Agencies

If you tell people you work in advertising, have you ever heard someone say, "I've got a great commercial idea for Coke. What do you do, just call them up or send in your idea?" And then they don't understand why you can't really do that. Here's why, courtesy of The New York Times: A California small businessman contends in a lawsuit that American Express stole his idea for the tagline of the company's "My life. My …

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Has Catherine Zeta-Jones been lying to me this whole time? From Ad Age: New York's Department of Consumer Affairs is suing three wireless phone marketers for violating the city's consumer protection law. Acting Commissioner Jonathan Mintz, in a suit filed in New York Supreme Court, charged Nextel Communications, Sprint Spectrum and T-Mobile USA, with deceptive advertising and is seeking maximum fines as well as …

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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 & …

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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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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 …

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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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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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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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