Hasta La Creative!

Y&R New York launched a new campaign for Campbell’s Chunky Soup ahead of the new football season starring NFL players Drew Brees, Odell Beckham Jr., Eddie Lacy, Todd Gurley, Eric Ebron and Kyle Long, entitled “The Everyman All Star League.” 

The campaign takes a look at a sort of reverse fantasy football, where NFL stars draft everyday guys out of Brees’ basement. It’s unclear what kind of metrics the league is based around, but it seems that guys like Mitch Greenwald are in high demand. Greenwald is a welder and volunteer fireman who still finds time to make tiny doll furniture for his daughter. Beckham Jr. announces his pick, much to the chagrin of other league participants who had Greenwald in mind for their own teams.

“In this campaign, we turned the tables on traditional fantasy football and asked NFL superstars to draft everyday guys in Drew Brees’ basement,” explained Campbell’s Chunky soup brand manager Abby Elu. “In a fun and light-hearted way, the campaign celebrates the daily victories the ‘everyman’ tackles on and off the field and highlights how Chunky soup fills up all kinds of people – from a Super Bowl stars to busy parents and loyal neighbors.”

The approach builds off the brand’s past NFL efforts with a slightly new (but still plenty cheesy) spin in the “Everyman All Star League.” Interested parties can head to EverymanLeague.com to create their own player card, be placed on one of the general mangers’ teams and enter for a chance to win Super Bowl LI tickets, NFL-licensed autographed gear and other prizes.

Four additional spots will round out the campaign over the course of the NFL season, running on ESPN and the NFL Network. The ads will continue to explore “The Everyman All Star League” run out of Drew Brees’ basement. 

Y&R officially launched its new Memphis office yesterday with a grand opening and ribbon cutting co-sponsored by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

Y&R Memphis was created to service the agency’s United States Navy account under The Navy Partnership, which also includes ML, Wunderman, Burson-Marsteller, MEC and Uniworld. Fifty professionals from the area were hired to work on the Navy account. The U.S. Navy named Y&R its lead agency in May of 2015, following a review. 

“We’re thrilled to be the first global advertising agency to have a presence in Memphis,” said Y&R global CEO David Sable in a statement. “Working across our partner agencies and establishing ourselves within close proximity to the Navy’s headquarters will allow us to deliver the full power, resources and marketing expertise of our global network to Memphis and the greater Mid-South region. We’re so excited to finally be here.”

The office will be led by managing director Ken Dowling, who also serves as global client leader on Y&R’s Navy account and will lead business development at Y&R Memphis. Dowling will partner with executive creative director Ryan Blum, who recently joined the agency from Publicis Seattle.

Blum spent around a year and a half as a creative director with Publicis Seattle, following two years as a group creative direcor at TraceyLocke and three as a creative director before that. Prior to joining TraceyLocke in 2010, he spent two years as a copywriter with The Richards Group, after beginning his career by spending six years as a copywriter with TraceyLocke. Over the course of his career he has worked with brands including T-Mobile, Samsung and 7-Eleven.

“This is such a proud day for Y&R,” Dowling said. “We’re extremely excited to officially open our doors in Memphis, a thriving city. With Ryan on board, and with the help of our partner companies, we know we will do great things here as we build on the revitalization already taking place, and hope to become a part of the long-term success of the Memphis community.”

Jaguar’s “Actual Reality” prank from a few months ago just won big at Cannes, taking home four Lions (a gold, two silvers and a bronze). It also would have probably given me a heart attack if I’d participated.

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Everything’s coming up WPP for British retail giant Marks & Spencer, which just launched a closed creative review involving only the Sorrell holding company’s shops.

16-year incumbent RKCR/Y&R will defend against fellow WPP agencies J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Grey London, CHI & Partners and VCCP in the review, which will take place over the summer.

“Together with M&S we have redefined retail advertising, invented food porn and welcomed a host of leading ladies from Twiggy to Rita Ora,” RKCR/Y&R CEO Jon Sharpe said in a statement. “Our campaigns have instilled M&S’s core principles of quality, service and value whilst cementing its position as a stylish and iconic national treasure. We have enjoyed consistent recognition and reward for both creativity and effectiveness of our creative output and we look forward to meeting the challenge of this pitch with the dedication, passion and enthusiasm we greet every brief from M&S.”

The agency’s recent work for Marks & Spencer includes last year’s food porn holiday effort “Adventures in Surprises” and last September’s 40-second spot promoting the brand’s fashion offerings.

Since taking over as CEO last last year, Sharpe has helped lead RKCR/Y&R to three consecutive successful pitches, including defending the agency’s BBC account.

Why do clients do this, again?

Nearly two dozen current and former National Football League stars appear in powerful new PSAs condemning domestic violence and sexual abuse.

They look straight into the camera as they say “No more” to excuses and rationalizations that perpetuate the problem. These include “Boys will be boys,” “He just has a temper,” “Why doesn’t she just leave?” and “She was asking for it.”

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning bookends a 60-second clip, which also features league exec Troy Vincent and Pittsburgh Steelers star William Gay, both of whom have suffered abuse tragedies in their lives. The work was developed by Y&R and produced by Viacom and the Joyful Heart Foundation. The latter’s founder and president, actress Mariska Hargitay, was among the spots’ directors.

“This is a monumental step toward change,” Hargitay tells USA Today. “If badass NFL heroes are coming forward to talk about these issues, I guarantee you it is going to give inspiration and permission to young boys to step up in a new way. Love in a new way, protect in a new way, and to be a man in a new way.”

The NFL, plagued by scandals involving Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and others, is donating $3 million a week in air time for the PSAs. The player spots broke during last week’s Thursday Night Football telecast on CBS. “No More” spots featuring celebrities like Courteney Cox, Amy Poehler and Ice-T last broke a month ago.

The campaign’s plain talk is compelling, and so is its stark visual style. Against a plain white background, the players establish an instant connection with viewers. That makes it hard to look away when the subjects challenge us to face tough issues and do the right thing.

Shelley Diamond, formerly worldwide managing partner at Y&R, has been promoted to chief client officer. She will continue to serve as a member of Sable’s Global Executive Committee.

Throughout her tenure at Y&R, Diamond helped build the Xerox, Dell and Campbell’s teams and other key accounts. She led Y&R New York from 2007 to 2010, during which she presided over strong organic growth with Y&R’s clients and helped bring in new business.

Now for the accolades: In 2013, Shelley was selected by Business Insider as the 11th Most Powerful Woman in Advertising, and in 2005, she was recognized as a “Working Mother of the Year” by The Advertising Women of New York and Working Mother Magazine.

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Y&R New Zealand turns manly beards into cute animals for Schick’s “Free Your Skin” campaign, which takes a bold anti-beard stance in this golden age of hirsute ruggedness. 

Of course, sneering observers are all calling the Schick models hipsters, so maybe the ads also tap into a sort of cultural exhaustion with all things bearded, buttoned-down and knit-capped. Seriously, I think Tony Montana said the F-word fewer times than I’ve read the word “hipster” doing research for this post. 

Y&R did a brief interview with Metro about the campaign, claiming that the bearded creatives in the agency’s employ “all confessed that their beards aren’t actually that pleasant to live with.” Lies and slander! They also claim that “women actually find beards kinda gross,” which science would argue is only half-true.

Via Design Taxi.

The move is now official: agency vet Matt Eastwood has left his position as CCO at DDB New York to become worldwide chief creative officer at JWT (or, as they’d prefer, the J. Walter Thompson Company).

The Australian-turned-New Yorker worked with DDB in his home country and served as CCO at Y&R before he replaced a departing Eric Silver in the agency’s Manhattan office almost exactly four years ago.

Eastwood brings an extensive portfolio to the new role; he scored the #5 spot on the Ad Age “most awarded” list for 2013, and his name has appeared atop the credits for recent campaigns featuring everything from bearded, lottery-playing hipsters to seniors who never remember to wear their condoms.

Beginning next month, Eastwood will report directly to JWT global president Gustavo Martinez. He will be the first to fill the global CCO role since the 2009 departure of Craig Davis, who left to rejoin the continent of Australia.

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Our tipsters were ahead of the press release today. WPP‘s New York-based “world’s largest activation network” Geometry Global–which sprang to life last summer as the activation agencies at G2, Ogilvy and JWT merged–has appointed Carl Hartman as its new North American CEO effective May 1st.

The release, which describes Hartman as “one of WPP’s top shopper marketing experts”, notes that he led the Kimberly-Clark team for more than six years before this move; he will continue to hold that role while reporting to global CEO Steve Harding.

Regarding the agency’s two current co-CEO’s:

• Sheila Hartnett will serve as North American Chairman moving forward
• Harvey Kipnis will step down to pursue other unnamed opportunities

Before beginning his stint at WPP, Hartman worked as a director at MEC and an account manager at Y&R.

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Today the principals at Straight Up, Films–the studio behind the upcoming Johnny Depp Warner Bros. flick “Transcendence”–formally launched their production studio/commercial division.

Operating under the Disorderly|Conduct moniker, the new division will be run by Straight Up producers Kate Cohen, Marisa Polvino and Ron Cicero.

From the release, the principals started the studio to “…collaborate with leading advertising agencies and entertainment brands to create commercial content” directed by ad/entertainment vets who the D|C team spent the last year recruiting.

That lineup’s collective portfolio includes work for Panasonic, Lexus, Playstation, Axe, DirecTV and more as well as episodes of “Glee”, “House” and other shows. These directors have created spots for Weiden & Kennedy, TeamOne, 180, Y&R and JWT.

Polvino says the launch makes sense because “Feature film directors are coming to the space from all arenas” and “Commercial directors in particular are directing material that’s incredibly cinematic”–like the D|C Jeep spot after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.