Well, it appears that Leo Burnett is doing something right as of late in General Motors’ eyes as the automotive giant has given more work to the agency according to those in the know. As you may recall, Leo took over for Commonwealth on the Chevy Silverado duties last December, though the latter agency did produce the recent “Strong” spot for GM’s truck brand before the parting of ways (Update: We should clarify that Commonwealth actually created the Silverado launch spot even after the shift to Leo, which will now handle future work). Anyhow, sources familiar with the matter tell us that Leo Burnett has now taken on AOR responsibilities for three more GM units including Fleet and Commercial Operations, Certified Pre-Owned, and Remarketing.

From what we’ve been told, Leo, which has actually had ties to GM for over 45 years, will oversee brand strategy, digital marketing and creative initiatives for the aforementioned brands, with work for all three being led out of the agency’s Detroit office.

In writing, Leo Burnett’s winning entry for the 4A’s TruthBrief Competition almost sounds like a Sporcle quiz: advertisements stripped of logos were turned into artwork.Visually, the Leo Burnett submission – titled “4 Le Communique Art Show” – was meant to show that advertising and art don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The agency produced an art show at a college campus with the logoless works of art. Although you can’t clearly see the the art in the video above (I’m not sure why), the concept still lends itself to thoughtful debate about the relationship between commercialism, creativity, and art.

The competition called for entries that could “improve advertising’s image and attract a new generation of talent into the advertising business.” Considering it’s generally accepted that a majority of ads are boring and/or terrible, the competition seems like a worthy endeavor. As for Leo Burnett, now that the art is over, the agency can go back to handling it’s mega-commercial clients like McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, and Kellogg’s.

Usually, city rivalries related to sporting match-ups involve wacky wagers from politicians. The mayor of City X wants 100 pounds of cheese from the governor of City Y if City X wins the Super Bowl. But for the 2013 Stanley Cup between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks, the wacky wagers are getting social and, well, smack-talky. The folks over at Arnold Boston and Leo Burnett in Chicago are using the Stanley Cup to launch their own trash-talking competition for charity: The Smackley Cup. Agency employees and random fans from all over are encouraged to tweet using #smacktalkboston or #smacktalkchicago. Once the series concludes, the agency supporting the loser of the Stanley Cup will have to donate 10 cents per tweet and retweet to a charity AND wear the opposing team’s sweater in the office the following day. That sort of masochism always makes for fun water cooler talk.

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Before you read on, watch the above spot in full screen. If you have heart problems, maybe avoid this clip altogether.

Good? Okay, “Spoiler Alert” and all that. The above spot comes from Leo Burnett’s London shop and is part of the UK’s Department of Transportation campaign, “THINK!” It’s pretty damn terrifying, watching a bloodied head come crashing through glass.

Unfortunately, the press release ruins some of the magic by telling us that the guys in the bathroom are actors, as there are probably some rules about pulling this prank on unsuspecting citizens, especially if they’re at risk for a heart attack. In any case, pretty effective messaging. Oh, and don’t drive drunk this weekend. Credits after the jump.

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Well, it appears that those on the Spy line were on to something this morning and so are we according to sources in the know. The folks at Leo Burnett’s New York office, which opened two years ago, aren’t commenting, but along with picking up creative/strategy for Alouette Cheese as you may have just read about, we’re getting word that the agency has also been named AOR for power tools brand, Stanley Black & Decker. We’re checking directly with the latter company for confirmation/comment on the matter, but as for Alouette, as has just been reported, Leo Burnett NY beat out the likes of Publicis and Havas for the cheeze brand’s biz. We’ll keep you posted.

Well, we have received confirmation from Leo Burnett that Lucas Day, who’s spent nearly a decade at the agency’s Chicago hub and last served as VP/creative director, is leaving. We didn’t hear further official word other than that but tipsters are saying that Day is heading to fellow Chi-town operation, Bluedog Design, a design/strategy/creative shop that has worked with “partners” including Wrigley, Unilever, General Mills and Heinz. We’ve received what appears to be a memo regarding Day’s departure, which apparently is happening tomorrow. See below:

“It is confirmed that Lucas Day who’s spent just about ten years with us at Leo Burnett and Leo Burnett worldwide in Chicago, is leaving the agency on Friday. From what we know, Lucas is leaving of his own accord for a role change from Creative to Innovation and will be starting the new job in May. During his work in the Burnett network, Day worked in Chicago, Tokyo, Moscow, Milan and drove global retail efforts in many markets, he leaves several campaigns for global clients and new business projects behind him. He created national Campaigns in Japan and Russia and helped to build HumanKind projects for the agency.”

Prior to Leo, we’ve been told that Day helped lead creative on Phat Farm and worked with Revlon as well.

Well, while we’re on the Publicis Groupe-owned agency theme today (again, purely coincidental), we’ve received confirmation that Leo Burnett has had to let go of some staff today. The Chicago-based agency tells us, “Leo Burnett made the difficult decision today to let less than 2% of its U.S. staff go, in an effort to better align staff to client needs as it evolves and grows in new directions.” Staff count is “less than 2,000″ at Leo’s U.S. operations, which of course also include offices in Detroit and New York as well as the Samsung-dedicated creative hub in LA, so feel free to do the math. 

From what we’ve been told, Leo Burnett’s alignment as they say has nothing do with the agency losing Tampax to sister agency Publicis last month. We’ll let you know if and when

In case you didn’t know, Leo Burnett just launched a shiny new website. What you definitely didn’t know is that Leo Burnett is apparently very paranoid that their shiny new website will come under virus attack, so much so that the agency is seeking divine intervention to protect their shiny new website.

The above promo video depicts some Leo Burnett staff traveling from Belgium to Seville, Spain, seeking the help of the Roman Catholic Church and St. Isidore, the patron saint of the Internet. Yes, the Internet has a patron saint. Why? I don’t know, I’m not Catholic, though I doubt many Catholic people could give you a reasonable explanation either. I’m also not quite sure whether or not having an Archbishop bless a hard drive counts as blasphemy or is technically religiously fine. In any case, it happened, so be offended if that’s how you roll.

If you’re a hacker who wants to prove that atheism is the bee’s knees and attack Leo Burnett’s “Protected by St. Isidore” website, that’s cool too. And, if you’re Leo Burnett Brussels and want to claim that this is the first time an agency has used God to publicize its new site, well, I’m not arguing with you either. Let’s just hug this out.

Well, this is an interesting one to head into the long weekend. Multiple spies are telling us that Reed Collins, who left his SVP/ECD post at Leo Burnett’s Chicago hub nearly two years ago, has rejoined the agency to help lead creative on its Coca-Cola creative biz, mainly Sprite. In early 2011, Collins split for his native Australia to join up with Campaign Palace as national chief creative officer.

We’re still trying to confirm start date title with the Leo camp, but in the meantime, we’ll rehash the quick bio rundown and tell you that Collins has had stints at Mojo & Partners in Sydney, TBWA\Hunt Lascaris in Johannesburg, Lowe Howard-Spink in London and the now-defunct Cliff Freeman & Partners in NYC during his career. We’ll keep you posted if and when we get confirmation.

Update: The Leo camp is saying otherwise regarding Collins’ return. We’ll update if and when we hear differently.

Update 2: It looks like Campaign Brief has done the dirty work for us as Collins himself tells the trade he’s left JWT Sydney, is taking a break until early 2013 and has no plans to rejoin Leo Burnett. Sorry for the false alarm, folks, and enjoy your break, Reed.

My, how things change after just a few weeks. After initially receiving tips about this in early September and being told at the time by the Leo Burnett camp that it was “not true to report,” official word is out that Mick McCabe has indeed headed back to his old stomping grounds to take on the role of chief strategy officer. McCabe replaces Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, who left Leo in mid-summer and eventually found a new gig at a Boston-based research and branding firm.

As for McCabe, as mentioned, this marks his second go-around at Leo Burnett, having first served as EVP, director of planning for four years. After his first stint at Leo, the exec moved on to take the chief strategy officer jobs at Deutsch and then KBS+P,  the latter of which he left early this summer (and was subsequently replaced by Jonah Bloom). Now as Leo USA CSO, McCabe will support a client roster that includes Allstate, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, P&G, Sprint and Samsung. During his career, the exec also had planning stints at the likes of Fallon and TBWA\Chiat\Day.