Hasta La Creative!

We’ve received confirmation that Steve Nesle‘s time at Blast Radius has come to an end. No word yet on what lies ahead for the creative or if anyone’s replacing him, but Nesle has served as ECD/East for the WPP/Wunderman agency since late 2012. Prior to Blast, Nesle, you may recall, served in a similar role for two years at Deutsch New York and also held senior creative roles at what was then Tribal DDB as well as MRM Worldwide during his career.

Update: Wait, what? After getting direct confirmation from those in the know that “yes he is departing” a half hour later we get word from the same party involved that whoops, Nesle “continues to support Blast Radius accounts out of New York and Toronto.” Perhaps his  position has just changed within the network but this is quite the quick and confusing about-face. We’ll try to sort out this little mess as soon as we can and will update when we hear.

Update 2: Finally, we’ve received confirmation that Nesle’s tenure with Blast Radius is indeed up towards the end of this month.

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Well, we’ve been hearing murmurs over the week about the status of George Nguyen, who has spent approximately the last eight months serving as managing director at TBWA\Toronto, which also works with the agency’s usual suspects including Nissan and Gatorade as well as several Canadian brands (as you’d expect). Well, Nguyen’s position has now changed as he’s assumed the role of chief strategy officer for the Toronto office (the managing director post is now obsolete). Prior to TBWA\Toronto, Nguyen spent four years as managing director of the network’s Vietnam branch. During his career, he’s also held planning posts at Arnold, Lowe and StrawberryFrog.

Along with Nguyen’s change in position, sources familiar with the matter tell us that Jay Bertram, who was running both TBWA\Canada and TBWA\Latin America, has returned to serve full-time as president of the former. From what we’ve been told, TBWA  closed the Latam regional office “a short while ago” and relocated those on accounts to LA or New York and central support staff to New York. Bertram has had two tours of duty with TBWA, the most recent one lasting a dozen years. During his career, he also spent a lengthy amount of time as an exec at Cossette.

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BBDO has just released a new Olympics spot for Visa featuring U.S. Olympic Freeskier Torin Yater-Wallace.

The 45 second spot, “Nightswim,” follows Torin on one of his night runs through “an ocean of snow,” where “it’s only [him] and the mountain.” Torin explains that he skis at night because the days just aren’t long enough, and he can engage his passion in private at night, without the pressures and distractions he faces during the day. The spot closes with Morgan Freeman‘s narration that Visa has been “supporting Olympic athletes for over 25 years.”

Like a lot of the Olympic advertising we’ve been seeing, “Nightswim” is pretty straightforward, allowing the athlete involved and the idea of Olympic sponsorship to speak for itself. The most unusual thing about the spot would have to be the nighttime setting, which allows for some interesting visuals, but also some moments where it’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on. Credits after the jump.

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To celebrate 40 years of flying to the Cook Islands, Air New Zealand has collaborated with Sports Illustrated (celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Swimsuit Issue) for a new safety video featuring swimsuit models such as Chrissy Teigen, Ariel Meredith, Hannah Davis and Jessica Gomes.

“Safety in Paradise” launches next week, but Air New Zealand has shared this behind-the-scenes video of the Cook Islands shoot in the meantime. Christie Brinkley, who was propelled to fame in large part thanks to appearing on three consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covers, also makes an appearance in “Safety in Paradise,” from her Hollywood home.

“Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has a massive worldwide television, online and print campaign to celebrate the 50^th anniversary and we’re incredibly excited to feature in that activity.  The magazine alone has more than 61 million readers annually and the safety video shoot with Air New Zealand will feature in the special anniversary edition,” said Air New Zealand Head of Global Brand Development Jodi Williams.

Entertaining safety videos are nothing new for Air Zealand, who have been doing it for years, featuring folks like Richard Simmons, Bear Grylls, and Betty White, not to mention the Hobbit-themed one they released to coincide with Peter Jackson’s film. If Delta’s recent 80s-themed safety video is any indication, entertaining safety videos are now practically a requirement for airlines. The “Safety in Paradise” video will begin showing on Air New Zealand flights on February 11th, when some fear an epidemic of uncomfortable in-flight arousal.

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Yes, there is a memo concerning this latest Grey announce and it comes from Grey Group chairman/CEO Jim Heekin, who says this regarding Piers Yeld, who has been with the agency network for nearly six years, serving in a top executive role on one of the agency’s largest accounts as you’ll see below. Here’s the note, ladies and gents:

“I wanted to share the news with you that Piers Yeld, our globe-trotting Global Chief Operating Officer on the P&G worldwide business, will be leaving Grey to conquer new worlds and have some family time.

In reflecting on his 30th anniversary at Grey which he just celebrated, Piers said few people can honestly say they have been fortunate enough to continue to grow professionally and personally at a single agency for so long.  That said, it is impossible to overstate the legacy of accomplishment he leaves us.

On Piers’ watch, Grey has achieved many milestones that have had an immense impact on the success of our global company:

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With Valentine’s Day less than two weeks away, a few creatives at San-Francisco based agency Swirl are releasing a video called “Less Than One” with an accompanying website.

The 5:30 “Less Than One” explores the question, “Do you believe in a soulmate?” as a couple wrestle with that question. The woman asks her boyfriend this at the beginning of the video, and he replies that it just doesn’t make sense. He then examines the likelihood, mathematically, of her finding the right guy, and by the end seems to concede that perhaps fate does play a role in finding the right person. “Less Than One” is well-produced, written, and acted enough to make all this watchable and slightly less cheesy than the synopsis I’ve just provided might suggest. The accompanying website allows users to input information about their location, age, and romantic preferences to calculate their own chances of finding a soulmate — although their calculations seem to ignore the possibility of finding someone outside your nearest city, kind of a big oversight in the age of Internet dating sites. Credits after the jump. continued…

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After spending the last five-plus years at Chicago-based Energy BBDO, word has trickled down through the departments that Dan Fietsam is no longer with the agency. If you recall, Fietsam replaced Marty Orzio over a half-decade ago as EVP/chief creative officer at the agency. We were forwarded a note from Energy sent from Energy’s president/CEO, Paul Tonise. See below:

“From: Paul, Tonise
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Subject: Thanks, Dan!

 

Team,

After 5-1/2 years, Dan is leaving the agency.  It’s been a good run, and we are thankful for Dan’s contributions to our collective success.

When Dan started, Energy BBDO was a smaller agency and, like the rest of America (and world), we were amidst one of most difficult macro economic downturns.  We continued to grow and succeed and Dan was a key player.

Under his leadership, we drove award-winning work and got recognition from the creative community. Most importantly, he brought in wonderful creative leaders.

In the “Next Phase for Fietsam”, Dan yearns to get closer to the creation of the work. And that’s what he’ll do in his last month with the agency. We are in a search for Dan’s replacement and, in the interim, will rely on our outstanding group creative directors to continue leading their businesses.

We are grateful to Dan for all he’s done to help make Energy BBDO what it is today. I know you will all join me in offering your personal thanks to Dan.

Tonise”

 

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The team behind Young Glory, who this year added a design category to “the only industry awards program rewarding creative consistency” have launched a new, global talent agency called YG Talent.

Young Glory mines the best under 30 talent for a competition spanning 8 creative briefs over 8 months. Over the years, they’ve attracted talented creative directors such as AKQA’s Rei Inamoto, R/GA’s Nick Law and Wieden+Kennedy’s Jim Riswold as judges. This has positioned Young Glory’s organizers as the caretakers of an ever-growing database of well-tested young talent.

“We realised that we were sitting on a real goldmine of talent  – talent that was tested and vetted by some of the industry’s finest. So we thought why not allow agencies to tap into that? Through our monthly participations, we’re able to identify the next generation of  creative superstars before everyone else. And most importantly for agencies, before they become too expensive,” says Young Glory co-founder Rafik Belmesk.

YG Talent will offer agencies “the opportunity to hire young to mid-level art directors, copywriters and designers from the four corners of the globe, solving an ever-present issue on agencies’ agendas: hiring the talent that will keep increasingly digital and diverse creative departments brewing,” providing talent in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe and New Zealand. Check out the video above, and head on over to YG Talent for more information.

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Domino’s wanted to show that their pan pizza is “handmade, hand stretched and hand pressed” by real people with real hands, talented hands. So CP+B launched a new campaign for Domino’s highlighting talented Dominos employees, including a 30 second TV spot and accompanying microsite.

The TV spot “Labor of Love” showcases three Domino’s employees with three separate hobbies: muralist Diego G., painter Crystal S., and glassblower Chris P. Domino’s chose these employees to exemplify how Domino’s pizza makers “put as much care into the pizzas they make for customers, as the things they craft and create by hand elsewhere in their lives.” The campaign microsite tells these stories in ways the 30-second TV spot can’t, with in-depth profiles of Diego, Crystal and Chris from “Labor of Love” — along with several other highlighted Domino’s pizza makers, including various artists, a comic artist, and a carpenter. There’s also a space for talented Domino’s employees to submit their own story, so expect more content in the future.

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Chances are you were watching Sunday night when Bob Dylan actually asked, in a Chrysler ad reaching over 100 million people, “Is there anything more American than America?”

It stands out, amidst stiff competition, as the most ridiculous line uttered during the barrage of Super Bowl advertising. The rest of the spot almost doesn’t even matter, since all people will remember is that one terrible line that begs to be parodied. And now it has been. A not as of yet identified Miami Ad School student created this parody using the footage from the Chrysler spot, dubbed with  their best Dylan impression waxing ridiculous on America. With lines like, “Cuz ‘American’ is America’s adjective, and sometimes it’s a noun for people in America” and “Being an American person? Well, that takes being a person in America” the parody does a good job at pointing out what’s so ridiculous about not just the specific Chrysler ad in question, but a whole genre of overly-patriotic advertising. Now if only we knew who was responsible…

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