We’ve received confirmation that Jonathan Mackler, who’s spent the last five years at TBWA\Chiat\Day as a creative director, has parted ways with the agency. According to sources in the know, Mackler’s actual last day at the Omnicom-owned agency’s New York office was last Wednesday. During his time at Chiat NY as well as its sister network Being, Mackler, whose roots are in art direction, worked on several campaigns for various clients including Skittles, Wheat Thins and Jameson. No word yet on what’s next for Mackler, who’s also worked at the likes of BBDO, W+K and Martin Agency during his career, but we’ll update when we know more.

In a TBWA Facebook post yesterday, the agency wrote “At TBWA\Istanbul the newest interns were picked based on talent AND passion for advertising.” This means that, when potential interns showed up at TBWA’s office in Turkey’s largest city, they were asked to don special headgear that would sense their brain activity. They were then shown a series of legendary ads, while a neuroscientist (presumably) compiled data on their reactions, measuring excitement and infatuation. TBWA branded this measurement category “AdLove,” and from 503 applicants, the five with the most AdLove were given TBWA internships.

Quantifying passion seems completely counter-intuitive to me, though I can’t claim to know anything about the science behind it. When advertising is all about crafting a message (and manipulating your viewer/user) agencies are much better off just assessing an intern’s ability to bullshit their way through an interview, or answer related questions, skills they’ll actually use in the office. Passion should be evident without a sophisticated sensor, and forgoing the expression of it to go straight to neurological action seems the product of poor ad understanding. It may be a cute technological gimmick, but does nothing to prove how qualified (or potentially stoked) these interns are to do the job at hand.

As noted above, we’ve received confirmation that after spending 29 years at TBWA, global chief marketing officer Laurie Coots‘s last day at the Omnicom-owned agency is today. According to those in the know, who say she “will be greatly missed,” Coots will be leaving to work on a combination of business consulting, creative endeavors and boards.

From what we’ve been told, there are no immediate plans at TBWA to replace Coots, who over her three-decade career at said agency, has worked with clients including Absolut, Bayer, GSK, Kraft, Pfizer, Pepsi and VISA. During her long stay at TBWA, the New York-based Coots moved up the ladder from serving as new business director, then being appointed as North American CMO in 1997 before assuming her global CMO role in 2001.

We knew something was in the air when just the words “Matt Ian” popped up in our tips box on Saturday of all days. Well, as we alluded to in our earlier TBWA\Chiat\Day NY-related post this morning, the “big announce” is that, yes, Matt Ian, is taking over for Mark Figliulo as creative head of said agency’s New York office. As tipsters mentioned, the CCO title does not apply as of now; Ian, now in his second stint at TBWA, instead joins as executive creative director. Figliulo, who spent the last five-plus years as CCO/chairman of Chiat NY, is moving on to start his own shop.

Ian, meanwhile, joins from Deutsch L.A., where he served as EVP/group creative director on VW (recent examples include the baseball and Rubik’s Cube/racing spots). Prior to joining Deutsch, Ian worked as a senior creative at the likes of CP+B (on Microsoft Windows) and BBH New York, the latter of which he spent nine years at working on, of course, Axe as well as Johnnie Walker and Levi’s. In a statement regarding his move back to NYC, Ian says, “I wasn’t actively looking to leave Deutsch, LA or Volkswagen. But when I met Robert and talked with him about his plans for the NY office, jumping at the chance to write the next chapter of the TBWA\Chiat\Day NY story was a no-brainer.” Ian will officially join TBWA\Chiat\Day NY in August.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Christopher Reardon, the U.K. native who’s spent nearly four years at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, has turned in his resignation at the agency as of last week. No word yet on when his last day is or where he’s headed, but Reardon has most recently served as executive director of brand experience at TBWA\C\D NY. His departure comes on the heels of Chiat NY’s executive director of operations Jonathan Stern quietly leaving for the director of digital strategy on IBM post at OgilvyOne and head of production Robert Valdes quietly splitting for Droga5. Yes, quietly.

Anyhow, prior to his four-year stint at TBWA\C\D NY, Reardon worked on the UX side at the likes of Schematic and NBC. We’re hearing some sort of announce at Chiat NY might be in the works today, but no confirmation as of yet. We’ll keep you updated.

“Designed by Apple” is the third and newest spot in TBWA\Media Arts Lab’s recent reinvention of Apple’s TV ads. The first two, “Photos Every Day” and “Music Every Day” offered a refreshing take on the iPhone, moving it out of Apple’s white world and into the real world. It seemed as though Apple was hitting its stride, until today.

Now, it’s difficult for tech companies to do sentimentality, but it’s not unprecedented (see Google). But, “Designed by Apple” is trying so damn hard to make you feel anything that it misses the mark by a mile. Perhaps it’s watching grown men absolutely lose their shit when Tim Cook mentioned “Finder windows” during yesterday’s Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, or have the press react to Jonathan Ive‘s pastel-tinged redesign of iOS as though it was 2013′s answer to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This is so saccharine that it’s silly.

Maybe the most misguided part is the tagline, “Designed by Apple in California” (check out the web video here). After all, as anyone who’s ever owned an Apple product knows, the words “Assembled in China” always immediately follow that statement on every device.

Well, this is certainly news to us but it looks like the story unfolded as of Memorial Day weekend. Anyhow, in case you haven’t heard, Nick Drake, who’s spent the last four years at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and the last two-and-a-half serving as its worldwide managing director, is leaving the agency to assume the chief marketing officer position at apparel/footwear brand, Quiksilver. According to the latter company, which is also based in SoCal, Drake will be joining up as CMO effective July 1. From what sources tell us, though, Drake is for the moment still at Chiat LA, where as worldwide MD, he’s responsible for Gatorade, Adidas, Visa and the agency’s content studio, Let There Be Dragons, which he co-founded.

We’re waiting to get some clarification on if there are immediate plans to replace Drake and when his last day at TBWA C\D LA actually. Prior to joining said agency, the exec worked on the client-side for Adidas in Amsterdam, where he served as a global marketing head for the brand.

Well, this tidbit flew under the radar, but thanks to a heads up from tipsters, it appears that Robert Valdes, who recently TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, has indeed joined Droga5 NY as head of interactive production. We’re following up with the latter agency to get some more details on his arrival. As we reported over a month ago, Valdes was leaving TBWA C\D NY, where he spent nearly four years as its head of production, for a “new opportunity.” During his time at Chiat NY and TBWA network, Being, the production vet worked on several projects for Absolut and Jameson among other accounts. Prior to TBWA, Valdes spent three years as an executive producer at CP+B. We’ll fill in the blanks when we can.

Update: Droga5 confirms that Valdes has joined the agency as head of interactive production, which is a newly created position. His first day is today.

From Apple and TBWA/Media Arts Lab comes the spiritual sequel to last month’s “Photos Every Day” spot for the iPhone.

“Music Every Day” uses the exact same formula as its predecessor, with similarly excellent execution. We’ve come a long way from Apple’s original iPod commercials. No longer do we have silhouetted dancers projected against green screens with a loud, indie-rock soundtrack. Instead, just like “Photos Every Day,” we have a simple concept that, more than anything, humanizes iPhone users. What are these people listening to? It doesn’t matter; the important thing is that they’re enjoying it. We see them smile, nodding their heads along to a beat, something that we see occur is real life every single day.

Again, it ends with a single-sentence VO: More people listen to music on the iPhone than any other phone. The entire concept seems obvious, but sometimes it’s the obvious that needs to be said. Credits after the jump.

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It seems like we’ve been hearing about cuts at TBWA\Media Arts Lab (although relatively minor) pretty much every week this month but all tips up until now have proven to be fairly inaccurate . Now, though, we’ve received word from sources that TBWA’s Apple-focused, L.A.-based unit did let go of some staffers last week (the \MAL camp, like always, is keeping quiet). From what we’re hearing, approximately a dozen or so \MAL folks have been cut based on skill sets needed for the business at present.

On the flipside, though, Media Arts Lab, which also has office space in London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney, did make some creative hires in recent weeks including former B-Reel creative directors Hector Muelas and Ricardo Viramontes, who now serve as GCDs at the former agency.