As we thank our tipsters, let’s chalk one up for Jeff Goodby and the gang as we’ve received confirmation that San Francisco’s GS&P has picked up the global advertising business for tech giant, Cisco, which previously worked with Ogilvy. We’ve obtained an internal memo sent from Cisco CMO Blair Christie to staff earlier this afternoon, which you can read verbatim below and after the jump. GS&P itself deferred to client for further comment.

“Team,

We continue to evolve the Cisco Story to ensure our relevance and differentiation in the marketplace. As part of this important “One Voice” effort, we have made a strategic decision to award our global advertising business to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GSP). Based in San Francisco, California, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is part of the Omnicom Group, Inc., an advertising holding company whose agency networks include BBDO, DDB Worldwide and TBWA Worldwide.

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It looks like Goodby Silverstein & Partners is set to lose another longtime staffer. Just a day after reporting that Linda Harless was leaving the agency after 25 years, we’ve received confirmation from sources familiar with the matter that GS&P ACD/copywriter Craig Mangan is also taking off to join up with sister Omnicom shop BBDO as the new EVP/ECD of its San Francisco office.

Mangan, who will assume his new position at BBDO SF in the first week of July, succeeds Mike McKay, who left the agency last fall for the CCO job at fellow Bay Area operation, Eleven. BBDO San Francisco’s soon-to-be creative boss, who will lead creative for clients including Gallo, Mars, Caesars Entertainment and Vail Resports, spent approximately 16 years at Goodby, moving from the account side to creative over a decade ago. Mangan subsequently penned work including the memorable split-screen spots for the NBA from a few years ago. If you need a refresher (and since they’re currently battling in a series right now), here’s one example starring LeBron James and Kevin Garnett. Update: After the jump, you can peep the short ‘n sweet note from BBDO SF chairman Jim Lesser that confirms matters.

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We’ve received confirmation that 25-year (!) Goodby Silverstein + Partners vet Linda Harless will be leaving the agency. We’ve been told that Harless, who currently served as associate partner, creative resources/talent director, will end her long career at Goodby with a trip to Cannes. Her last day in office, meanwhile, will be June 11.

Harless kicked off her career at Goodby as an assistant to the agency principals and subsequently moved up the ladder to creative resources director to talent director to her current post. According to those in the know, she emailed the whole agency her goodbyes last week and is leaving on good terms. In a note, the GS&P camp says, “We’re looking forward to seeing each other’s new adventures.”

Well, maybe it’s too little, too late since other folks picked this up but hey, still newsworthy. Since we were out indulging ourselves in all the ADC Awards shenanigans, we missed a couple of tips that came into the Spy line last night telling us that Goodby Silverstein & Partners ECD/partner Jamie Barrett called it quits at the agency after an 11-year run. Jeff Goodby himself sent a lovely memo out to his San Francisco operation, which you can read in full after the jump. Here’s the first paragraph of Goodby’s tome regarding his former employee, who led creative work on everything from the NBA to Comcast to the now-defunct Sprint account and is now starting up his own Bay Area operation.

“With regret and incandescent best wishes, we must announce today that Jamie Barrett is leaving us to start his own company, somewhere in San Francisco. We are happy for him, of course, because this company started one day with a similar leaving. We know how scary/liberating/appalling/delicious it can be. We are also happy because it is all very amicable. We will stay close to Jamie’s venture, and probably even share some projects together.”

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Call it a rebound for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners if you will, as the San Francisco-based stalwart has followed up its GM re-up with another from Comcast’s Xfinity, which is the enhanced offering/rebranding effort from the broadcast giant. Sources familiar with the matter tell us that Goodby was pitching against the Martin Agency, the latter of which has been working with the brand for a year or so, on the biz.

After some time apart, Comcast has once again aligned its Xfinity brand with GS&P (you might remember past work such as this), and according to sources, “it’s going to be bigger and better than ever with work launching soon.”

We interrupt a day seemingly filled with people news to bring you this image.

Unfortunately, we were unable to extend our stay in Austin long enough to attend the Music portion of SXSW (perhaps that was a good thing), but here’s one of the more notable images that was shot over the weekend and sent to us. Yes, what you see is a six-story Doritos vending machine created by GS&P that featured real bags of giant chips and served as the backdrop to a stage where artists like Snoop Dogg performed. The idea was to promote the new Doritos “Jacked” line of chips and from the looks of it, Goodby did it in one of the most noticeable, grandiose ways as possible.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

For eight years, NYC-based former “The Colbert Report” writer Peter Grosz (driver’s seat) and Chicago-based improv comedian T.J. Jagodowski (passenger’s seat), were best know as “those two guys” from the Sonic Drive-In spots. While noshing on fast food from the front seat of their car, the duo’s silly inane (and mostly improvised) slice-o-life conversation made unlikely stars of the pair. That is, until the two were “phased out” two years ago.

Since then, Sonic left indie Kansas-City, MO-based Barkley after a 17-year run to name GSP+P as the chain’s new AOR. Perhaps inspired by a drive-in serenade video that caught fire on YouTube last month with over 1.2 million views, Goodby decided to slowly re-introduce the brand’s longtime spokesdudes via social media. As Jeff Goodby told The New York Times in this gargantuan feature that ran this morning, the two guys “were put away a little too early because if they stayed around they really would have come into their own in the social media context.”

Over the last few weeks, Grosz and Jagodowski seemed to plead for their old jobs back via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a few “self-produced” videos posted to YouTube. Now, before we start declaring this a shoo-in for every social media award in adland, let’s look at the numbers: 158 followers on Twitter, 10,701 “Likes” on Facebook, nine connections on LinkedIn, and 3,100 views on their most popular YouTube video (excluding the video which is a direct response to the aforementioned drive-in “serenade” video).

Even if it’s not quite the social media sensation that some are making it out to be, at least it’s nice to see “those two guys” back in the saddle. Now, what happened to all of those other Sonic spokespeople? Credits and another video follow after the jump.

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Last week, sweeping layoffs at GS+P left, by some estimates, hundreds jobless. As one commenter noted on our post last week,”Great. This just made the freelance market in SF about a billion times tougher.” No, it probably wasn’t most sensitive of statements, but it undoubtedly carries a good amount of truth with it. When that many people are let go in a market the size of San Francisco, it’s an uphill battle.

But, resolute recent ex-Goodby employees are attempting to turn lemons into lemonade. JD Beebe, an NYC-based copywriter/strategist/producer/consultant and GS+P alum created “Grab Some Goodby,” a site dedicated to finding his fallen comrades new jobs. To get the word out, Beebe’s enlisted the help of NYC’S Goodby alumni group on Facebook.

So, how about it, agency recruiters? If you want to find some recently jobless San Franciscans with experience working at one of the country’s most well-known creative shops, look no further. And, ex-GS+P employees, feel free to upload your mugshot and relevant info to the site.

We’ve been hearing about it for the past few hours on the Spy line and now we’ve received word straight from the source that it’s true that Goodby, Silverstein + Partners is cutting staff today. The numbers are all over the place according to tipster comments (we’re hearing in the hundreds and words such as “staggering” have been used), but the agency co-namesake wouldn’t divulge specifics. Read his note to us verbatim below:

“Today, we at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners have begun adjusting the size of our staff in the wake of losing Sprint and parting ways with Hewlett-Packard.  We don’t divulge the number of people or the percentage of our staff affected, but it’s commensurate with the numbers you’d have for accounts this size.

It pains us immensely to do this stuff, but we have a responsibility to the people here to maintain a healthy, vigorous company going forward.  We will have that, and are confident about the work we are doing right now on all fronts.

It is an emotional day.  These people are not just co-workers but friends.  As always in these situations, we will help them find other positions with an open heart and no doubt welcome many of them back someday.

Thanks for respecting their privacy about all this in the meantime.

Sincerely,

Jeff Goodby

Co-Chairman

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

San Francisco”

From Goodby and prodco O Positive comes new television campaign “Homecoming” for Comcast’s Triple-Play cable TV, Internet, and telephone service, Xfinity.

If you live in a region where Comcast is the only cable service option available (as I do), you no doubt have gotten into three or four yelling matches with their “customer service representatives” when your service inexplicably goes haywire or completely disappears for weeks on end. If you’ll recall, Comcast made the Final Four in Consumerist‘s “Worst Company in America” tournament last year (after winning in 2010), only being knocked out of contention by evil ocean-ruiner, BP. This was, mind you, after Comcast was caught begging its employees to vote for competitor Charter Communications in the tournament.

It’s no wonder many Comcast subscribers turn to alternative services after their struggles lead to bouts of crippling depression. Some, like the woman in the above spot, turn to Verizon’s fiber optic network, FiOS. But, Comcast doesn’t mind, as they know you’ll come crawling back sooner or later. (They always do, don’t they?) So, when your foolish hubris spins wildly out of control, remember that Comcast knew you were stupid all along. That random increase on your monthly bill is actually punishment for feeling entitled. Credits, and one more spot that features crying and hugging, follow after the jump.

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