-Following a pitch, Sunglass Hut owner/Ray-Ban manufacturer Luxottica has tapped Omnicom Media Group to handle its global media buying/planning biz. link

-While we’re on the tip, Santa Monica-based media agency Mercury Media has appointed former REVShare exec Michael Montgomery to serve as its VP of business development.

-Above, you can watch a little sizzle reel from Hollywood, CA-based prodco Troika, which is touting its rebranding of a French-Canadian network dubbed “V.” link

-Speaking of L.A. production companies, Caviar, which recently gave us this uplifting Derrick Rose comeback spot for Adidas, has signed on to co-produce Lars Von Trier‘s next flick, Nymphomaniac.

-Here’s our last Spikes Asia-related note of the week. The festival has picked P&G Asia as its Advertiser of the Year. link

-Apparently, Apple’s win over Samsung has resulted in a dump of the latter’s smartphones. link

-In case you missed this, here’s a lengthy Forbes list of global agencies that “know social media and Google.” link

-Jersey-based Publicis Groupe agency Rosetta has promoted Tom Adamski and Mark Taylor to president and COO, respectively.

-While we’re on the promotion front, Aegis Media-owned digital performance agency iProspect has elevated Brian Kaminski to U.S. president and JB Brokaw to chief client officer.

-Here’s a quick sneak peek at HUGE’s new L.A. digs on Wilshire Blvd. link

-Bay area boutique Camp+King (how’s the art installation working out, gang?) has taken over as AOR for Mexican fast-food chain, Del Taco.

-By the way, the Chicago Advertising Foundation has named MillerCoors’ VP/media & marketing services Jackie Woodward as its 2012 Advertising Woman of the Year. link

-Aardman Animations teamed up with London indie agency isobel to promote U.K. shopping center, Bullring (above).  Check out the making-of clip here.

-Dove is delving into mobile ads to boost its social media presence. link

-Man, Urban Outfitters can never get it right these days. link

Yeah, yeah, Breaking Bad mashup aside, we can appreciate that Mentos has become a bit randier over the summer as “the freshmaker” has followed up its “do the deed and make some babies effort” from Singapore earlier this month with a Stateside print campaign brought to you by the Martin Agency. You can call this Mentos and its Richmond, VA AOR’s version of contextual advertising as fairly naughty ads will launch next week in various mags including Maxim, InTouch, People and Sports Illustrated that go hand-in-hand with the content within.  We received four ads in all, though only three will be appearing in multiple publications (the raciest one above will, aptly enough, stay put in Maxim). Check out one below and one more after the jump along with credits.

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We can’t remember the last time we heard from the Wunderman camp (oh yeah, sorry). But now, the news shifts to the West Coast as the WPP/Y&R division has bumped up group creative director Craig Evans to ECD. Evans has spent over seven years at both Y&R and Wunderman, initially joining the former in 2004 before heading to the latter in 2010. Now, as head of creative at Wunderman West, he will lead up work for clients including Southwest Airlines and Invisalign at a network that counts offices in Irvine, San Francisco as well as Seattle.

During his career, Evans not only co-authored a book called Marketing Mojo, but co-led San Diego-based shops of his own such as Matthews|Evans|Albertazzi and Big Bang Idea Engineering. As one would expect, Evans’s boss, Wunderman West managing director Dan Olson, speaks highly of his new creative lead, saying in a statement that the ECD is “…unquestionably the hardest-working man in advertising – and one of the smartest. He’s a bit of a mad scientist – able to quickly dissect a problem and deliver astounding solutions that engage people.”

In case you were wondering, Evans is taking over for Anthony DiBiase, who moved on to a brief stint at CHI & Wunderman in Minneapolis, but is no longer with the agency.

Yes, one of the stars of The Expendables 2 (now playing in theaters everywhere) is back, flexing his impressively musical muscles for Old Spice and W+K.

In what we’re being told is what’s a “first-of-its-kind embeddable interactive experience,” Muscle Music allows viewers to record their very own percussion-laden jam session after they stream and impressive demo performed by Mr. Terry Crews. But, for those of us who learn better from following directions than button-mashing, Old Spice has provided us with this handy keyboard map:

Sure, it’s just sort of silly and gets a little boring after about a minute of messing around, but realize that this is as much of an ad for W+K, prodco MJZ, VFX company The Mill and Vimeo itself as much as it is for Old Spice. From a purely technological standpoint, this could be a big step forward in integrating audience interaction into streaming video. Your move, YouTube.

Credits after the jump.

Update: By the way, the Terry Crews has been answering questions following his new Old Spice ad launch on Reddit. Go here for the Q+A.

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During the now-tired manly man spokesperson ad trend that’s been beaten to death over the last few years, I’ve always had a soft spot for Keystone’s trucker hat-wearing mascot, Keith Stone. I guess it’s because Keith was actually a somewhat recognizable archetype, whereas his fellow manly spokesmen look nothing like the consumer they’re attempting to appeal to. The difference is that you can actually picture a dude who looks likes Keith walking into your local convenience store, grabbing a case of Keystone, and handing a series of crumpled bills and loose change from his pocket to the cashier before jumping in his rusted pickup.

There’s a degree of honesty to Keith that, when backed up by some insight, can work very well. Such is the case with the above spot, one in a trio from Saatchi and Saatchi NY and Tool director JJ Adler. What “true” guy wouldn’t agree with Keith and admit that yes, emoticons are an incredibly maddening way for other dudes to express themselves? Whenever I get a text message or IM from a friend that contains an emoticon, it’s nearly impossible not to let out a sigh of resignation. Add to that some great copy, and Keith Stone not only becomes a symbol of manliness–he becomes a symbol of integrity, dammit!

I wish I could say the same for the other two spots, both of which exchange this keen insight for the trite “guys will be guys” subjects that have existed as long as the idea of manliness has. Real men drink beer instead of eat salad? Keith, you can do better than that. If I wanted to know that men like bacon, I would ask the Dr. Pepper 10 guy. One more spot about fist-bumping along with credits follows after the jump.

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Details are vague at this point (our apologies), but sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that Mother made some cuts in its New York office last night. From what we’re hearing, the number ranges from 5-10 percent of staff in NY. As for reasons, thus far we’ve been told that the cuts were due to both a need to restructure and to better serve client needs. Mother New York’s current client roster includes Virgin Mobile, Burger King (though the fast-food giant is now reportedly expanding/shaking up its agency roster) and eMusic.

We’ll keep you posted if and when we get more details about the staff situation.

With the Republican National Convention now underway in Tampa, we figured it’s rather timely and appropriate to shine a light on Twitter-centric effort dubbed “Smack a Candidate.” We’ve been told this hashtag-driven battle between Mitt Romney and President Obama is a little side project launched last week by L.A.-based creatives Michael Miller and Marcus Wesson, whose days jobs are at IPG shop, Dailey. Anyhow, as the trailer shows you above, “Smack a Candidate” encourages you to tweet #smackobama or #smackromney and let the presidential candidates (or amusing likenesses of them, at least) go at it. According to the “Smack” calendar on the site, today marks round 1 of 3 in honor of the RNC and goes down starting at 12pm PST. If only they punched harder, though…

-McCann Buenos Aires has built a creative technology team that’s composed of both MRM and McCann talents and which will be led by digital integrated director Santiago Pennino and creative technician Diego De Bernardi.

-SapientNitro hired CP+B alum Jeff Teicher as creative director, experience design in its San Francisco office.

-The Simpsons and This is Spinal Tap star Harry Shearer offers a musical toast to the “celebrity booze endorser.” link

-According to one trade, it was Microsoft that emerged as the real winner in the Apple-Samsung battle. link

-In an effort to redefine Avis, the car rental brand’s AOR Leo Burnett Business launched a new campaign called “It’s Your Space” that includes three national spots as well as an experiential iPad campaign (one spot above). link

-GSD&M picked up creative duties for Perio Inc.’s Barbasol and Pure Silk brands.

-Kids continue to rule over adults in a new Kraft campaign from CP+B, which is now promoting the brand’s Homestyle Mac ‘n Cheese Bowls (above).

-RPA has promoted VP/ACD J Barbush to VP, creative social media director. link

-Musician Lana Del Rey has teamed up with Jaguar to promoted the automaker’s upcoming F-Type model. link

-Meanwhile, Pfaff Auto is giving away a 2013 Audi A4 to the winner of a tweet race launched today by Lowe Roche. Unforunately, the race is only open to Ontario residents over 25. link

-The Art Directors Club has announced a partnership with ad creative resource,  Lürzer’s Archive. link

-Sound designer/mixer Scottie Richardson joined Dallas-based studio, Lucky Post.

-CNN and Facebook have teamed up to launch a new tool called “Election Insights.” link