Wieden & Kennedy

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.

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Whew, let’s lighten the mood for a minute, shall we? Those mischief-makers toiling away in W+K Portland’s design studio follow up their cheeky Valentine’s Day effort with another timely letterpress greeting card project for, what else, Mothers Day (and Fathers, but to a minimum–dads never get as much props). The snarky/artsy approach remains in tow, with cards carrying titles like “Cradle to the Grave” (from studio artist Matthew Carroll) sure to warm the hearts of moms everywhere come May 13. See for yourself below:

Front:

Inside:

 

Sure, dad gets some love to0 but just like Fathers Day compared to Mothers Day, the result is rather underwhelming. We do appreciate, though, how W+K’s designers tried to at least kill two birds with one stone here:

Anyhow, if you’d rather not do the usual thing and pick up a card at the last minute for Moms at Duane Reade or CVS, you can order one of these from W+K Studio Goodness store.

 

Throw some plastic over your keyboard, because this new campaign is bound to turn on the waterworks for many, even you heartless, jaded advertising professionals.

Kicking off what’s being declared P&G’s biggest campaign in the company’s 174-year history is the above two-minute spot, “Best Job.” Shot in London, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles and Beijing by award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel, Amores Perros, Nike “Write the Future”),“Best Job” launched today on TV and social media, coinciding with April 17 marking 100 days until the upcoming Olympic Summer Games in London. The “Thank You, Mom” campaign by W+K (with VFX by The MIll) also features a custom tab on P&G’s Facebook page, which allows visitors to send personal notes of gratitude to their mothers which are posted to a stream on the app and to users’ Walls.

So, if you mom is still alive, consider sending her a quick message of gratitude, via Facebook or other means. And, if you’re fortunate enough to be watching the Olympics this summer with her, give her a hug, a kiss, and a quick thanks. Even if you didn’t become a world class athlete (or avoided sports altogether), chances are you mom was always your biggest fan. Visit the “Thank You, Mom” Facebook page here.

Earlier in the Morning Stir, we linked to Stephen Foster‘s blog post that briefly mentioned the selling of W+K’s Portland HQ for $65 million, which then caused folks like George Parker to wonder if this meant the agency was closing. But like Foster himself noted, W+K is indeed staying put. Here’s a quick note the agency just sent to us that should clarify things:

“Yes in fact the W+K building was sold.  But the building was not owned by the agency.  It was owned by a group of investors.  It was sold to a real estate group who owns most of the real estate in the neighborhood.

We have to say this one of the most peculiar, mesmerizing recruitment tactics we’ve seen and it comes to us from W+K Shanghai, which enlisted the directing/animation services of Shotopop to entice those interested in a position at the agency to take an online creativity test and hopefully join the team.

A team at W+K Shanghai came up with the basic script for the clip before Shotopop took over and whipped up a melange of hallucinatory images to carry the narrative, giving us everything from an  “OctoShark” as your host to characters whose ideas done literally overfloweth. While we don’t actually see ourselves situated in Shanghai anytime soon, at least we now get the gist of what an acid flashback might feel like. Credits after the jump.

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Two weeks after Wieden+Kennedy made some cuts in its Portland HQ, the residual effects of the Target loss continue as the agency confirms that it’s now let go of a few staffers in its New York office. Here’s a note from a W+K spokesperson:

“Yes, we did have to part ways with a small number of valued employees from a variety of disciplines within our New York office. It is not easy to say goodbye to these co-workers and friends, but the Target loss affected us as well, and we had to make some adjustments to our staffing that reflect the loss in revenue.”

Sources familiar with the matter add that the number was less than ten and there will be no more layoffs in the foreseeable future.

Over the last few days, we’ve been inundated with tips regarding layoffs at Wieden + Kennedy due to the loss of the Target business. W+K has yet to respond, but we’re hearing that it’s not just the Portland HQ that’s been affected (NYC, London and others have been murmured about). Numbers, like always, are all over the place, anywhere from a dozen to 60 (though tipsters sometimes tend to get apocalyptic with things). Anyhow, if you have anymore info on the matter, give us a shout at agencyspy at gmail dot com.

Update. We’ve been told the cuts were limited to Portland and indeed because of Target. The number at this time has been limited to 40. Here is a statement from a W+K spokesperson : “This is never something we like to say, but yes we are in the process of layoffs. As a result of the loss of the Target account we are making some adjustments to our staffing that reflect the loss in revenue. Yesterday we sadly parted ways with a number of valued employees from a variety of disciplines within the agency.”

With the season of love/loneliness upon us, W+K Portland has its design studio in the holiday spirit with a series of letterpress Valentine’s Day cards.

Now, these cards aren’t of the “I Choo-Choo Choose You” variety. No, most of these are best for expressing your cupidity with octopi “hugging,” rabbits ready to pounce on one other or text messages declaring, “I Fucking Love You.”

So, if your significant other is tired of soft-focus photos of roses or pictures of Spider-Man saying, “I’m caught in your web, Valentine,” adorning your cards, consider switching it up this year. Hopefully, we’ll get Terry Crews in a romantic Old Spice spot as we near the 14th. Check out one more Valentine card after the jump.

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A couple of tips came in this late afternoon telling us that W+K’s six-year relationship with Target has come to an end. Our pals at the Denver Egotist tell us that sources at Target are saying it’s so, though we’ve yet to hear what’s happening from Wieden’s end. Well, if it is the case, at least we’ll always Maria Bramford haunting our dreams.

Update: Well, it indeed looks like Target followed the lead of a fellow retailer and dropped its long-time agency according to AdAge.

Update 2: Here are statements from both camps:

Target:

“Target is proud of what we accomplished with the Wieden+Kennedy team during our six-year partnership. Looking forward, we are focused on continuing to identify fresh and innovative ways to tell Target’s brand story, and will leverage both our internal expertise and our strong roster of agency partners to help accomplish our marketing goals in 2012 and beyond,” says Shawn Gensch, vice president of marketing and head of partner management, Target.

Wieden and Kennedy:

“It is never easy to part ways with a client,” says Tom Blessington, managing director of W+K Portland.  “We are proud of our six year history with Target and wish them the best. It was a great creative opportunity to work with such an iconic brand, said Susan Hoffman executive creative director of W+K Portland.  We love the pace and the dynamics of working in the retail space.”

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a great ESPN spot from W+K, hasn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, I got a few good chuckles in while watching last year’s “Jumbotron Marriage Proposal.” But, I still yearn for the days when I would hear things like “Yeah, the game was boring, but did you see that new ESPN/SportsCenter spot they aired during the commercial break? It almost made watching that travesty worthwhile.”

“Shake On It” marks a subtle new take on W+K NY’s long-running “It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports” campaign. In the past, we’ve seen spots showcasing fanatics doing outrageously flamboyant things in the name of sports because they want to. In the above spot, we see these people doing similar stupid feats because they have to. After all, it’s written in the Man Handbook that “If you make a bet and lose, you have to accept the consequences.” If you bet that you’d dance around in a dangerous part of town while wearing a diaper and bonnet if you favorite team lost, then you have to do it. That’s what being a grownup is all about.

And, before you say that these kinds of extreme bets rarely happen, I give you this poor bastard’s thigh tattoo of centaur Tim Tebow as evidence otherwise. Credits after the jump.

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