Hasta La Creative!

Goodby Silverstein & Partners is launching the first ever global campaign for eBay, entitled “Shop the World.”

As you may remember, eBay began searching for an agency to help revamp its image earlier this year, settling on Goodby Silverstein & Partners to handle creative and WPP’s MediaCom for media in July. This campaign, which launches on October 13th, timed to coincide with a revamped homepage, is based on an idea the agency pitched during the review.

A 60-second television spot (featured above) will launch Monday, with social components rolling out just prior to that. The spot entices viewers to “shop the world,” reminding them that, through eBay, anything they see from women’s running shoes to guitars is “instantly shopable” by zooming in on purchasable items with a white box. Items featured in the ad will also run as part of the revamped homepage’s curated “Collections” section.

“We’ve never gone out to the customer with one single message at the same time. All of the creative across markets is the same creative concept, the same key message,” eBay CMO Richelle Parham told AdAge. “This is the tightest connection [we’ve had] from marketing efforts to the product experience.”

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Today we confirmed that Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards will no longer count Wunderman as its creative AOR after the end of this year.

While the precise dates are uncertain, the business will soon be up for grabs. A Wunderman source tells us:

“Wunderman has enjoyed a truly collaborative relationship with Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards since 2008.  We are proud of the work that we did launching new products and services over the years and have nothing but positive memories of the time spent with such a smart and innovative client.”

The larger Southwest brand chose TBWA after a “lengthy review” in 2012, but its Rapid Rewards account has officially been with Wunderman since February 2009. Here’s a link to a :15 spot from 2010.

No word on when the creative review will begin or which agencies may be involved.

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Havas Worldwide, Helsinki crafted an emotional alcohol awareness PSA for Finnish charity Fragile Childhood, in collaboration with production companies Sauna International and Studio Arkadena, entitled “Orphanage.”

The beautifully-shot spot imagines a kind of reverse orphanage, where children choose their parents. Two children look through glass displays at different parents who present typical moments in their lives, such as at the dinner table or in the back yard. “Orphanage” does a great job of drawing in the viewer and fleshing out its strange little world, as the children visit differnt pairs of parents. As the boy takes a fancy to a certain father, a woman takes him by the hand and leads the children to a drunken, quarreling couple — their parents. As they leave with the couple, the message “Children can’t choose their parents. What if they could?” appears, followed by an invitation for viewers to share their thoughts on alcohol abuse. It’s a sad ending, and while it’s not initially apparent what issue the ad is addressing, that should make the ending all the more of a shock to any parents struggling with alcoholism.

“It is still not widely understood how much harm drinking problems at home cause to children,” Fragile Childhood told Adweek. “For example, previous research has shown that every fourth Finnish child has suffered some harm because of parent’s alcohol usage. Research carried out among Finnish teenagers aged 12-18 years shows that children think their parents ought not to drink at home and that they are much nicer when sober.”

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Sid Lee New York Co-Executive Creative Directors Dan Brooks and Daniel Chandler with Head of Digital Kwame Taylor-Hayford

Lukas Derksen, the managing partner of Sid Lee’s New York offices, announced today the promotion of Dan Brooks and Daniel Chandler to co-executive creative directors, effective immediately.

The creative pair have spent the past several years at Sid Lee, leading creative work on accounts such as Facebook, Absolut, Intel, Sony Playstation, Volkswagen and Rolex. Brooks first joined Sid Lee in 2011 as a senior art director, following a two year stint as a senior creative at 180 Amsterdam, before being made creative director the following year. Chandler joined Sid Lee as a copywriter back in 2010, following four years at Publicis, eventually working his way up to creative director.

“The Dans have been on the forefront of Sid Lee’s rise to the global stage, and both are among our organization’s most talented and multi-dimensional creatives,” said Derksen. “It’s young creative leadership like theirs that’s driving the future of our industry. With them, we are uniquely positioned as one of the most transformative forces in the U.S. agency landscape.”

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More than a year ago, we let you know about Publicis Groupe’s plans to acquire Atlanta-based Moxie Interactive and merge it with Columbus, Ohio’s Engauge. It only took about six months for the union of the two shops under the Moxie umbrella to become official.

Now we hear that the staffing cuts directly related to that merger, preceded by tips about a “restructuring” in late July, took place yesterday. We’ve yet to receive a response from the agency, but these are the details provided by tipsters:

• The cuts affected 10 percent of Moxie’s total workforce
• Total firings include up to 47 employees
• Most of those who lost their jobs were former members of the Engauge team

No details on where these cuts occurred, though the July tips indicated that some managers would be leaving and even the moderately positive posts on the agency’s Glassdoor page do seem take some issue with “management structure.”

Updates when we receive them.

In unrelated news, something seems a little…off about the Twitter profile linked from Moxie’s homepage. Help us figure out what it is after the jump.

(more…)

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GdB has a new campaign for longtime client Anytime Fitness, but unlike prior efforts, this one has a global reach.

It also sees a shift in emphasis from convenience to intimacy. The campaign focuses on the moments people have that make them realize they need to start taking better physical care of themselves. “When my five-year-old dusted me in a race to the end of the block” says one man; “When my baby weight was acting more stubborn than my baby,” a woman adds. The spot goes on to emphasize that Anytime Fitness has “the right tools and encouragement to keep you on track,” as the people describing their moment of clarity earlier are seen enjoying Anytime Fitness’ facilities. It’s an easily relatable message, and one GdB and Anytime Fitness hope will resonate with viewers in the over 15 countries where very similar versions of the ad will run.

“You’re talking about something that’s so universal,” GdB Creative Director Doug deGrood told AdAge. “Everybody has these sort of trigger moments. They wake up one day and think, ‘Damn, I gotta do something.’”

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Droga5 enlisted the services of “writer, comedian and vagina owner” Sarah Silverman for a new spot addressing the wage gap for National Women’s Law Center.

Silverman introduces viewers to the wage gap issue, pointing out that over the course of their lives women pay a “$500,000 vagina tax,” before informing viewers that she’s becoming a man, since the operation is actually cheaper than dealing with a lifetime of income disparity. She then introduces National Women’s Law Center’s crowdfunding effort to raise the trillions of dollars American women are cheated out of by gender inequality in the workplace, to be payed back to each of them. Since the goal is basically unreachable, it actually serves as a fund raiser for National Women’s Law Center’s efforts, since they receive the money as a donation if (when) the goal isn’t reached. The video ends by directing viewers to EqualPaybackProject.com, which goes live today to inform visitors about the gender gap and accepts donations to the crowdfunding effort. It’s a clever approach, addressing the absurdity of the issue in a way people are sure to remember.

“Equal pay may not be a sexy issue, but it’s an important one,” Casey Rand, Droga5 creative director, told Adweek. “And it is absurd. Young women need to know what’s at stake. And we knew that to get them to engage, we’d need to play up that absurdity.” (more…)

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180 LA has a new campaign entitled “Lost Iguana” which features the story of a precocious young boy who uses the power of HP technology to help find his lost iguana Ralph.

In a 60-second broadcast spot the boy uses HP laptops and printers to print out search flyers, and assembles a search team from around the neighborhood. By the end of the spot the self-assured boy says “And her comes the knock,” and sure enough his iguana is returned. It’s a cute approach, showing the integration of HP products, but unfortunately timed following the news that HP will split off into separate PC and printer divisions. The broadcast spot is linked to interactive campaign elements utilzizing the hashtag #FindRalph on YouTube, Vine and other channels, as well as a campaign microsite. (more…)

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New York/South Carolina-based Erwin Penland announced three new additions to its creative team.

Steve Rodriguez will serve as SVP/creative services director. He will help CCO Con Williamson run the creative department and contribute to hiring, staffing allocation, work assignments and other general operations concerns. He most recently served as director of creative services and talent at Saatchi & Saatchi and has worked in similar production/project management roles at Anomaly, BBH and KBS+.

Kristofer Delaney and Danny McHatton will both serve as VP/creative directors, effective immediately. The two will work primarily on the Denny’s and Verizon accounts, reporting to SVP/ECD John Cornette. Delaney joins the agency from Digitas New York, where he worked on the American Express account as a freelance CD. Prior agency experience includes a three-year stint as ACD/art director at BBDO NY as well as time spent in design at Ogilvy, Publicis, W+K and Starbucks.

McHatton most recently worked as a freelance ACD at Publicis; his past positions include copywriting gigs at mcgarrybowen, TracyLocke and Energy BBDO.

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TBWA/Chiat Day, LA has a new series of online spots in their ongoing campaign promoting Jimmy Dean’s new lunch and dinner offerings.

Some wondered, when Jimmy Dean announced the move into the instant lunch/dinner market, whether the brand would retain its recognizable sun character due to its association with the morning. But the brand is leaning on its mascot as much as ever, explaining its continued presence with a new series of online spots tracking him on characters across the country and throughout the day.

In “Slow Roast Shuffle” (featured above), he’s dancing up a storm while promoting Jimmy Dean Pulled Pork. Things get over-the-top pretty quickly and his dance partner can’t exactly keep up, as TBWA/Chiat Day stretch the character into some cartoonish territory. Other spots are slightly more down-to-earth, with the sun dropping change into parking meters, giving out free lunch at baggage claim in an airport and riding off into the sunset. All the videos are hosted on a website where you can also track the sun’s progress on the “Sunniest Day,” which Jimmy Dean says was yesterday.

Despite TBWA’s best efforts, the character, so long associated with breakfast, seems a little out of place in these scenarios (and past the AM). With time we’ll see if these are just growing pains or if the character continues to feel awkward promoting meals past breakfast. (more…)

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