Hasta La Creative!

Tim Scott, international CEO and president of mcgarrybowen Chicago, is departing the agency for an undisclosed client-side marketing position, AdAge reports.

Scott’s departure follows last month’s hiring of Simon Pearce as president of its New York office and chief client officer, succeeding Tom Sewell, who held the position since May of 2014 (and continues on at the agency in an innovation role). The agency stated that it will begin a search for a new Chicago president, who will also assume chief client officer responsibilities. Laurel Flatt, group managing director, will act as interim general manager of the office until the search is completed. Gordon Bowen, chairman and chief creative officer of mcgarrybowen, will temporarily assume Scott’s international CEO role.

Scott arrived at mcgarrybowen back in 2009 as a managing director, just two years after the opening of the agency’s Chicago office, following a stint at DDB Chicago as a global business director.

The full statement from Bowen:

“I am grateful and proud of the work Tim has done to build our brand, first in Chicago and then around the world. He is a dear friend, trusted leader, and mentor to many. We are very grateful for his contributions, and we wish him a lifetime of luck and success in his future endeavors.”

The news seems to confirm a tip we received weeks ago about changes coming to macgarrybowen’s international leadership (assuming there aren’t more on the way).

Update: Land O’Lakes announced that Scott will be joining the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, responsible for overseeing B2C and B2B branding and marketing strategy, effective April 22nd.

Ubiquitous Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons stars in Intel’s new holiday campaign, the first work from agency McGarryBowen since being named agency of record in October.

The first spot for the holiday campaign (featured above) breaks Monday, and the campaign will run for six weeks as the other ads gradually roll out. In it Parsons plays himself, running amok a restricted access area at Intel and gawking at Intel’s RealSense technology, until he is eventually thrown out by a security guard who tells him not to talk about anything he saw. Parsons’ broadcast spots will be backed by a social media campaign featuring companion videos and photos.

“The decision to approach this in a comedic way was one that intrigued me from the beginning,” Gordon Bowen, chairman and chief creative officer of McGarryBowen, told The New York Times. The campaign “is really just the beginning,” Bowen added. “It sets us up for a campaign that tells you there’s a new Intel that is bringing things to market that will surprise and delight you.”

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I remember the Easy Button last being at all interesting about five years ago. People could actually buy a product that embodied Staples’ marketing strategy in Staples, some mixture of cool/scary meta-advertising that got old once you pressed the button more than 10 times. Staples has actually been running with “That Was Easy” for a decade, but McGarryBowen just retired it in favor of the less punchy “Make More Happen.”

Would you prefer your supply store to make things easy or to make more things happen? Rhetorical, but the rebrand is meant to change the perception of Staples as just an office supply store. The logo changed slightly, too, with the now-rotating “L” you can see in the new promo above that includes dog food, rain boots, paint brushes, etc. They sell dog food? Is this Staples or Walmart? It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, since Staples can’t do Walmart as well as Walmart can, but at least they’re trying to adapt instead of coasting down an easy route to irrelevance. Credits after the jump.

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