No comment. R/GA is like Ft. Knox, so for all you in there, we know there's a lot of dirt these days. We can just...feel it. Like, our internal spy sense is going nuts. So, don't be afraid to use the tips box after you leave work. It's secure like Ft. Knox. Also, e-mail me at matt@mediabistro dot com, or SuperSpy at superspyin@gmail dot com.

Oh yeah, and Jeff Greenspan over at R/GA is responsible for the video. We may even get to meet him if we decide to grab lunch over there some afternoon. Can we come have lunch R/GA? We promise only to plant like 3 bugs. Pretty please?!

More: "R/GA Knows It's All About Your Space"

The Atlantic is no longer a wolf in sheep's clothing. In the words of Editor James Bennet, when the magazine was created in 1857, the writers behind it "wanted to entertain readers on the one hand and, on the other, to advance the radical cause of abolition." The weeks-old redesign seeks to encapsulate that mission, while simultaneously re-outfitting the look and revamping its Web component.

The new design, guided by EuroRSCG and Pentagram (and designer Michael Bierut) aims to get people to think. again. A microsite hosts vignettes in which random folks are asked deep questions — on the kinds of issues you'd likely see in the mag. It's an intelligent melding of engagement and advertising; two subjects that aren't easily mixed (though every agency and their motha will tell you they're old pros at it...to you, we call bullshit).

Publisher Jay Lauf, who came to the mag from Wired in April, said part of the redesign was meant to align the look with the envelope-pushing content — provided by a muy edgy group of writers. Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens, James Fallows and a host of others are a Twainian dream-team of sorts; each has an unmistakable sense of "right" about the world, which TA's audience responds to.

Practically speaking, the redesign aims give the magazine a relevant presence in the digital space — a much needed element in light of the print world's current...how do I put this...situation.

And though TA is challenging its readers to think, the same was its dilemma; to think about how to enter the digital space without losing the critical part of what it does (and has historically done) best; longform.

More after the jump.

continued...

A copywriter and some of his friends have put together a fun Web site, where you can see what they think the world could be like if Sarah Palin makes it into the White House, and apparently John McCain is no longer around.

Cue PalinAsPresident dot com. It's a fun poke at the Alaska governor, and might help relieve some stress.

More: "Why Sarah Palin Should Sponsor Coca-Cola"

We hate that Fiji Water ships its product half way around the world. Honestly, it's the dumbest thing, ever. Yeah, it tastes like the water (we imagine) God drinks, and yeah FW offsets their carbon footprint (which isn't really possible) and yeah their marketing strategy is solid. But in the long list of pointless products that humans (esp. Americans) waste time, energy, money and resources on, bottled water is by far the tops.

And a new report found that bottled water contains the same contaminants as tap water, ah, because most bottled water comes from a tap before getting filtered by an over-sized Brita equivalent and shot into a BPA contaminated bottle (OK, maybe Fiji Water is legit — but it's still bad for you in the sense that a lot of shit had to get contaminated for that water to hit your lips).

Get into it with us, after the jump.

More: "FIJI Water Gets 'Green' Spin"

continued...

The much awaited album from Guns N' Roses is set to debut any minute — all the band needs is an ad agency to provide the creative solutions to get their music out there.

MarketingWeek reports that Universal Music, the group's representation, may already be reaching out to London shops in search of a marketing effort to precede the launch of "Chinese Democracy" — the band's first album since 1993.

There's no word yet on who UM has contacted, so sharpen those pencils and come up with the next great program. Just a note: MW said that given the tumultuous status of the music industry, GNR may be flirting with some kind of freebie — ala Prince, Oasis, Coldplay and Radiohead.

Source

More: "GSD&M Is Up To No Good"

If you haven't heard by now, magazine ad sales are starting to go the way of the newspaper. Yeah, it's more bad news for all of you. Folio reported yesterday on the Publisher's Information Bureau's latest study on the subject — and the results weren't positive. So what are you doing to fix it?

You're going to hear this question a lot in the future. And although there are an infinite number of hypothetical answers, we want to know what you all think should be done — where should ads be placed that will actually earn some money.

Here's the general layout: Print advertising is dwindling, TV spots are increasingly easy to ignore, pre-roll on Web video isn't panning out as many hoped (yet), mobile/emerging has yet to be standardized and every day we report on more layoffs.

The Wall Street Journal has a story on the same issue today, and here's a remark that illustrates our point: "Areas like mobile, virtual worlds and widgets are expected to be hit particularly hard, as it remains unclear what kind of impact ads in these media have."

This statement is made in the context of Chrysler, which considering it may soon be merging with GM, is apparently curtailing spending.

Historically speaking, tough times are often when the best innovation takes place — when the clutter dies off, a resounding message can break through the clouds providing at beam of light to focus on. Is advertising (which we feel is arguably the most innovative communications industry) really this fucking pathetic?

OK so we're clearly not being specific here. And we know this is general — so please take two seconds are in the comments section tell us what you think will float to the top. What's the answer? How can we stop the blood loss? What will save advertising? Discuss.

More: "Newspaper Sites' ROI not Filling the Void"

Wired's Gadget Blog has broken a story about the possible poaching of a Silver Lion-winning iPhone app called iPint by advertising agency, Beattie McGuinness, and Coors. The company suing them for $12.5M is Hottrix, a company that develops applications for mobile devices. They filed a lawsuit that copyright infringement has taken place when Coors ripped off its app, iBeer.

Nick Parish, Associate Editor at Creativity, sums it up well:

"According to the lawsuit, Beattie McGuinness Bungay contacted Hottrix to license the developer's $2.99 iBeer application, which uses the accelerometer inside the iPhone to simulate drinking a beer, but was rebuffed by Hottrix, whose application was one of the most downloaded in the iPhone App Store. BMB then went around Hottrix, creating a near copy with iPint and releasing it for free, causing iBeer sales to suffer."

Oooh. That so does not look good for Beattie McGuinness Bungay. The agency, run by elite ad man, Trevor Beattie, was in talks with TBWA to be acquired, but those talks went south last week. Trevor is not having a good week.

Why do advertising agencies feel it's okay to rip off small companies and independent artists? First of all, you're gonna get caught. It's 2008. The internet is here. Hello? Secondly, the brands (generally) pay agencies enough to give original creators a bit of cash for the use of their tech or design. Stealing creative is one reason why advertising gets such a bad rap. Hey kids, lets knock this shit off. It's so not cool.

More: Our Global Food Service Enterprise Is Totally Down For Your Awesome Subculture

[image source]

Who doesn't love peering into some advertising agencies office space? Is it better than yours? Better than mine? W+K London has just signed the lease on a new East Wing for the ever growing staff. Big open spaces with lots of windows? Those are the parameters for a neo-classic advertising office, for sure.

More: Pitch it, Pitch it Good (@ Meet)

In case you missed it, George Parker is in the midst of trying to takeover WPP. In true Parker style, it's gonna be hostile. He's a shareholder of WPP and he's looking for other stock holders to help him on his way. Are you game?

More: Weird News Of The Day - David Droga Does Parker

Am I the only person that thinks Hayden Panetierre looks like she's 12 years-old? Apparently not, because she starts off her rant against John McCain (see above video) by saying, "Hi, I'm Hayden Panetierre, and I'm hot enough that I know I have your attention for at least the next 30 seconds."

She finished the piece with, 'Nobody Fucks with John McCain." Watch the middle to get the rest of the message. It's worth it.

More: "Adrenlina Makes Some Heroes"

We received an unsolicited e-mail from T3 today, concerning what's going on in the wake of the Marriott loss. Here's what you need to know.

"During the past year, we effectively scaled the business and ramped up teams to meet increasing client needs. In our business, people and their ideas are our commodity. And when we are faced like many agencies with a client loss due to the economic downturn (note Suzanne Vranica's Wall Street Journal article "Ad Firms, Already Lean, Are Cutting Their Payrolls"), we unfortunately have to reduce staff. As reported last week, T3 is ending its five-year relationship with Marriott. The reductions today come as a result and are across the enterprise affecting all three of our offices.

Our Human Resources team is working with all employees who have lost their jobs, and will make every effort to help counsel them in
finding new employment."

This is, according to an agency representative, the only layoff associated with the lost business. However, "It affected the entire company and all three offices."

We can philosophize about whether praying will do anything, but clearly something needs to be done. Who's going to do it? Why isn't there any clear rhetoric from the agency world about what we need to do to salvage the people who make advertising possible?

More: "The Good And Bad News From T3"

An Agency Spy who also happens to read the very well informed 'Delaney Report' informs us that Tom Delaney is out for two weeks because of an emergency appendectomy.

As such, the report won't be published for the next two weeks; that according to Julia Igoe, the publication's managing editor.

Tom, we hope you are OK and look forward to your return. Keep up the good work man.

More: "DraftFCB Cans Chris Becker, Says Delaney via AdScam"

continued...

SuperSpy and I were sitting around one afternoon, having a drinkypoo when out of nowhere she (who always wears a mask in my presence) says, "We should totally make a video."

So we did. Here's the first episode. We'd like to do more of these in the future, at least as long as it continues to be fun. Let me stress that our only goal was to do something we hadn't done before. Mission accomplished. Please forgive us. Please.

WARNING: We talk about this week's episode of MadMen at the end. Viewers beware!

More: "Advertising's Contributions To The Hunt For The White House"

Today marks another bad moment in the agency world, with reports that JWT Inside has laid off another round of employees from various agencies nationwide. JWT representative Erin Johnson confirmed employees have been let go, but could not comment on the number or geographic location of the losses. She did inform us that they were due to "cuts in client spending."

According to a source close to the issue, "Seattle, New york, atlanta, dallas, california — not sure if LA or San Fran or both" all suffered employee cuts. We're told that fewer than 15 people total will be going home without jobs.

Per our source, the agency has been in 'denial' about the layoffs, and rather than inform employees about the loss instead sent around a notice that JWT Inside recently won some Web awards (recall this Sept. 29 announcement: "JWT INSIDE Recognized with Ten WebAwards Including Best Intranet Web Site").

Here's hoping this clears things up for everyone there.

This is the second round of layoffs for the agency in recent months, the last occurring in late July.

Care to share more about JWT Inside? E-mail us at matt@mediabistro dot com or SuperSpyin@gmail dot com.

More: "Rob Quish Isn't Lonely at the Top"

The Art Directors' Club has announced their entries for the ADC Hall of Fame. This is a big deal y'all. Like, really big. Yeah, it's that big. OK so maybe you're more concerned about the stock market surge which was immediately crapped upon by the tech slump, but whatevs.

Making this year's list of inductees are (insert throat clearing) Alex Bogusky, who works out in Colorado or somewhere; Ray Eames (posthumous), designer, architect, filmmaker; Sir John Hegarty, chairman, worldwide creative director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty; Maira Kalman, illustrator, artist, designer; John Maeda, president, Rhode Island School of Design; R. Roger Remington, Massimo and Leila Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology and Bruce Weber, fashion photographer.

Apparently, the inductees are going to be erm, inducted, during a black tie gala benefit dinner on November 6th. Sweet — here's hoping we get invited.

More: "Going Down In A Blaze Of Glory"