What The…?

Before we start yelling slurs at T.G.I. Fridays for being evil, can we first congratulate them on a stellar deal? An entree plus an appetizer or dessert for just $10? That’s recession pricing at its best.

Anyhow, as Pitchfork points out, the background song on the 2-for-$10 spot is a dead-ringer for a bad version of LCD Soundsystem’s 2005 breakout hit, “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” right down to the tinny vocals and cowbell solo. Observe:

Well, even if you disagree, you now have an excuse to have a little private dance party at your desk on a Friday afternoon. Fun fact: During Lollapalooza 2007, I saw LCD Soundsystem play a frenetic set on a stage about 150 yards a way from where the day’s headliners, Daft Punk, were playing. As frontman James Murphy was performing this song, singing “you’ve got to set them up,” you could actually look across the field and watch the stage techs set up for Daft Punk’s light spectacle of a show. It was totally surreal.

So, how do you guys think we should punish T.G.I. Friday’s for what appears to be a lame ripoff or a modern dance classic? If you suggest we go there and take part in the 2 for $10 deal, I agree. That’ll show them.

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Pictured to your left is Grant Spanier, a young UX intern at the Minneapolis office of Digitaria (formerly known as JWT Minneapolis). While Grant has yet to do much of note since he got hired last Friday, the process that he went through to attain his new job is quite bizarre.

You see, the Twin Cities are home to terrible professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams. So, when watching old VHS tapes of The Mighty Ducks gets boring, Minnesotans have to get creative with the most mundane of tasks in order to stave off depression. That’s why for the past two years, the Minneapolis Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) has allowed local agencies to select interns by putting young marketing hopefuls through a process that looks a lot like “The Dating Game.” Agencies taking part in the 2012 edition of the InternGame were Digitaria, Periscope, Pixel Farm Digital, 3 Deep and The Nerdery.

After phone-screening a slew of interviewees, MIMA cuts the field down to 15, five categories of three competitors. Then, interested agencies grill interviewees with three questions to see who’s the best candidate for their internship openings. This year, Digitaria’s director of UX (and MIMIA VP) Jason Kleckner interviewed three potential interns, two on stage and one (Spanier) via Skype from a Starbucks in New York. So, what three answers for Kleckner won Spanier the internship? Read a transcript of Digitaria’s contribution to the InternGame after the jump.

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We suppose since there are sunnier skies approaching here in the Big Apple (who’s ready for Memorial Day Weekend?), we’d give you this little ditty from Brad Go, who seems to love IKEA so much that he decided to sing, dance and create a music video around it. We’ve been told this is part of a “mini-integrated” campaign for the famed Swedish brand, which we agree makes the hell out of a Kivik and Borna. And no, that is now Kristin Stewart, Twi-hards.

If you don’t know who “Scumbag Steve” is, he’s a brah who has provoked a wellspring of memes in recent times (you can view a pretty comprehensive list here) and was popular enough to be the centerpiece of a new campaign celebrating the partnership between Pepsi’s Brisk iced tea brand and image-sharing service, Imgur. Brisk’s ad agency Mekanism is behind the campaign, which will feature this “promoted image” ad across social and on Imgur galleries to promote the product. Even Scumbag Steve–aka Blake Boston–is taking part in the effort as it does leverage his name and image after all. Anyhow, we’re being told this particular meme’s in the experimental beta stage, but it seems to fit the “Scumbag” tone properly enough.

From here, 2010 seems like a much simpler time. Back then, jobs at marquee agencies could be attained by Google AdWords bids that targeted ad execs with a penchant for Google-ing themselves. While Alec Brownstein‘s digital stunt landed him at Y&R NY, many others who have followed in his tech-savvy footsteps have fallen short. But, one graphic designer’s recent job-seeking stunt is so utterly bizarre that it might inspire a whole new class of young ad professionals who seek creative respite beyond the typical portfolio, resume and cover letter trio.

Inspired by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s SAMO style of street art, wherein key words and phrases are repeated throughout various artworks, graphic designer Shaun Gibson is hoping to attract the attention of CP+B by using the agency’s website Twitter feed as his own personal camera. In the image above, you’ll see that Gibson repeatedly uses the phrase “Van Skin” when he posts, establishing his virtual alter-ego while utilizing the fact that CP+B’s Twitter feed automatically pulls in any and all mentions of the agency. Along with the Twitter takeover, Gibson is supporting his campaign by creating James Victore-inspired images using the Van Skin tag, like the one below.

In addition, Gibson tells us, “The last part, and while I am not expert with video, I was planning to close this campaign out with a few youtube videos with a mock testimonial and maybe a mock ad then reveal who I am. Needless to say if the blogs pick this up I probably wont need to reveal myself, you will do it for me. Either way it’s been fun.” Well, either way, Shaun, we’re happy to give you an additional platform to make your case. Watch the very creepy video below, and consider how Van Skin might support your agency’s art department.

Last week, Miami Ad School graduate and art director-for-hire Felicia Carr caused an online firestorm when she sent out a phony press release claiming that Gerry Graf‘s NY creative shop, BFG900o, had hired her, making her their first MAS alum employee.

Now, whether or not you think Carr’s attention-grabbing ploy was wise or not, or whether you think she should’ve checked her facts to make sure that BFG (which continues to add to its client roster)) really hadn’t hired any MAS alums in the past (they had), you have to admit that Carr got the industry’s attention for better or worse. It also seems, judging by the following press release we just received from one “Welsworth Ellington,” Carr has inadvertently created her own fan club:

BARTON F. GRAF 9000 HIRES ITS FIRST MIAMI AD SCHOOL STUDENT AS GLOBAL CCO

NEW YORK (May 14, 2012) – It was enough to make Gerry say “who the fuck?” But it had to happen. Barton F. Graf 9000 has hired Ari Bazinsky, Miami Ad School Grad, as their Global CCO.

At first glance it doesn’t make any sense. He only has two-and-a-half years experience. The agency doesn’t have a Global CCO position. And BFG 9000 has never actually “heard of him.” So why would they start shopping at the overpriced plain white t-shirt factory of portfolio schools? Because Ari Bazinsky is the shit.

They first became aware of Ari when his 40k banner ad for Toyotathon appeared on their computer screens. As soon as they saw the words “click here to learn more,” BFG 9000 knew they had something special on their hands.

But it’s not just his superior writing skills that attracted them. What really impressed the agency were his forward-thinking initiatives. In fact, Ari’s first order of business is to cancel BFG’s broadband Internet service and invest in a school of high-speed carrier pigeons. It’s a ballsy move for sure, but no great reward comes without risk. Just imagine if Ben Franklin had never flown his kite. Or Kim Kardashian never made a moderately entertaining – albeit anticlimactic – sex-tape with a C-list rapper. Barton F. Graf 9000 believes Ari’s unique vision and groundbreaking ideas will bring that same level of success to their agency.

BFG 9000 is proud to welcome Ari to the family and looks forward to making their own moderately entertaining – albeit anticlimactic – sex-tape with him on-board.

We got in touch with Ellington, who turned out (surprise) to be copywriter Ari Bazinsky (pictured) from Saatchi & Saatchi (Graf’s old stomping grounds, of course). He tells us, “My goal wasn’t really to get press, it was more to have fun with Felicia Carr (who hatched her own ballsy, if not ill-conceived, plan last week)… I can’t really say that I had much in the way of expectations when I wrote this ‘press release,’ but her article made me chuckle and I thought this would be funny.” Is Carr slowly turning into her own meme? If anything, her 15 minutes of fame have been longer than about 95 percent of everyone else we’ve written about on AgencySpy. So, uh, congrats, Felicia.

This person has been pinging us on Facebook for the last week or so, and it took another friend to remind us of their site, where this so-called “Depressed Copywriter” takes it upon themselves to add their own copy to random ads. Ah yes, the beauty of Tumblr is alive and well, but we’re almost feeling worried for this scribe, who plays cynic, curmudgeon, maybe even nihilist, what have you and just tells us, “Life is flawed. I hope you agree.” Anyhow, not to bring you all down on a Friday, but feel free to empathize with this person on Facebook or the web link above.

If you’ve recently attended a Philadelphia Flyers’ playoff game at the Wells Fargo Center, you perhaps encountered the FLYERBOT.

Towed around by a truck that features the Flyers players standing next to the Stanley Cup, the FLYERBOT paints real-time tweets of fan support on the Wells Fargo Center parking not. First, take a moment to giggle about the somewhat presumptuous painting of the Flyers winning a championship, as the team was actually knocked out of the Stanley Cup race last night with a loss to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Semifinals. Now that you’ve laughed at the Flyers’ continuing streak of misfortune, consider that this invention is pretty similar to another machine we saw for the first time almost three years ago.

Now, maybe this isn’t as much of a case of “rip-off” as it is a lack of patent. Yes, Nike, LIVESTRONG, American Roadprinting, Deep Local and agency W+K maybe should’ve copyrighted their invention, but then, do you think Chalkbot is jealous of all the attention FLYERBOT is getting? Is it possible that people just doesn’t care? Can these two social media activated spray-painting robots co-exist? Did the Flyers get permission to create FLYERBOT? Do you think you know the correct origin story of Chalkbot? Let us know what you think, dear readers.

It’s been a good while since we’ve heard a tale of drunken agency hijinks, hasn’t it? Well, according to one tipster, an alleged brawl broke out from a booze-soaked evening–not at some agency party, mind you, but after just another round of late-night imbibing at the office. As is the norm with blind items, we’ll leave the incriminating names/associations out and leave the guessing game to you. Time to play Mad Libs again, and oh yes, it’s a geek fight, folks.

“Last Friday [ed: meaning April 27] in the _______ office at _________, two programmers got into a brawl when they were drinking late at work.  One of the programmers hit the other with a champagne bottle causing  police to be called and 17 stitches and staples to be administered to victim.  The assailant wrote an email over the weekend assuming he was fired and did not even come to work.  He was terminated on Monday.  Police are reviewing case for criminal prosecution.  Guess disagreements with alcohol get ugly at the ____________ office.  I do not work there but numerous people I know have confirmed this story.  ________ is the attacker and _______ was the victim apparently.  You can’t make this up…”

We don’t know Jerry Comyn from a hole in the wall, but we can at least appreciate the man’s bravado after reading a letter he sent last night to those on his mailing list. Comyn, you see, has been a national account manager on-and-off for OOH advertising giant Titan for the last few years, but now it appears that he’s done some soul-searching and wants out of the biz for good. We’ve reached out to Comyn to make sure he still feels this way the day after and are waiting to hear back. But anyhow, on with the show (the full note is after the jump):

“Hello all,

Having spent the past 18 years of my life in advertising sales, TV, Radio and Outdoor, I’ve always wondered why I was in a business I detested. For years, I couldn’t figure it out, and then I realized what was motivating me, MONEY! There are few careers where one (we called ourselves a business of C students) could earn so much money for doing very little.

Update: Comyn himself says the letter is not referring to any one company, but was written in general terms and encompasses his experiences of years in the advertising/media business.

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