We first inquired about this two weeks ago when the tips came in and have yet to hear back, but there seem to have been some notable defections in recent times from West Studios. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, West is the San Francisco-based shop that was launched two years ago by former Apple global marketing communications head, Allison Johnson, and was initially co-funded by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey (we’re being told that Dorsey has since distanced himself from the company). During its initial launch, West was headed up by Johnson, former Martin Agency GCD Keith Cartwright and Katalyst digital head, Sarah Ross.

Well, as tipsters have pointed out, the latter two are no longer at West and in fact Cartwright doesn’t even acknowledge his time at the operation on their LinkedIn profiles. Of course, these aren’t the only notable departures from the SF shop in recent months. Travis Britton, former Cutwater principal/ECD who joined West as chief experience officer last year, has parted ways as has COO, Amanda Kelso (former W+K ECD Todd Waterbury was also in the mix but is now of course serving in the same role at Target). And today, we’re hearing that a major client is on the outs with the shop. We’re putting in more inquiries to the rather secretive West Studios, and will try to clarify what the state of the union is as soon as we hear more.

In April, Campbell Mithun selected the finalists of their annual Lucky 13 internship contest, which this year focused on fresh branding ideas for Twinkies. Now, two from that group, Ben Blaska and Brian Skalak, have been hired to work full-time in account positions and assist teams on KeyBank and various General Mills accounts.

“We always strive to hire our Lucky 13 interns at the end of the summer,” says Debbie Fischer, director of human resources at Campbell Mithun.  “This year Brian and Ben join us during an exciting time of organic growth.  Our other two interns, Jonathan and Harry, return to Syracuse and UNC Chapel Hill and we wish them well as they complete their degrees.”

The boys start work this coming Monday, August 12, and as you can see in the above video, they’re jazzed. I especially appreciate the hand-flailing at the end. For further amusement, you can see Ben, Brian, and fellow intern Jonathan Unger practicing ad-speak in Batman voices in the clip below.

It looks like our tipsters from up north were on to something as sources familiar with the matter confirm that the relationship between Union and Tourism Toronto “has come to a close.” Union of course is the Toronto-based, MDC-backed agency that was formerly known as CP+B Toronto. The now-defunct latter agency’s relationship with Tourism Toronto dates back to 2010 and subsequently resulted in campaigns such as the holiday-themed “Torontoland.”

Those on the Spy line tell us that Tourism Toronto remained one of Union’s biggest accounts, though, as perhaps the tell-tale sign, the brand no longer appears on the agency’s client list, which currently includes notable names such as Best Buy, Kraft and Pfizer. From what sources tell us, Tourism Toronto isn’t going to replace Union as of now, but we’ll let you know if we hear more.

Well, as you may have heard, Darren Moran has officially joined Havas Worldwide’s New York office as its new chief creative officer. Once again, we’ve obtained a memo (confirmed legit), this time sent from Havas global president Andrew Benett (who also doubles as NY CEO) to staff just a couple of hours ago regarding Moran’s arrival. The newly minted CCO most recently spent his second tour of duty at BBDO New York, which he rejoined just last fall as executive creative director. During his career, the creative exec also served as EVP/chief creative officer at Draftfcb NY.

Anyhow, feel free to check out Benett’s memo, which also mentions a few other key leadership notes, in full after the jump.

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It’s gonna be a day. After the usual “competitive pitch process,” wine staple Kendall-Jackson has awarded agency of record duties to Heat, the San Francisco-based shop perhaps best known for their various EA Sports efforts (or, yeah, this). Regarding the appointment of Heat, Caroline Shaw, chief communications & marketing officer for K-J, offers the textbook explanation, saying, “We’re so pleased to engage Heat for Kendall-Jackson. Their strong mix of strategy, creative thinking and clever writing demonstrated they would bring big ideas and solid execution to our business.” Heat will handle all new ad initiatives for the including digital, experiential installations. print and POP for the wine brand, which the parties involved say is trying to reach a younger audience.

Kendall-Jackson’s previous AOR was GlobalWorks Group, which handled the account for approximately a year.

Kiefer Sutherland’s voice is somehow simultaneously soothing and forceful. His gravelly intonation, coupled with his beautifully weathered face, is completely convincing regardless of the words involved. In this Jose Cuervo spot created by McCann Erickson New York, Sutherland’s ultimate message is, “Have a Story.” He pushes a shot across the bar to us and then we follow him for an impromptu concert, a spontaneous tattoo, a brief lover’s brawl, and some bonsai clipping.

It’s not the first time Sutherland’s channeled his 24 character, Jack Bauer, though Cuervo’s spot is a subtle representation. For Acer of course, he got jazzed about a new Dynamite Cupcakes business, obviously involving explosions and suspense.

I’m the Rooster guy apparently and I’m back to cover some more irreverent Rooster shenanigans. The above video, “How to Take a Punch,” epitomizes what a side project should be: easily digestible, fun to watch, and humorous. A slow-mo gif of James Franco taking a punch to the face has been making the blogging rounds before his Comedy Central roast airs on Labor Day. Vice co-founder/Rooster boss Gavin McInnes decided to join in on the slow-mo fun and take a harder punch to the face. The result is a side-by-side 13-second video comparison of the punches that is probably too stupid for its own good. Something makes me think Rooster likes that. These guys seem to have fun in the office.

After the jump, you can watch a longer video of people getting punched in the face slowed down to 1000 frames per second. It’s violently elegant and directed by Cody Kern, a man who has no relation to Rooster. As you watch, feel free to let the catharsis of watching others get walloped improve your day. Jiggling jowls have the affect on people.

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After their global campaign in which people could buy personalized Coke bottles and cans, Coca-Cola Israel and Tel Aviv-based Gefen Team built a campaign around personalized billboards. Users downloaded a special app, then entered their name. Using geofence technology, the billboard would sense the user’s nearness and display their name. Each user would receive a message notifying them their name was splashed for the street to see.

Coca Cola used Israel’s “main billboards,” meaning users would see their names in lights more than once. And no matter how finite, people love fame: during the campaign period, the app reached 100k downloads and ranked #1 in Israel’s app store.

It seems like an elementary gimmick, but it’s got new-technology legs and exciting potential. Maybe the next brand to use these billboards will display a full message, making commuters’ life that much more fun.

Well, guess this isn’t totally breaking news at this point but Gary Koepke, who co-founded (along with now-Hill Holliday EVP/CCO Lance Jensen) Boston’s now-defunct Modernista!, is moving up the charts at SapientNitro. Just over a year after joining the latter agency as VP/global executive creative director, Koepke is being bumped up to the big chair as he’s been appointed as chief creative officer, North America for SapientNitro. He fills a role that’s been open since Kathy Delaney left in June 2011.

Regarding taking the helm at the agency of “idea engineers,” Koepke says in a statement, “Joining SapientNitro a year ago started as an experiment and turned into a renaissance. I found in SapientNitro the disruptive spirit and focus on the future needed to truly innovate in the agency space that I thought I’d only be able to find by pursuing another start up.” Along with his new CCO role, Koepke, who has led creative on Chrysler, Fiat and Florida tourism efforts during his time at SapientNitro and remains based out of Boston, will also join the agency’s Global Creative Council. Along with his ad career, which also included helping up open W+K New York, Koepke also worked outside the industry as founding creative director for Vice and directing music videos for David Bowie and U2.

Seattle shop Creature really loves their window space. We’ve covered some of their pane projects before, like the motion-sensor-triggered mirror installed in April. There’s also the pop-up window shop from last winter. And now recently, as part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party that ran from July 26-28, Creature used their window space to chute out creative fortunes to festival-goers and set up cameras, so they could see who had what fortune and then make that fortune come true.

Creative Director Pam Fujimoto blogged about the whole experience and described the project as “pure Creature,” which aside from being lyrically fun, also sounds like the name of a bad 80s rock band. Makes you wonder what impure Creature would look like. A sample fortune was: “Someone will tell you you look like a younger Tony Danza.” Others involved $2 bills and Mike & Ike’s. The fortunes themselves aren’t that important, but the execution from staffers who spent their weekend on the venture is not only good free publicity, but just a cool bit to cover on a rainy Thursday.