Since last week, we’ve been hearing about a certain “test” that Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s executive director of creative development, Evan Fry, laid upon certain creatives in recent weeks at the Boulder hub. Fry, if you recall, rejoined his old shop last fall after co-founding crowdsourcing-loving Victors & Spoils.

According to those in the know, Fry’s test did not in turn eliminate staff–though we’re hearing otherwise. The questionnaire we received, which contained a handful of inquiries, via tipsters was apparently inaccurate, save for those regarding how one would redesign an ad for a certain client among other things. Sources familiar with the matter would not elaborate on which client it was as it’s being protected for time being. We were told initially that approximately 10 creatives were let go as a result of the test, but CP+B sent us this statement:

“We are constantly assessing that the right people are working on the right things and this series of questions was one way to do that. No one was terminated or will be terminated due to their answers and that was never the intention of these exercises.”

We have some names, but will spare the innocent and not reveal those who were allegedly let go.

What about the trucker who just had to sit there while a waitress poured fake coffee into an overflowing mug? Or the egg on top of a diner table? The guy swimming with sharks? The wind-up brain toy? The geeky guy playing with a giant ball of yarn? Aloe vera tissues? Yes, all of these things are in the same “Retrain Your Brain” Virgin Mobile commercial, created by Mother NY. The spot is certainly unique, but that doesn’t mean it will get customers to switch from other carriers to Virgin Mobile.

“Retrain Your Brain” was birthed out of focus group findings that suggested customers wouldn’t switch mobile companies even if they were specifically told how much money they could save. So, Mother and Virgin Mobile decided to go with Brazilian triplets, Colonel Meow, and The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.

Could it be that most customers just aren’t suited for short-term pay-as-you-go phone plans? (Shh, don’t tell Virgin Mobile). Regardless, the spot looks like a surrealist drug sequence from a bad student film. If you’re going to include Brazilian triplets, you might as well use them. Credits after the jump.

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Self-proclaimed “ideas man” Floyd Hayes has been blowing up our spot as of late, and seeing as he’s already sat in a bar sipping Guinness, being sad-face for a self-promo, we wouldn’t put it past him to mock our own Mediabistro show, Cubes (you might remember our past trips to agencies such as Grey). Can’t say we’ve ever heard of a “rug of ideation” before, but then again, the former creative director at NYC/London-based guerilla marketing firm Cunning apparently isn’t averse to being cheeky in the name of self-promotion.

Yes, folks, the muscle-bound, self-proclaimed “Alpha Dog” and proprietor of Omnicom-owned, Fort Lauderdale-based agency Zimmerman continues his apparent quest to reach Fox News-level punditry by offering his own response to President Obama‘s state of the union address (and without a Poland Spring water bottle in sight, no less). With printed talking points in front of him, Zimmerman, who last discussed “parking his assets” in the wake of Obama’s reelection, now preaches about the deficit, unemployment and more. To sum it all up if you can’t make it through the seven-minute sermon, Obama doesn’t “give a damn about the Constitution” according to Zimmerman. Happy Friday!

As Emma Carmichael at Deadspin told us yesterday, the internet is doing it all wrong when it comes to the “Harlem Shake,” which actually originated over 30 years ago but has now been transmogrified (and pretty much diluted) into an unstoppable meme. The Deadspin scolding, though, hasn’t stopped the agency world (and world at large) from producing their own interpretations of the “shake,” and the latest to follow suit is Rokkan, which purposely waited until Valentine’s Day to release their entry. See above.

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the submissions from Wieden+Kennedy, which hit the internet with Shake showings from both its Portland and New York offices. The one from Portland HQ (below) was actually posted less than a week ago but has already racked up nearly three-million views. If you haven’t totally tuned out yet, tune in after the jump to the W+K NY edition, which seems like a rather fitting entry to the Harlem hullabaloo. As mentioned, we will now do our best to cease coverage of this meme moving forward. Amen.

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We’ve been hearing about this since the weekend, and now a tipster has sent us a screen grab of an all-staff email that certainly appears to have been delivered by a certain higher-up at a certain Canadian agency. Apologies for the small image size, but we had to do a little trimming in order to protect the innocent and/or possibly drunk involved in this note, which came with the subject line, “It’s 3:37 am in Sweden.” We”ll leave it you to squint and play Columbo to figure this one out.

Forget The Walking Dead, say hello to our new, real-world plague. Yes, boys and girls, the “Harlem Shake” is aiming to burst our pop culture bubble at warp-speed, afflicting a a VCU Brandcenter here, a Miami Ad School there (actually, shit, it’s just everywhere), and now, it’s reached agency level at David&Goliath. This will not end well, except maybe for that Baauer guy who produced the “Harlem Shake” track itself. Damn you and Psy to some lonely island.

Well, we can’t say we disagree with the tipster who sent this and best describes it as “ad kids in their element.” Here’s your midday interlude featuring a bunch of young whippersnappers at VCU Brandcenter breaking out into the “Harlem Shake,” which is apparently “sweeping the internet” and could be this year’s “Gangnam Style.” Good lord, will someone please keep these kids busy for crying out loud?

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.

So…this went down today at Ogilvy’s New York headquarters and seeing as we love all things zombies, we couldn’t resist posting.   Tipsters say that this particular group of undead interrupted client meetings with the agency’s CEO Miles Young among other things. From what we’re hearing from those in the know, though, this morning’s zombie invasion was part of an internal effort to make staffers aware of the fact that O&M will have a Super Bowl ad for Time Warner Cable airing in local markets that promotes AMC’s juggernaut, The Walking Dead. While it probably made for a fun Friday at Ogilvy, we believe this serves as a better metaphor for any given Monday.