In the last few months, T-Mobile has pushed out a marketing full-court press coinciding with their iPhone 5 network coverage. Some of the spots have been unusually weird (this isn’t in English, but you should watch), while others, like this cowboy commercial from March Madness, like to add humor by subverting stereotypes. Their latest effort, “The Simple Choice,” was created by Publicis West Seattle and might teach you a thing or two about intellectual expectations when it comes to Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. The spot will run during the NBA Playoffs and will probably become one of those commercials that gets overplayed ad nauseam, even if the first view deserves an inner chuckle.

As you’ll see after watching, T-Mobile goes right after AT&T. I always like when the gloves come off, but on the Shots Fired Scale, this bland discrediting only warrants a 3 out of 10. Next time, I’d like some down and dirty defamation worthy of a negative political campaign ad. If T-Mobile really wants to make an impact, they should go Willie Horton “Weekend Passes” on AT&T. It won’t be very classy, but people will pay attention.

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Prior to Publicis, Essig served as partner/senior copywriter at Ogilvy on AmEx and Kodak among other accounts and has also served as an ACD at Arnold.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

No word yet if Publicis is planning to replace Moore, a 30-year ad vet who’s served as a creative director/copywriter at W+K for a decade and has spent time as a CD at Fallon. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It must be great to work for Heineken: sales are up from the post-Bond boom, and your job deals with beer. For someone young looking to enter the workforce, you could do worse than to land an internship with the third largest brewer in the world. Apparently, 1,734 applicants felt the same way and entered Heineken International’s contest to win an event and sponsorship internship. However, this is no ordinary job search. The Italian arm of agency Publicis created an online campaign for “The Candidate,” where users could vote on the best applicants as they reacted to a serious of not-so-spontaneous hidden-camera challenges.

I’m not sure what any of the challenges have to do with the actual position–accompanying the UEFA Champion’s League Trophy on a world tour through May 25th–but if the winner could beat out 1,733 peers AND get a (staged) standing ovation from current Heineken employees, he must be doing something right. I thought the internship required travel, so why is he walking through an office? Must be a European thing.

No word yet on whether the position has a salary, but judging the global economy, he’ll probably receive a measly stipend for beer and end up unemployed in four months. Cheers. Credits after the jump.

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No word yet on what staff count is or specific clients that each office is catering to, but along with the U.S. expansion, Rokkan has welcomed back Brian Carley to serve as its first ECD. Carley rejoins Rokkan after spending the last two years as SVP/ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi NY, where he spearheaded work for clients including Trident, General Mills and P&G. Now back at Rokkan, where he served as creative director during his first tour of duty, Carley will lead creative across the network for a roster including JetBlue, Caesars, Stoli, Sharp and Chipotle.

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Well, this is a pretty notable item as we wind down for the holidays. Twelve-year-old, New York-based digital agency Rokkan, which works with clients ranging from Stoli to Sharp to Caesars to JetBlue (and was NOT for sale as of last summer) has been acquired by Publicis Groupe. Despite the 100 percent purchase, Rokkan (Japanese for “sixth sense”) will operate autonomously within the Publicis Groupe network and its co-founders, CEO John Noe, chief experience officer Chung Ng, and CCO Charles Bae, will continue to lead the agency.

In a joint statement, the co-founders say, “This is a major stepping stone that will take Rokkan to the next level and beyond. We’ve seen a number of potential buyers over the years, but it wasn’t until we met with the folks at Publicis Groupe that we found a partnership we truly believed in. Joining Publicis Groupe gives Rokkan access to resources, capabilities and knowledge to better scale, grow and service our multinational clients. Furthermore, it will help support Rokkan’s aggressive plans for domestic and global growth. We’re thrilled to be joining a company that believes in our culture, people and vision.”

No word on financials yet, but the Rokkan acquisition marks just one of a handful made by YouTube manipulator/Publicis Groupe chief Maurice Levy & Co. within the last month alone including the purchase of luxury/fashion-focused agency AR New York and a couple of shops in India. We’ve been told that staff count at Rokkan will not be affected by this move.

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Snow flurries are starting. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is on network TV. Eggnog is once again a thing. And Publicis Groupe’s CEO Maurice Lévy is back with another holiday greeting. Christmas is coming, you guys!

Now, the press release we got about this is a little, well, apologetic. “His speech has been a little on the long side in the past,” it admits. “So, this year he made a superhuman effort to keep it short and to allow viewers to enjoy this video on their own terms.” What the hell does the mean? Well, I don’t want to spoil too much of the surprise, but if you watch it on YouTube, your natural tendencies to skip forward, pause, or play with the volume of the video will be greatly rewarded with disapproval from Lévy. He knows what you did. You may not listen to the man in charge’s talk, but you can play with the way it’s delivered.

Unfortunately, Digitas France has not provided an embeddable version of  the greeting, no doubt because YouTube magic can only go so far (unlike Christmas magic). However, you can still link to it from the above video. Credits after the jump.

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Well, hell, why stop there, why don’t we just tell you what D7 stands for, and yes, this is verbatim straight from the sources’ mouths:

“D7 is inspired by seven core beliefs:

1) Know your purpose
2) Have a quest
3) Be true to your brand
4) Like your customers
5) Keep it real
6) Prove it
7) Leave a mark”

#5 is always a given, but anyhow, we’ve been told that Agency:D7 houses a staff of approximately 20 and has already kicked things off with a cross-channel campaign for SunTrust. As for Lange Taylor, he will focus on his duties with this new entity while maintaining separate operational duties for Digitas. Meeting adjourned.

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Says Levy in a statement, “The Nerve Center has been one of the most successful accomplishments of VivaKi. Still the only operation of its kind in our industry, it brings strategic innovations to life by leveraging the collective influence of its agencies. It allows us to create world class offerings in the Center rather than building duplicate capabilities inside each agency.  Efficient innovation is its hallmark.  All CEOs and leaders will immediately engage VivaKi to leverage its products and services, and to create blueprints for new tools and technologies that will make us stronger, more efficient and more imaginative partners to our clients.”

As far as leadership goes, VivaKi CEO Jack Klues is phasing out of his position at the agency after 35 years as he plans to retire at the end of this year (can’t blame him), though he will stay on through the first half of 2013 to ease the transition. The new VivaKi unit’s executive will consist of SMG CEO Laura Desmond, Razorfish CEO Bob Lord, current VivaKi CFO Frank Voris and ZenithOptimedia’s chief exec, Steve King.

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The tips have come in fast and furious over the last couple of hours including this: “Publicis Groupe S.A. and LBi International N.V. Agreement on Intended Recommended Public Cash Offer.” Well, now according to Reuters, it is indeed true as the holding company has agreed to acquire Dutch ad agency LBI International NV in a deal valued at nearly $540 million. While not quite the $600 million figure some predicted a few months ago, Publicis Groupe’s latest purchase does near the price that WPP paid for AKQA.

In a statement, Publicis Groupe chairman/CEO Maurice Levy says, “The acquisition of LBi is another step forward in further strengthening our digital operations. Within the global advertising landscape, LBi is a well known partner for extraordinary digital customer experiences, based on a blend of creativity and expertise in technology, strategy and social media. The integration of LBi will further enhance our capabilities and, through a wider pool of resources and talent, help deliver innovative and best-in-class services to our clients, which is our relentless focus. Furthermore, this acquisition has a positive impact on our EPS in the first year post acquisition.”

According to the official announce, LBi’s management/supervisory board was basically in full support of the acquisition, saying the “transaction is in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders including its clients, shareholders, partners and employees.”

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We’ve been hearing about it since 11:30am EST, which was when tipsters were saying Publicis USA chairman/CEO Susan Gianinno just informed staff, and now it’s been made official. Publicis New York and 15-year-old Publicis Groupe sibling Kaplan Thaler Group are joining forces to form, you guessed it, Publicis Kaplan Thaler. The new, NYC-based entity will house over 650 employees and is now the U.S. flagship agency for the Publicis worldwide network.

As far as leadership goes, Publicis Kaplan Thaler will be led by chairman Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO Robin Koval and Rob Feakins, currently president/CCO for Publicis New York who will now continue in that role while leading creative for the expanded entity. In a statement, Gianinno says, “Publicis Kaplan Thaler will build on the strong performances of Publicis New York, which includes the successful integration of digital agency Modem, and the Kaplan Thaler Group, to create a more dynamic New York base. Publicis Kaplan Thaler is poised to lead the change for its clients and the industry.”

By early next year, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, which has a combined client roster that includes P&G, Citi, P&G, L’Oreal, Nestle, Merck, Pfizer and Wendy’s, will be moving into its new location. According to spies, all staff will be moving to 1675 Broadway, though we’re still getting confirmation on that.

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Tis a busy post-July 4th for Publicis Groupe as Maurice Levy and his France-based holding company have now acquired the remaining 51 percent stake from BBH founders Nigel Bogle and Sir John Hegarty as well as 100 percent of the shares of Brazilian agency Neogama/BBH.

Publicis Groupe originally acquired a 49 percent stake in BBH 10 years ago when it bought up Bcom3. Regarding the full sale of his 30-year-old agency, which just racked up 21 Cannes Lions this year, BBH’s Bogle says in a statement, “The decision was very clear. We were looking for an opportunity that would ensure that our agency maintained a high degree of autonomy and could continue to abide by the values characterized by the black sheep. The key point for us was the preservation of our operational independence in managing the BBH brand, which has produced almost uninterrupted growth for thirty years. The new ownership not only ensures our autonomy, but brings us considerable advantages through Publicis Groupe’s resources and global infrastructure.”

As a result of the transaction, Hegarty will now pass the baton to Neogama founder Alexandre Gama, who will take over as worldwide CCO. In addition, 30-year BBH vet Simon Sherwood will now assume the role of group chairman, Gwyn Jones, who joined the agency in 1987, becomes group CEO while Zag chief exec Neil Munn will take on the dual role of group chief operating officer. As for Hegarty and Bogle, the founding pair will serve on the Publicis Groupe management board (along with Levy, Sherwood, Jean-Yves Naouri, Jean-Michel Etienne and ZenithOptimedia global CEO Steve King), focusing on client business and mentoring of management. Gwyn Jones, meanwhile, will oversee day-to-day operations for BBH’s global management team.

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“The NY advertising community lost a wonderful person yesterday.  He was a dear friend to all that had the privilge of knowing him.  His name is Drew Putzel and was a producer at Publicis/NY.  All I know is that it was an accident that happened last night in NY.  Just thought you would like to know.  He was a stellar human being who was loved by all.  I believe he was around 27 years old.”

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“Yes, today we formally announced our restructuring plan to our staff. Riney has been upfront with our people, letting them know the agency would be restructuring driven by the US Cellular loss. We’ve approached this with transparency, openness and caring, working with staff to find new positions, both at other agencies and within the Publicis Groupe network. The heart and soul of Riney remain. We’re committed to renewing the Riney brand and telling persuasive new stories for a new generation of clients.”

We weren’t able to get actual numbers (though we’re hearing anywhere from 25-40) but from what sources familiar with the matter tell us, all departments at all levels have been affected by Riney’s decision.

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