Hmm, well, we’ve received a few tips about this today, and now a phone call has confirmed that Danny Gregory, who has spent nearly a decade at McGarryBowen and most recently served as executive creative director/managing partner, is no longer with the Dentsu-owned agency. You can read his blog post after the fact here.

We’re awaiting some official comment on this, but in the meantime, along with Gregory’s departure, you can see on the leadership board of McGB’s New York office that Erik Vukmirovich is no longer with the agency. Vukmirovich has spent the last eight years at McGarryBowen, worked out of the NYC branch and served as partner/CFO/COO. According to the site, he’s now been replaced by global CFO, Christine Moore. During Gregory’s time at McGarryBowen, the 30-year ad vet, who’s also a published author, created campaigns for a range of clients including Pfizer, JPMorgan Chase, The Wall Street Journal and Chevron. Prior to his lengthy stint at McGB, Gregory served as a copywriter for the likes of Ogilvy and Y&R.

It looks like we’re in the same boat as Adweek on this one as BBDO has declined to comment and has referred all inquiries to Pfizer, which of course has yet to respond. But from what the tipsters have been telling for the last hour or so, the agency has nabbed the Viagra account from McGarryBowen, which has handled ad duties for Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug since the fall of 2009. We’re following up once again with Pfizer and will let you know, but if it’s all legit, this would be BBDO’s third account win in a month following Emirates and the ING New York City Marathon. Perhaps the Gillette loss is quickly becoming a distant memory after all.

Update: By now, you’re probably all well aware of the BBDO/Viagra partnership, and though it took a while, Pfizer has sent over this statement regarding its agency move:

“In Pfizer’s ongoing effort to seek improved operating effectiveness and efficiency, we investigated strategies to consolidate our Marketing Agency supply base across the product portfolio.  After an objective and thorough assessment of operating models and supplier capability, Pfizer consolidated our brand marketing agency activity into three global holding companies: WPP, Omnicom, and Publicis.

mcgarrybowen (MB) has been an exceptional agency partner and has helped us generate substantial awareness of Viagra and executed high-quality programs on behalf of the brand.  The decision to end our relationship with MB was only due to the Pfizer enterprise-wide agency consolidation. MB will remain on the business until the end of 2013. We value their creativity and partnership greatly.”

Well, this is news to us, but yes, the Kraft Foods camp has confirmed that it’s recently discontinued its relationship with McGarryBowen Chicago in regards to its Philadelphia Cream Cheese account in the U.S. (BBH took over for JWT in Europe). We’ve been told that this realignment actually happened a couple of months ago. Regarding McGarryBowen, a spokesperson for Northfield, IL-based Kraft Foods (also parent of Jell-O, Oscar Mayer, Planters, etc.) says, “We appreciate their work on the brand the past four years and wish them continued success as they continue to support other Kraft brands now and in the future.”

McGarryBowen, which took over for Nitro on Philadelphia creative duties back in 2009, supports other Kraft brands including Miracle Whip (you might remember the “Take a Side” campaign from two years ago). According to Kraft Foods, the brand has a new agency already working on the Philadelphia brand, and that would be  New York-based, Omnicom-owned Roberts + Langer DDB. Along with Philly Cream Cheese, the shop works with several Johnson & Johnson brands including K-Y, Neutrogena and Aveeno (here’s Roberts + Langer’s Jennifer Aniston-starring spot for the last brand that aired around Oscars time).

Yes, that’s the word on the street/tips line. For the last week, we’ve been hearing that Doug Livingston, who we reported was leaving his post as EVP/director of digital integration, is joining up with McGarryBowen. Now, spies on the ground tell us that it is indeed so, though no title/start date has been disclosed as the usually responsive, Dentsu-owned agency is being unusually quiet about this particular matter. We’re trying to light a fire, but we’ll keep you posted. As mentioned previously, Livingston spent six years in all at Grey and oversaw digital biz dev, recruitment and client assignments while at said agency.

We’ve received confirmation that McGarryBowen did indeed cut staff this week in its Chicago office as part of a–stop me if you’ve heard this one before–”restructuring to better align with client needs.” We’ve been told that the cuts, which affected approximately 10 staffers across departments in Chicago (or roughly five percent of said office’s workforce and less than one percent of McGB’s U.S. network), were not due to client loss.

Tipsters, as usual though, are saying otherwise, alleging that there was an internal announcement made today at McGarryBowen Chicago regarding a phasing out of more than one account. We’re of course following up with the agency to try to get some clarification/verification on this particular matter. Update: The McGarryBowen camp assures us that there was no client loss announced today. Perhaps some are still shell-shocked by the Reebok loss last month.

We’ve been told by those in the know that this new effort from McGarryBowen NY for Verizon called “Powerful Answers” actually marks the wireless carrier’s first ever corporate branding campaign. Set to the sounds of legendary composer Philip Glass, Verizon veers from the usual Wireless and/or FiOS promotion to, according to parties involved, “showcase tech solutions that no one knew they did.” As you can see in the spot directed by Park Pictures’ Lance Acord above as well as the anthem clip below, some Verizon folks are lab rats whose tech prowess translates into solutions for medical emergencies just as easily as they could the classroom. We didn’t know there was side to them, but hey, you learn something new every day. Exhaustive list of credits after the jump.

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From Mcgarrybowen comes the above saccharine spot, a 3-minute long opus for Verizon that gets people from across the country the perform a lip-dub to “Jingle Bell Rock.”

Out of duty to AgencySpy readers, Mediabistro, and my fellow man, I eventually watched (almost) the entire thing. However, on my first try, I made it to the 41-second mark. Can you do better? Leave your time in the comments.

Yes, romantic comedies are formulaic. Yes, everyone is aware of this. Yes, it is because everyone is a aware of this that romantic comedies are frequently the subject of parody and criticism from almost everyone. But, just because making fun of rom-coms isn’t exactly an original thought doesn’t mean Mcgarrybowen Chicago is going to shy away from resurrecting the everyone’s favorite “run-through-the-airport-for-your-true-love” trope in “Connecting Flights,” the agency’s new holiday spot for Sears.

Now, just because making fun of romantic comedies has become as formulaic as the genre itself doesn’t mean your mom isn’t going to laugh her ass off when she sees our handsome beau eat shit on a refrigerator. In fact, I would hypothesize that it’s the most ardent fans of rom-coms that are also the most ardent fans of rom-com parodies. And, admit it, you chuckled a little bit too, because people getting hurt is always comedy gold. Always.

I know many of you were hoping that Mcgarrybowen would reinvent the wheel when  it won Sears last spring, and judging by some of the comments here, you’ve been less than satisfied with the results. But, hey, this is a silly holiday ad targeting moms and the dads who love them. Can’t we all get together over a nice Christmas goose, peppermint-flavored hot chocolate, and each other’s company to watch pretty people slam into refrigerators face-first? Credits after the jump.

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Well, here was the one line we received at precisely 12:11 pm today:  “Translation was just handed the bud light account from Paul Chibe.” Chibe, if you didn’t know, is CMO of Bud Light parent, Anheuser-Busch InBev. Seeing as we just interviewed Steve Stoute for an upcoming Media Beat (which will post in two weeks), we’ve reached out to get some sort of reaction from the Translation boss or someone at his agency regarding the reports that the Bud Light account is now solely in its hands. Considering that Stoute & Co. are also involved with a Budweiser festival called “Made in America in a few weeks that will include Jay-Z and Pearl Jam among a ton of other acts, we’re not taking it as a big shock that A-B InBev would  be expanding its relationship with the New York-based Translation.

If you recall, Translation and McGarryBowen were both handed the Bud Light business last December. We’re now hearing that another major account could be leaving McGB in the near future, but we’ll keep schtum until we learn more.

Update: Here’s a quick comment from Translation president Leeann Leahy regarding its AOR status: “We’re thrilled to have earned Bud Light’s trust since having been awarded a large portion  of the business in mid-December. We look forward to doing more great work for this  ambitious client.”

Well, the tips we’ve been receiving since last Thursday have proven to be true (like most of the time) as Jamie Shuttleworth has left his chief strategy officer post at Draftfcb Chicago to take on the CSO role at McGarryBowen’s Windy City office, which we’re hearing has been without a proper planning/strategy head for nearly a year.

Shuttleworth’s time with DFCB dates back to the days of Foote Cone & Belding, which he joined in 1997. According to a statement from a Draft spokesperson, since that time, “Jamie has had a tremendous impact on our agency. His greatest legacy is the best-in-class planning capabilities he has put in place and the many great people he has trained who will carry on in his absence.  We thank Jamie for his many contributions to our company, and wish him continued success.”

As a result of Shuttleworth’s departure, DFCB Chi has promoted John Kenny, who has spent the last six years at the agency and most recently served as SVP, group director of strategic planning, to head of the strategic planning practice. Vita Harris, meanwhile, continues in her role as Draftfcb worldwide chief strategy officer.