built its own dataset, which it just released as a Google Sheets spreadsheetnoting that not all of the accounts are still “withheld,” to use Twitter’s term, while others have been removed entirely. The spreadsheet covers accounts “observed to have been withheld at some point in at least one of seven countriesGermany, France, Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Indiabetween October 2017 and early January 2018.”
What you may not have realized until now is that it’s possible for a specific Twitter account to be blocked in a specific country but still remain accessible to users in other countries. Twitter’s ability to turn the visibility of individual accounts on and off on a country-by-country basis is one way that it attempts to comply with laws around the world. Silverman and Jeremy Singer-Vine write that their analysis offers “an unprecedented glimpse into Twitter’s collaboration with national groups and governmentsdemocratic and authoritarian alikeand provides a stark reminder of Twitter’s ability to shape political conversations, and of governments’ attempts to influence that process.”
Vince McMahon is rebooting the short-lived 2001 curiosity that was the XFL, and while the WWE founder and chairman is offering few details about the new venture, he vowed Thursday to supply football fans with a product that is faster, safer and more family-friendly.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, McMahon sketched a rough outline of a new-look XFL that would, upon a relaunch envisioned for 2020, feature eight teams playing a 10-week schedule.
He addressed almost everything else only in broad terms, saying “every city is on our radar” when asked where the XFL might establish teams, and offering vague bromides about developing a media strategy that would provide football fans “what they want, and how they want it.”
Vince McMahon is rebooting the short-lived 2001 curiosity that was the XFL, and while the WWE founder and chairman is offering few details about the new venture, he vowed Thursday to supply football fans with a product that is faster, safer and more family-friendly.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, McMahon sketched a rough outline of a new-look XFL that would, upon a relaunch envisioned for 2020, feature eight teams playing a 10-week schedule.
He addressed almost everything else only in broad terms, saying “every city is on our radar” when asked where the XFL might establish teams, and offering vague bromides about developing a media strategy that would provide football fans “what they want, and how they want it.”
With the contract of its founder, Nate Silver, expiring in August, the sports network is exploring a sale of the site known for its election forecasts.
McDonald’s is hiring two marketing executives for its U.S. business, the latest additions of outsiders from the consumer goods industry as the Golden Arches seeks fresh perspectives to shake up its approach.
Kenny Mitchell is joining as McDonald’s USA’s VP of brand content and engagement and Lizette Williams is coming in as head of cultural engagement. The appointments come after PepsiCo’s Morgan Flatley joined McDonald’s last year as its U.S. chief marketing officer.
Mitchell joins McDonald’s Feb. 5 from PepsiCo’s Gatorade, where he was head of consumer engagement, leading global integrated marketing. Mitchell fills a post left vacant after Joel Yashinsky left McDonald’s in 2017.
Most people with color deficiency aren’t able to see red or green. To help parents detect color blindness in their kids, we took the world’s most colorful cereal and took the colors out of them. While most loops remained brown, the rest of them were red and green. By using these two colors and removing the rest, we will be able to accurately detect color blindness in children.
GO Transit is a public transit service for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in Canada. To get people to understand commuter etiquette, they created a book called Unwritten Rules of Public Transit Etiquette Written Down.
McCann New York expanded its senior creative team with the arrivals of Maru Kopelowicz, Jeff Anderson, and Cam Hoelter as executive creative directors and Holly Hessler as group creative directors.
Kopelowicz joins McCann from Ogilvy & Mather, where she spent over three years and served as senior partner, global executive director, leading creative on brands including Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Crowne Plaza. Before that she spent over five and a half years as a global creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi.
Anderson arrives from CHI & Partners New York, where he has served as an executive creative director for the past two and a half years. Prior to that he spent over two year as an art director with Droga5 and then nearly a year and a half as an associate creative director with Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Over the course of his career he has worked with brands including HBO, PBS, Chevrolet and Hewlett Packard.
After moving from Australia to New York in 2016, Hoelter joined DDB New York as an executive creative director in March of 2016. He previously served as a creative director and deputy executive creative director for DDB Sydney. Hoelter has worked with brands including McDonald’s, Volkswagen and Frito-Lay.
Hessler arrives following nearly four years as a creative with TBWAMAL, following six months as an associate creative director working on Target for Deutsch L.A. Before that she spent a year as an associate creative director and copywriter with TBWAChiatDay, working with brands such as Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Crate&Barrel and Southwest.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Maru, Jeff, Cam and Holly to McCann,” McCann New York co-chief creative officer Tom Murphy said in a statement. “The creativity and passion each of them brings to the table will help us continue to push boundaries with the work we produce.”
“Each one of them brings the ability to align engaging creative ideas with client goals,” added co-chief creative officer Sean Bryan. “We have a courageous approach to creativity and believe this team will add to that vision.”
New York-based creative agency Circus Maximus hired Keith Jackson as head of account management, joining a leadership team which includes agency partners Ryan Kutscher and Paul Sutton.
“What makes Keith such a great addition, you know, in addition to his awesome personality is his global experience, and industry-leading expertise which is our mission to bring our clients,” Kutscher, who serves as executive creative director, said in a statement.
Jackson arrives at Circus Maximus from Droga5, where he served as a group account director for around two and a half years, working on Sprint, Google Pixel, Virgin Mobile, Motorola Global, CNBC and New York Times, for which he earned two Gold Lions. Prior to that he spent a year and a half with Toronto’s Grip Limited, where he served as director, business and was part of the agency’s leadership group on the Honda account. He also spent time at GS&P and Blast Radius.
Trying to quit smoking is definitely a never-ending struggle for any smoker who is trying to get rid of this habit. Nicotine Gum is the ultimate solution, with three different flavors for each step of the way. Green (Mint flavor) is how you kickstart quitting smoking, Yellow (Banana flavor) is the next step forward while Red (Strawberry) is end point. The three flavors acts together to help quitting smoking.
Elton John announced Wednesday that after his upcoming 300-date, three-year worldwide tour, he’s taking a final bow, retiring from touring. A cryptic invite for a “special event” hosted by the artist included clues like “I’ve finally decided where my future lies” and “a special announcement delivered in a revolutionary way.” The event, which brought more…
It didn’t happen until the final month of the regular season, but the 10 percent drop in NFL ratings this year finally dented the bottom line when it came to football-related ad revenue, according to new data from Standard Media Index. In-game NFL advertising revenue during the regular season declined 1.2 percent this year, to…
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