Hasta La Creative!

MySpace has not replaced Jamie Kantrowitz, its London-based vice president of international marketing and content, who has returned to the US to work on global marketing for MySpace Music.

LONDON – Taxi Promotions has acquired Clear Channel Outdoor UK’s taxi advertising arm, Taxi Media.

Yesterday I began to blog about the auto industry, and how pissed off I was that these “Captains of Manufacturing” were upset that the White House was taking a tough stance on the industry. As GM’s head rolled, the other auto execs actually had the gall to be upset about it! Well boo-friggin-hoo. Chafed, I changed topics.

When I woke today, they were still there…painfully stuck in my throat like uncoated aspirin…slowly burning as they dissolved. A caustic memory lingered in my mouth.

These men are our best and brightest, leaders of America’s most famous (now infamous) industry! Sheperds of commerce. Corporate front-runners. Thus far, there’s been little action from them, other than begging.

So, when Ford’s promotional think-tank announced a plan to pay for your car in the event you’re canned, I thought; “Wow! You copied off of Hyundai. What a great plan!”

Their Pitch: The Ford Advantage Plan is different (ho hum). We’ll pay for a year’s worth of payments vs. Hyundai’s three months (yawn). We’ll offer zero percent financing (whoopee). And, we’ll pay your $700/month car payment (what Ford is worth that?). 

That’s when the smell hit me, reeking of mortgage industry…just in a different place, at a different time. A promise to the masses that the unaffordable can be affordable. For a while.

LONDON – Lloyds Banking Group has chosen Omnicom’s OMD and WPP’s Mediaedge:cia to join incumbents ZenithOptimedia and Vizeum to battle for its £77m media planning and buying business.

LONDON – Gerry D’Angelo, European media director of Samsung’s in-house advertising agency Cheil Worldwide, will be the keynote speaker at next Tuesday’s digital out-of-home summit at Olympia in London.

LONDON – Yahoo! has today launched the new Yahoo! Mobile homepage across eight markets including the UK.

Unilever has handed Krow the UK advertising account for its Viennetta brand without a pitch.

NEW YORK – Britney Spears is to star in a TV, print and poster advertising campaign for US girl’s clothing brand Candie’s, which will include a pull-out poster of the pop queen in Us Weekly magazine.

The organizers of the 3rd Dubai Lynx Awards announced today that they are withdrawing the Agency of the Year award from FP7 Doha and the trophy will subsequently now not be awarded this year. Investigations after this year’s award show have revealed numerous examples of work from FP7 Doha that did not meet the Dubai Lynx entry criteria and subsequently these 18 submissions and the associated seven awards have been withdrawn.

Those awards were: 1 Gold Print campaign, 1 Gold TV/Cinema campaign, 3 Silver Print campaigns, 1 Silver Outdoor campaign and 1 Bronze TV/Cinema campaign. In addition, ten pieces which were shortlisted in the Print and Outdoor sections were also disqualified.

Read more & see the full list of disqualified entries.