Today in agency self-promos, we bring this 90-second clip from New York-based shop Rooster, which pretty much makes it clear in the brief amount of time what its first love is (its co-founder/creative director, Gavin McInness, is the co-founder of Vice and the “godfather of hipsterdom” after all).

We’re seen some pretty self-indulgent agencies patting themselves on the back clips in the past, but at least this one makes us want to revisit the ’80s flick, Gleaming the Cube, or that modern doc, Dogtown and Z-Boys. It appeases our short attention span and takes us back to the days when we scraped elbows, knees and more. So, good on ya Rooster. The shop currently works with clients including Red Bull, Qualcomm and Nissan (you might remember its recent work for the last brand starring Ryan Lochte).

Well, you asked for it, and we’re giving it to you. To follow up on our Porsche review post from yesterday, we’ve heard from very reliable sources that the pitch for the automaker’s North American creative account is indeed down to two: Chicago-based incumbent Cramer-Krasselt and, you guessed it, Minneapolis-based Olson. Consider us surprised as we thought everyone’s darling agency Droga5 would be in the mix, but not so. Anyhow, we’re hearing Porsche’s decision is imminent and that the brand is getting more digitally focused in terms of its creative efforts. The other two finalists as mentioned before were CP+B Miami and McKinney. We’ll keep you posted.

We’ve been hearing murmurs about this for a couple of weeks and now, sources familiar with the matter confirm that Toni Hess, who most recently served as partner/executive creative director at Rosetta, is no longer with the Publicis Groupe-owned agency. No word from those in the know if there are immediate plans to replace Hess, whose departure comes less than a month after Rosetta and CCO Gary Scheiner parted ways. Hess joined Rosetta nearly four years ago as partner/group creative director within the agency’s creative/customer experience group. Prior to her most recent gig, the New York-based Hess, who’s also taught at the Miami Ad School, spent several years as a GCD at both Draftfcb and JWT.

Yes, Carlos Ricque, VP/executive creative director at Moxie Interactive who worked out of the Zenith Media agency’s New York office, is indeed calling it quits. The agency elaborates, saying, “After three great years at Moxie in both Atlanta and New York, Carlos Ricque has decided to leave the Moxie New York office to pursue his video content creation dreams. He leaves on great terms with the agency.  The creative EVP has said that Carlos is one of the good guys in Creative.  Where Carlos goes, good work always follows.  He will be missed.”

It’s not such a stretch for Ricque to head into content creation as the creative has also moonlighted as a screenwriter over the years and won Best Picture back in 2005 at the roving 48 Hour Film Project. On the ad side, meanwhile, prior to Moxie, Ricque spent well over four years at Atlanta-based Fitzgerald+CO, where he last served as co-chief creative officer. During his career, Ricque has also served as a senior copywriter at BBDO and an ACD at what is now 22squared.

Since tipsters were scolding us for not talking about it much, here’s a quick update on Porsche North America’s creative review, which was launched five months ago. From what we’ve been told, it’s basically down to a few finalists and sources familiar with the matter confirm that Chicago-based incumbent Cramer-Krasselt is still very much in the mix.

We’re hearing that C-K, which has handled the account since 2007, is now battling it out with just a couple of the other finalists reported by Adweek in February including Droga5, CP+B Miami, Olson (when reached, wouldn’t comment, referred inquiries to client) and McKinney. Yep, it’s still a crapshoot, but we hope you’re appeased for now. As has been reported, you probably shouldn’t expect anything until end of month/early next, but who thinks C-K will retain? Feel free to weigh in.

We weren’t planning to end consecutive days like this, but yes, we’ve received confirmation that it’s now McKinney that has had to cut staff, specifically in its Durham, NC hub (the agency, which of course was acquired by Cheil Worldwide last year, also has an office in New York). We’ve been told that 30 people in all were affected across the Durham office and that the reductions were made as “an effort to align resources with current client need, including continued recruiting to fill a number of key positions.”

McKinney’s current client roster includes Sherwin-Williams and Mizuno (we’ve been told that McKinney’s “Mezamashii Run Project” for the latter brand is in fact the most Effie-winning campaign of the year so, uh, there’s that). No word yet on where this move leaves headcount at in McKinney’s NC office, but we’re checking.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard from New York-based shop People Ideas & Culture, which was launched by former Lowe Worldwide chief strategy officer Domenico Vitale in early 2009. Well, after getting a couple of tips over the weekend that the shop has brought on a new president, we received confirmation from the man himself this morning that PI&C did (rather quietly) hire David Fausel to assume said position. Fausel (pictured) and Vitale’s relationship goes back nearly a decade when the pair worked together at what was then Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, with the former serving as group account director and the latter, managing partner/head of strategy.

From what we’ve been told, Vitale’s now been focusing on branching out PI&C into other businesses and expanding into Europe. So, with Fausel coming on board, he now has someone to manage the agency’s New York hub, which currently counts 40 employees and houses a content company complete with photo studio and edit suite. PI&C’s client roster at the moment includes Mohegan Sun, Match.com and Hilton luxury hotels (specifically digital/social media content).

We’ve received confirmation that Minneapolis-based digital agency space150, which also counts offices in New York and Los Angeles, reduced some of its workforce last week. From what we’ve been told, 10 staffers across a few “key departments” (we’re hearing creative, media and account) were affected. According to a spokesperson, the reason for the move was “both to realign our business with current and forecasted projects, and refocus resources in areas that better serve the needs of our clients.”

The Twin Cities shop has worked with notable brands over the years including Target, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dairy Queen, American Eagle Outfitters and was most recently named digital agency for record for electricity/natural gas provider, Xcel Energy. Following the reduction, we’ve been told that space150 staff count is now at 100.

“Jenny and the Chicken,” a Mash+Studio slideshow illustrated by Danny Mcclain, is one of those metaphorical stories that lets you know it’s metaphorical halfway through the narrative. A boy named Brand wants to befriend a a girl named Jenny, but he can’t figure out how to make her like him. He tries all of the usual friendly activities, like connecting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., but Jenny doesn’t seem interested in a guy who talks about himself all the time. Remember, his name is Brand. Get it?

This type of wink-wink story is typically not as clever as its creators think it is. Anthropomorphic chickens aside, engaging with consumers effectively is a lot more complicated than showing how a brand sees the world. I’m not sure who Mash plans to target with this slideshow, which is partly why it feels disjointed, but unless they start teaching brand equity to second graders, you might want to turn the page.

If you didn’t at least buy moms a card already, do something goddammit. Welcome the agency world, which has provided us with some inspiration for the auspicious day. This Sunday is the day and in honor of the festivities, a couple of other agencies have chimed in besides the ideally named Mother, which provided us with “Momcraft” a couple of days ago. Let’s warm the heart and bring you this first from GSD&M and its campaign for Zales.

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