According to a New York Times report, Canadian holding company, MDC Partners, is buying Powell, a small creative shop in New York, and folding it in with Margeotes Fertitta & Partners, a mid-sized shop already in the MDC stable. MDC bought a majority of Margeotes Fertitta in 1998; the rest is owned by Mr. Fertitta and other senior managers. Some of the other shops under the MDC umbrella include Crispin Porter & …
Convicted Felon Will Write Ad Industry’s Code of Ethics
From Adweek: Former Ogilvy & Mather executive Shona Seifert today was sentenced in U.S. District Court here to 18 months imprisonment (and two years probation) for her role in a scheme to overbill the government's $1 billion Office of National Drug Control Policy account to cover a $3 million revenue shortfall on the business. Seifert must also pay a $125,000 fine and a $1,000 special assessment, as well as write a …
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If You Can Make It There…
Adweek: Fallon Worldwide said it would no longer operate a full-service outpost in New York following the departures today of office president Anne Bologna and executive creative director Ari Merkin. "While we have loved doing business in New York, and have a great group of talent, the truth is that New York is not a necessary part of Fallon's U.S. offering," said agency founder and chairman Pat Fallon in a …
Marketing Norwegian Sweaters And Steel Furniture
Dean Gemmell, president of Black Lab Five, an enthusiast marketing specialist in Michigan wants L.L. Bean to consider his shop for projects. He offers the letter he sent to Bean and details on his consequent conversations with "the sweet and polite Nadira Vallee at Pile & Company, the consultant handling the review process for L.L. Bean." Sweet Nadira even mentioned that an invited agency would need direct mail …
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The Home For The Strategically Challenged
Should art directors and copywriters become more involved in developing the strategy for the ads they work on? Can you do anything about if you're handed a bad strategy? What if your client wants to push a bad strategy on you? That's the focus of my new column on TalentZoo.com. Hey, I never said I had all the answers. But, to give one glaring example, when KFC came out last year and used the strategy "Fried chicken …
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The Oxymoronic Nature Of Advertising
from Welcome to Optimism: W+K gave a lecture June 29th at the D&AD New Blood event. The theme was 'crazysensible' - our belief that in order to do the most extreme creative work, you need the most solid strategic foundation. It's only when you have the right balance of crazy and sensible that you get ideas that are not only radical but also relevant. …
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Putting Your Ads Where The Money Is
I was a fan of Robert Shaw West, when he was running West + Vaughn, the Durham, NC hot shop. In 2001, West and some of his West + Vaughn cohorts refashioned themselves into The Republik, also in Durham. The small shop's big point of difference is the fact that they tie their compensation to performance. …
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Advertising Malpractice: How Would You Define It?
Well, there's no such thing, really. And there probably can't be. But I float the idea as the focus of my new column on Talent Zoo. Are clients truly getting their money's worth when good ideas are killed internally in agencies because of fear that "they'll never go for it?" How risky should a concept be? Are ad agencies giving their clients the best thinking and expertise and thinking they can possibly give? Read …
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