Jun 05

Apple Officially Takes More Ads In-House

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The strained relationship between Apple and TBWAChiatDay has reached a new stage.

Two months after unflattering email exchanges between Apple’s head of marketing and TBWA’s Media Arts Lab surfaced as part of the extended Apple vs. Samsung copyright battle, Bloomberg was the first outlet to report that the company will now be creating more (if not all) of its TV spots in-house.

An Apple spokesperson reminded Bloomberg that the internal team, which “includes at least two people Apple hired away from Media Arts Lab”, is responsible for recent spots like this one:

The shift has been in the works since early 2013, with Apple deciding to take control of more production duties and build up its own team rather than search for a new agency.

Other outside hires include at least two higher-ups from Wieden+Kennedy: Tyler Whisnand and Bill Davenport.

No one at MAL–which recently went through some staffing changes of its own–offered a comment to Bloomberg, so the current and future status of the partnership remains unclear. 72andSunny CEO John Boiler did weigh in, however, calling the company’s decision to hire from within MAL “…an indication of some seriously broken trust.”

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Aug 07

Where in the World is Tyler Whisnand?

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It all started yesterday when a simple, yet vague tip came in saying, “Tyler Whisnand to Apple,” and the road has been long and winding since. If you don’t know the name, Whisnand spent the last six years at W+K Portland, serving as creative director on Levi’s and Nike, helping lead efforts on the “Go Forth” campaign for the former brand and spots like Tiger vs. Rory for Nike Golf from the beginning of the year. Well, we checked with W+K, which told us that Whisnand, much to our surprise, actually left the agency earlier this year to assume a creative director position at TBWA\Media Arts Lab on, what else, Apple–though you wouldn’t know it judging from the bio on his site.

Anyhow, we’ve checked in with both Apple PR and \MAL on Whisnand’s status and are awaiting some clarification. During his time at W+K, meanwhile, the senior creative also served as co-director alongside Hal Curtis of W+K’s in-house ad school/”League of Shadows,” W+K12. The W+K camp tells us, “we [were] very sad to see him go—he was definitely beloved here.” During his career, Whisnand also held creative roles at the likes of KesselsKramer, Ground Zero and Y&R NY. Hopefully we’ll get some updates on this shortly and try to sort this out. Stay tuned.

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