Hasta La Creative!

Last year, AgencySpy brought you coverage of graphic designer Jason Sadler, some guy who wanted to make selling himself out as crazy and overblown as possible.

He began his foray into the world of turning himself into a walking billboard for money with IWearYourShirt.com, a website where people could volunteer to wear sponsors; t-shirts around for a fee because they were really hard up or something. Next, Sadler decided to take his experiments into human commercialism to the next level with BuyMyLastName.com, a site that allowed him to auction off his last name for the entirety of 2013 for $45,500 to Headsets.com.

Now, evidently out of ideas, Jason HeadphonesDotCom will auction off his name once more for 2014 before taking his great-grandfather’s name until he dies or gets bored. What’s in it for brands? Well, check out this little nugget from the press release:

The company associates $250,000 in sales and just over $6 million of advertising impressions in less than two months directly to purchasing the rights to Jason’s last name. “The publicity impact was beyond belief. Our recognition factor jumped right away and still lasts now. Best $45k I have ever spent,” said Mike Faith, Headsets.com CEO.

So, there you have it, if you’re a brand on par with Headsets.com. The winning sponsor will also have their brand name appear on the cover of Jason’s new book (which you’ll find info about at, what else, SponsorMyBook.com), so really, you can’t go wrong. Bid at BuyMyLastName.com.

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It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Mitchell Caplan, but in it’s rather busy fall, Minneapolis-based agency Olson has appointed the former McCann/Digital Pulp exec as chief marketing officer. Caplan, if you recall, was appointed to a similar role at McCann in summer 2010, at the time reporting directly to McCann North America president Robert LePlae and was responsible for leading marketing strategy and business development for McCann NA. Following its win of the likes of Sharp and Supercuts, it’s been a busy couple of months for Olson, which will have Caplan split time between its offices in Minneapolis and New York and report to CEO, John Partilla.

During his career, Caplan also spent some time at Y&R North America/Y&R Brands in a similar CMO role, where he spent over three-and-a-half years. The new CMO succeeds Bob Molhoek, who has spent a decade’s worth of time at Olson and is now being bumped up to the newly created role of SVP/organic client growth. In a statement, Caplan says, ““This is a very exciting time to be joining Olson. When you look at the client list, the talent, the work and the momentum, you get a very clear picture that this is an agency that has become a major player in North America, while staying very true to the cultural values that makes the agency such an amazing place to work.”

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[Headphones on if your place of employment doesn’t like hearing the word “fuck” come flying out of your computer.]

The mere concept of advertising award shows is ridiculous. So, thankfully, one award show in particular isn’t afraid to bask in the silliness of grown men throwing tantrums at not getting a trophy for their spots about pool cleaner or whatever.

This spot for the Shots Awards (taking place November 28th in London, because Brits don’t believe in American Thanksgiving) from BETC London features Damon Collins (co-founder of Joint U.K.), Justin Tindall (ECD of Leo Burnett London) and James Hilton (of AKQA) and many more throwing quickly escalating hissy fits when their names aren’t called. If anything, this just makes me wonder: Would advertising in general be better if it was laden with curse words and people yelling?

With 14 categories and 14 winners (no prizes for participation or second place), Shots is building its brand as a show that disappoints. Even if you don’t win, you might as well go hoping that you’ll see some drunk exec turn over a table, right? Credits after the jump.

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Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Bud Caddell, who has spent the last two-plus years at Deutsch LA, where he initially joined at was dubbed at the time an “invention strategist,” has parted ways with the agency. We’ve been told by sources in the know that the split was amicable and has landed “a nice new gig.” No word yet on where he headed to, but Caddell joined Deutsch after helping launch social venture Common with Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham. During his career, Caddell also spent time as a strategy director at Victors & Spoils and served for a while as a senior strategist at New York digital firm, Undercurrent. From what we hear, Caddell has headed back to Undercurrent, though in its Los Angeles office.

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After spending the last four years as group director/integrated content marketing at Coca-Cola, Kevin Keith has headed back to the agency side, joining up with JWT’s Atlanta office as director of planning. Keith has taken over for Michael Deszo as of this week and will report to the agency office’s president/CCO, Perry Fair. During his time on the client side, Keith led brand strategy and integrated marketing communications on both Coke and Sprite. Regarding his meeting with Fair and the JWT Atlanta crew, which works on clients including the U.S. Marine Corps, Shell, Transamerica and Quaker State, Keith says in a statement, ““I was introduced to Perry when he joined JWT Atlanta and have followed his accomplishments and work over the past two years. The extensive technology capabilities at JWT and the supporting infrastructure to propel creative ideas into business solutions for clients made the agency very attractive for me, and I’m excited to see what we can invent together.”

During his previous stints in ad land, Keith worked on the account side at the likes of Draftfcb, Lowe and Hal Riney & Partners.

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We’ve received confirmation from those in the know that Chris Adams has parted ways with Saatchi & Saatchi LA, where he served as executive creative director for nearly three years. We’ve been told that Adams’s last day at the agency is this Friday. Meanwhile, we’ve been told that his creative partner-in-crime at the agency, ECD Margaret Keene, is remaining on board at the agency. The pair joined Saatchi LA from TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, where they each spent well over 15 years. During his time at the agency, Adams was involved in the Apple launch of iTunes, iPod, the Power Mac G5 and The Beatles’ debut on iTunes as well as campaigns for Nissan and Pedigree. No word on his next destination.

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We’ve received word from Denver-based agency Factory Design Labs that Andrew Price has taken over as global chief creative officer. Price sends this note: “The CCO position was previously held by Blake Ebel. August 2010 – April 2012.  Blake was co-CCO at Euro RSCG Chicago, he left to begin a start-up agency here in Denver.  The position sat empty for a few months, then I took it over. When I was ECD, it was a sole position created uniquely for me at the time.I can add that Blake’s agency is called ‘Fear Not.” Price has been with FDL since 2000, moving up the ranks from ACD to his most recent post.

He adds, ““I lead by letting my teams take risks.  That’s what encourages alternative thinking, and that’s the kind of thing I’ve always thrived on.  Factory’s approach would seem out of place on Madison Avenue.  We dive into the brands we represent and we always speak authentically.  Everything we do is about resonating with the most critical consumer: our clients’ core audience.  As a result, people want to work with us and for us because you can be yourself.  And with other senior leadership changes and our on-going expansion plans, we are poised to continue making a series impact globally in 2014 and beyond.”

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After spending the last 10 months on the account for a “certain electronics company that’s taking over the world” at Rosetta’s L.A. office, which just so happened to welcome Lars Bastholm to the fold, the creative team of Jose Eslinger and Carissa Zaino Levine, art director and copywriter, respectively, have moved over to Innocean to work on, you guessed it, Hyundai. The pair, who officially joined Innocean this week, have been partnered up for nearly three years, initially joining forces at fellow L.A. shop Ignited, where they worked on Activision (like this Deadpool campaign), the NFL and Konami. Prior to Ignited, Eslinger (whose handiwork can also be seen here) served as an AD/designer at the likes of TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, its \Tequila unit and Dailey while Levine spent a half-dozen years at Arnold’s Boston hub.

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Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Chris Reed, who’s spent the last eight years at Energy BBDO, has moved over t0 DigitasLBi’s Chicago office, where he now serves as EVP/account management. Reed now heads up the account team on DigitasLBi’s Whirlpool account as well as Maytag and Kitchen Aid. From what we’ve been told, Reed assumed his new post as of last week. Along with his lengthy stint at Energy BBDO, the account exec also spent a couple of years at Y&R during his career.

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I don’t think Edwin Starr had QR Codes in mind when he sang “War,” but a few young ad folk (Yousuke Ozawa, Alok Mahadevia, Jeff Oropeza) have used the anti-war theme song to declare war on the maligned pixelated mobile-scanning boxes in a one-minute video titled “Death to QR Codes.”

People have been declaring QR codes dead for quite some time now, and I’m not sure what makes this clip stand out in any way from other eulogies, other than the unintentionally ironic misuse of an anti-Vietnam song. That’s not to say the people behind the project are wrong. For whatever it is worth, a fair amount of data, like this Marketing Charts post, suggest QR code scans are leveling off as mobile advertising spending greatly increases, which is a more apt mathematical eulogy than this video. It’s a video showing people putting cutouts with little graphics of karate kicks and soldiers holding guns next to QR codes. But it’s a Friday afternoon, so if you have a free minute, watch. Or, don’t watch.

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