Hasta La Creative!

Someone really wants us to keep posting on West, the San Francisco-based agency that refuses to respond to anything resembling a press query.

First, we went over TechCrunch’s unenthusiastic review of the agency’s homepage. Then we heard that West had lost a large chunk of its business (the agency and the other contacts that our readers suggested did not respond to our requests for more information).

Someone else kept telling us to contact Travis Britton, who joined the agency as chief experience officer before leaving more than a year ago and (according to one very insistent tipster) launching his own venture. We also heard that Keith Cartwright, who was once CCO at West but no longer lists it on his resume, is happily running his own agency Union Made Creative. This is not really news.

Over the last week or so, however, we have received conflicting tips about the newest top creative executive at West.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today we learned that TechCrunch blogger Kyle Russell doubles as an advertising critic. More specifically, he criticizes the websites of ad agencies.

There’s a reason he was interested in this one: it’s West, the San Francisco shop founded by former Apple marketing chief Allison Johnson and top Facebook PR Brandee Barker with a bit of capital from Twitter originator Jack Dorsey.

About a year ago, we posted on West in response to tipsters’ claims that all the real ad people hired to staff the agency were leaving. West’s web presence doesn’t help clarify that matter, because it provides absolutely no information about the organization itself.

Still, Russell lingered on the page long enough to call it “a new champion in the endless battle to have the most pretentious startup website.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Le graphiste new-yorkais Jay Shells est un amoureux de hip-hop. Connu pour ses détournements urbains, son dernier projet propose d’installer des panneaux avec des citations de rappeurs mondialement connus tels que Nas, Jay-Z ou encore Kanye West, aux endroits mentionnés par les artistes.

The Left Right Project is meant to celebrate an icon. Adidas and 180LA teamed up to create a giant pair of Adidas shell tops. One shoe was given to an east coast team of artist at Surface2Air in New York, NY. The other was given to the creative team, Upper Playground in San Francisco, CA. In a classic east vs. west tradition, the two teams designed their shoes to reflect their coast. Each crew had 3 days to design their shoe. The teams met up in Venice Beach, CA to showcase their work.

This is a nice viral/digital/experiential project. It is an example of micro targeting with mass appeal potential. The viral was picked up by the sneaker community as well as the creative community. It’s very Adidas and I like that it doesn’t feel overdone or over budget. The Left Right Project is part of a larger Adidas Originals campaign, which includes “games” and events.