Ad Age sees similarities between 1938 and today, particularly as expressed in the pages of Fortune Magazine. Rising unemployment. Weak economic activity. Competitive upheaval. Technology transforming work and play. Revolutionary changes in the media world. An uncertain international environment. Yup, times were tough in 1938. The Ad Age piece also features several self-promo ads from agencies selling their services …
Enfatico Folds Into Y&R–To The Surprise Of Very Few
Since they formed it about a year and a half ago, Enfatico, the agency formed by WPP to service Dell, has been a favorite target of many bloggers who deemed it an ill-fated venture. Well, they were right: Effective immediately, Enfatico will no longer be a stand-alone company under the WPP banner but part of the Y&R portfolio of agency brands, which include Y&R Advertising, Wunderman, Burson-Marsteller and Landor. …
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Couples Counseling For The Agency-Client Relationship
Recently, one of our clients specifically requested that I be assigned to a project. Gotta admit, it felt nice to be in demand like that. So few clients know who really does the day-in, day-out work at an ad agency. And that hurts the relationship, and the work in general: Most clients just aren't interested in the workings of their agencies, even if the people doing the work can provide better insight on the …
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The Commodore’s Ship Sinks In Chicago
Once upon a time there was a famous agency once known as J. Walter Thompson. Then they changed their name to JWT and bad things began to happen. But let's not get ahead of ourselves... In 1891, J. Walter Thompson's management sent a man to Chicago ahead of the 1893 World's Fair to make rain. He did and for over a century the Chicago office competed with the New York office for network prominence, but those days have …
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Tropicana’s CEO Needs To Stop Drinking The Arnell Kool-Aid
Look, I know agency folks love to gripe about clients. It's a push-pull relationship where both agency and client often work at cross-purposes. But agencies should strive to express some level of gratitude and dedication to the clients they serve. Particularly in public forums. Clients deserve that. And this Newsweek article about Peter Arnell, who recently redesigned Tropicana's packaging, demonstrates exactly why …
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Heartland Humor
Union Bank, with branches in Nebraska and Kansas, went with the old "you can talk to us, we're your community bank" strategy, but thankfully the execution of that strategy by Swanson Russell is pretty fresh. I especially like the blogger character talking about his blog. That's funny. …
Someone’s Going To Hell For This Award-Winning Scam Ad
Award show in the Middle East + Religious Imagery + Fake ad = Probably not a very good idea. From Campaign Magazine: The Dubai Lynx has removed all of FP7 Doha's winning work for Samsung from its website following a request by the Korean electronics company. The move has been made in response to the religious fall-out in Lebanon caused by an FP7 Doha ad featuring Jesus taking a photograph of a group of nuns with the …
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Brazil Or Bust
Valentina Vescovi is covering the Latin America beat for Ad Age. Today she writes about the digital lag in South American markets. She also mentions the opportunity for growth. Mauricio Mazzariol, founder of the Brazilian Bigman shop and, since last January, part of the Wieden & Kennedy team in Portland, Ore., says: "Brazil has a potentially huge digital market -- 150 million Brazilians have mobile telephones, and …
