Soooo, a friend forwarded a memo sent to staff from Duff Stewart, CEO at Austin-based, Omnicom-owned GSD&M (the Idea City part, by the way, was dropped like third-period French in early 2011; the sign on the building, though, is another story). Anyhow, changes are now afoot specifically in GSD&M’s communications department, mainly that SVP of said division John McGrath, who’s been with the agency for well over six years, and senior manager, comms Adele Hazan, are striking out on their own. As a result, eight-year GSD&M vet Melanie Mahaffey is moving up the ranks. Why spoil it all, though, read on for Stewart’s explanation, verbatim:

“Over the past few years, our GSD&M Communications team has been at the center of some of the most innovative and entrepreneurial activities at the agency. From expanding our digital properties to live-event production including regular music showcases, the SXSW Industry Party and other major events, they have consistently created and championed new ways to build our agency brand, business and culture.

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-Detroit-based design firm Skidmore Studio has hired former Y&R Chicago exec Michael Hill as its VP/director of business development.

-Deadspin has an ongoing rundown of the mass layoffs today at ESPN. link

-BBDO Atlanta and Tool teach “babysitting basics” for the American Red Cross (above). link

-Motion design/production studio Royale has appointed a trio of Superfad alums including EP Chris Volckmann, head of digital production Beck Henderer-Peña, and senior art director Loren Judah to head up its new Seattle office.

-The American Advertising Federation has announced its 2013 Advertising Hall of of Achievement inductees including Twitter president/global revenue Adam Bain, Mondelez VP/global media and consumer engagement, B. Bonin Bough and Tara Walpert Levy, managing director/ads marketing for Google/YouTube. link

-Director Albert Kodagolian has joined bi-coastal prodco Interrogate for U.S. representation.

-So, did Dove lie to women in its latest “Real Beauty” campaign? link

-Houston advertising/PR firm Design at Work added two new clients in Portland-based HealthCo Information Systems and Texas-based State Service Company.

Lately, there’s a lot of content to cover on the bathroom humor beat. Yesterday, we reviewed some poop comedy for the new Clorox campaign. Today, we have a 30-second spot titled “Poop vs. Pee” from Arnold Worldwide and truth, the anti-smoking organization. This ad takes a radical shift in tone from meaningless poop jokes. There may be some uncomfortable chuckling here, but the point is to make the viewer aware of two facts: methane, a chemical in dog poop, can be found in cigarette smoke; urea, a chemical in cat pee, is also used in cigarettes. As you’ll see in the clip, there are some silly sound effects and visual representations to make it obvious that bodily excrement is gross, and in turn, chemicals found in our waste shouldn’t be voluntarily inhaled.

On truth’s website, you can read about their strategy for raising awareness, which is echoed in the commercial. They don’t tell people to stop smoking, because that sort of pitch doesn’t work on little children, let alone addicted smokers. So, to get the point across, they appeal to their target audience with alternative methods, such as disgusting facts. Stripping away moralistic lecturing in favor of poop jokes might just be bizarre enough to catch someone’s attention. Credits after the jump.

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Well, who knows where our relationship with Saatchi & Saatchi X fell apart as we went from being an industry mate to a Siberian exile in a matter of months. Whatever, rather than going all Blue Valentine on you, we’re just going first instinct on this one. According to multiple sources, Saatchi’s shopper marketing agency division is losing its Chicago SVP of business development/managing director Kevin Shelhamer, who we hear is leaving X for a gig at Ogilvy. When we inquired, we were met with the usual “he’s in a meeting” and the comms side, as mentioned, has been giving us the unusually cold shoulder thus far. Ogilvy has yet to respond to the matter as well.

Shelhamer has had two stints at Saatchi & Saatchi X, first joining 10 years ago to serve as SVP, client development and in his next turn, he assumed the role three years ago as SVP/MD of its Chicago branch.

San Francisco shop Heat, who you may know best for their high-profile work on a bevy of EA Sports video game franchises, just launched a brand new agency website that reveals a new logo, in which the “e” in “Heat” is backwards because that’s how you know someone is hip to 2013, yo. But, you gotta keep dat ish lowercase, because you don’t want to end up like KoRn with a backwards capital “R” or you’ll look super 90s. You don’t want that.

Having worked in an agency during a full site redesign, I know the hard work and excitement that goes into the endeavor. Many times, almost every creative in the agency contributes to the finished product, which you’ll talk about at length to your friends in the weeks leading up to the launch. “Just wait until our new site launches,” you’ll say, eyes wide with excitement and wonder. “It looks amazing.” It’s hard to blame you for being so giddy, as it feels as though your employer’s site is representative of your own job. The cooler it looks, the more it validates you. “I work at ‘x’ agency,” you imagine saying to a hot young thing at a bar. Oh, what’s that? Bam, show them that sexy new site on your phone (it better be responsive), and explain how cool your job is.

Of course, the problem is, no one outside of your agency gives the slightest shit what your site looks like. Now, this SHOULD NOT make you feel you bad about being emotionally invested in a redesign. After all, even though your friends don’t care, it doesn’t mean that potential new business won’t. So go ahead, be like Heat. Hire a weird second-line style band confused if they should be from New Orleans or Germany to dance around your office for a little while. Film yourself looking at your new sign, backwards “e” and all. Get stoked and know that, for the record, I think your new (responsive!) site looks pretty frickin’ cool. So cool, in fact, that I’m going to link it again right here. Congrats!

-Suffice it to say that it’s been a busy week for Yahoo as the company follows up its Tumblr acquisition by giving Flickr a makeover. link

-Well well, after months of being “under construction,” Naked has finally launched its new site (promo clip above). link

-It sure didn’t take long after our post for Gene Liebel, founding partner/chief strategy officer at Huge, to divulge what he’s doing next. link

-Here are your 2013 Bees Awards nominees. link

-YouEarnedIt, the employee rewards/engagement platform launched in beta six months ago by WPP Digital agency Rockfish Labs, has appointed former Demand Media execSteve Semelsberger as its new CEO.

-U.K. housing/homelessness charity Shelter has appointed London-based digital shop Chameleon as strategic partner to work across its online giving platforms.

Well, the decision came a tad quicker than we expected but according to reports from you know who, Chicago-based Cramer-Krasselt’s relationship with Porsche continues as the automaker has retained said agency’s services after a pitch that dragged on for six months. You’ve probably read Porsche’s perspective, now here’s a quick note from C-K president/CEO Peter Krivkovich:

“During the past five and a half years, C-K has enjoyed a great relationship with Porsche and we look forward to continued success together.

After the client’s best sales year ever in 2012, the best Q1 in their history to kick off 2013, and all of the industry recognition for smart strategic and creative thinking, we know we’re onto something good as PCNA’s agency partner.

When reviews like this happen – and this was a long and thorough one – it’s a good reminder for everyone that we are prepared for the challenge to work just as hard for our clients now as we were the day we were invited to their first pitch.

In the end, the proof is in the results. And Porsche has them.”

Peter Krivkovich”

As we mentioned last week, sources in the know were telling us that Porsche narrowed down its creative review to incumbent C-K, which has handled the account since 2007,  and Minneapolis-based Olson.

It’s been almost a year since we last covered Jack Link’s and their Sasquatch antihero, but everyone’s favorite ugly creature is back to sell some beef jerky and beat up anyone who messes with him (it). Minneapolis-based agency Carmichael Lynch has produced three new spots for the campaign, all of which were once again directed by Rocky Morton.

In the above commercial – “All Dolled Up” – three fools try to get their kicks by putting makeup on Sasquatch. He responds by flipping their car and possibly killing them, because, well,  Sasquatch doesn’t wear lipstick. The ads tap into the creature’s vaguely redneck brand appeal with foggy rural settings and the fact that the product is beef jerky. If I learned anything here, it’s to avoid Jack Link’s beef jerky, because eating it will lead to serious personal injury and an upset Sasquatch. Two more clips and the credits after the jump.

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-Darren Aronofsky, director of films including Black Swan, The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream of course, has teamed up with Ted Robbins and Sandy Haddad to launch bi-coastal commercial production house, Chromista. link

-The 2013 AICP Week lineup has been announced. link

-GSD&M has promoted several staffers including creative partners Victor Camozzi and Bryan Edwards, who work on Walgreens among other accounts to SVP/group creative directors. In addition, the Austin-based, Omnicom-owned agency has bumped up Nancy Ryan and Carrie Hines to SVP/account directors while elevating Ronnie Steck to VP/account director and Madhavi Reese to VP/strategy director.

-B-Reel created a video for Google Chrome as part of Google’s 2013 I/O conference that helps the Mountain View, CA giant thank developers for their contributions to the internet’s evolution (above).

-Brooklyn-based agency Carrot Creative has launched its new website. You can find out more about the new site from Carrot CPO/co-founder Chris Petescia here.

-Portland, ME-based The VIA Agency has welcomed Richard Fryling as group strategy director for the Sam’s Club account, Deep Focus alum Abha Dhakal as client strategist and Chris Gilbert as a copywriter.

-Filmmaker Greg Kohs joined the roster of Venice, CA prodco Backyard for U.S. commercial representation.

Another year, another round of PETA’s “Great Ape Pledge” PSA campaign which aims to bring awareness of the plight of primates that suffer physical/psychological abuse at the hands of the entertainment industry. BBDO New York, which has taken the “Pledge” before with its nifty auto-correct effort from two years ago, joins forces with PETA once again for the spot above, which also features VO services from Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and VFX/production work from The Mill. If you stick around for the end, you’ll see that no real ape was used in the above PSA, which reemphasizes PETA’s whole purpose for launching “The Great Ape Pledge” in the first place.

Instead, the parties involved hammer home the message that primates shouldn’t be used as actors by creating  a photo-real CG chimp that’s seemingly at its wit’s end. If the stark message touched a nerve or inspired you to pledge (it’s perhaps a bit more effective than auto-correct messaging), you can go here. Credits after the jump.

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