DDB

The Dallas arm of Tribal DDB let about 10 folks go, we're told. But there were other changes as well. Here's what we're hearing:

— Like we said, there were 10 people let go including CD Braden Bickle.

— ACD Matt Smith has been promoted to a GCD.

— ACD Darrel Loden and Art Director Matt Rand were made CDs.

— The creative department has been rearranged. Now they're in teams. Not sure what they weer before.

— Outside the creative department, layoffs include: strategy, ROI, project management, and account services.

ETC
— Hmm, we're told the New York account team was merged into the New York office.

— New York, San Francisco, Chicago and LA are all slated for layoffs. We're aware of SF, but hadn't heard anything about LA/Chicago until right now.

Update: Sources familiar with the matter tell me New York is not going to have lafyoffs. That shop has some business wins of late, including Ciba Vision. Another is yet to be announced.

More: "Tribal DDB Dallas, San Francisco, Cut Jobs"

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Though one source called the layoffs at Tribal DDB San Francisco, "major" we've as of yet been unable to determine the scope of cuts that occurred at the agencies late last week. An agency representative confirmed layoffs at both the SF and Dallas offices, but did not comment on numbers. Another source tells us the SF office is closing and that all production is being moved to Dallas. Here's some non-so-helpful info from that rep.

"In this environment, we are always looking for efficiencies and last week, unfortunately, that did involve Tribal DDB offices in San Francisco and Dallas."

Thanks. Help us figure this one out, will ya? Our goal = you getting the info you need, despite the agency's lack of info.

Update: LA, too? "On the heels of the DDB/LA layoffs, the DDB network may be cutting the Seattle office loose. After continuous layoffs at regular intervals over the past 3-4 years, the sacking of their GM, failure to win any new biz and dwindling spending by existing clients, they're down to a skeleton crew working mostly on what remains of their direct response business. Rumor has it ownership of the shop would revert back to founder Ron Elgin (who was essentially set to retire and turn over the reigns to Chris Lloyd before he was canned). Whether it would remain viable as an independent is anyone's guess, but things have not been looking good there for a while, to say the least, and appear to be about to get much, much worse."

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DDB West and Tribal DDB have developed a campaign for The Clios called the Clio 50 - fifty questions about working in the ad business. Our favorite question has to be number 35 (Have you ever told secrets about your agency to an ad blog?) and number 45 (Because you work in advertising it's acceptable to...)?

God bless 'em for making The Clios just a little more fun this year. The tallied survey will become available during the show on May 12.

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A new TV and print campaign for the "world's largest rubber manufacturer", Bridgestone, will be handled by DDB Berlin. DDB Worldwide won the business in a pitch in Tokyo, where the agency was up against Dentsu, Hakuhodo and The Richards Group, according to an Adweek source.

This is the second significant win for DDB Worldwide in recent weeks. In late March, DDB Berlin was named Reebok International's lead creative agency, taking McGarryBowen's place.

Bridgestone's TV and print campaigns will probably focus on fuel efficiency. Recently, the tire maker filed a complaint with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD) about claims Michelin made in adverts that their tires are more fuel efficient.

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DDB South Africa has posted a video of their outdoor campaign for the Canon image stabilization Powershot. The agency paid human statues to stand in (what looks like) a mall with a small placard at their feet that touted the brand message. At the end of the video, the agency has stills that read, that consumers interacted with the brand and "got a true taste of the Canon's image stabilization ability."

Well, not really guys. If you notice, two dudes come by and take a photo of the statues with their camera phone. Surely, they got a good shot considering that you know - the statues don't move. If a crappy camera phone could make something standing still look great. The whole point of the campaign is totally lost.

Wouldn't it have been better to have really funky moving people (tap dancers, boxers, high wire artists) doing their very movement oriented work in front of the consumers? Then, DDB could demonstrate how the Canon stabilizes the image. You know, with test cameras locked to a kiosk or something. Consumers could have taken pictures of their friends in front of the moving act, see how the camera takes a great shot despite movement and have that proof/memory sent to their email address. Maybe the attached photo would come with the Canon logo at the bottom and a discount on say, a memory card for the PowerShot. You know what I'm saying? As is, the campaign seems a little backwards.

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DDB worldwide chairman and chief creative officer Bob Scarpelli has these thoughts that he likes to share with staffers. Sometimes they're short and sweet, sometimes they are mangled and mashed. In today's case, it's sadly the latter as Mr. Scarpelli attempts to discuss diversity, as well as Omnicom's recent retention of the ever vigilant Tiffany R. Warren as Chief Diversity Officer.

As you read the Chairman's letter, just keep these thoughts in the back of your mind:

- For how long are agencies going to be okay with saying, as Bob does, we have a "long way to go?" Consider that ad agencies are always absent from Diversity Inc.'s annual ranking of the top 50 most diverse companies. Maybe DDB should have gotten on the ball before 2008, when they appointed human resources manager Minerva Garcia to the newly created position of chief diversity officer. Perhaps, they'd be farther along by now. And yes, there was Spike DDB, but that wasn't diversity, that was DDB creating a minority firm, an annex.

- Why does an Executive Leadership Committee need a Chief Diversity Officer "reminding us of the far-reaching benefits of a diverse employee base?" Well, they didn't know that back in 2006, so this is an improvement. Back in 2006, DDB along with the rest of Omnicom, stalled on signing onto the New York City Human Rights Commission diversity pact. With the threat of a real live class action lawsuit looming, they changed their tune right quick, no? Good. Good.

- "Bureaucracy kills diversity." Ha-ha, oh, laughable! Given that Omnicom agencies have the worst hiring records according to New York City's Commission on Human Rights. Can we now safely conclude that Omnicom is the most bureaucratic network on Earth?

- Finally, Scarpelli wrote: "From a practical standpoint, today more than ever, we have to be able to tap into talents beyond our own traditional skill sets." Sure, but last week, DDB New York replaced Lee Garfinkel with BBDO's Eric Silver. Tap into talents beyond our own traditional skill sets? DDB couldn't even tap beyond its own agency network?

As Sanford Moore said to Adage the other day about Chief Diversity Officers: "If they do any good, where are the black executives in the organizations that they're hired to? Besides themselves, who else is there?" And, "The diversity officers, I mean they're window dressing. They don't have power, they can't hire."

Oh, Bobby. You got a lot of work to do. From here on out, just let Warren write your copy when you're talking diversity, because this kind of stuff just looks like serious whitewashing (ha!). You can see his full email below or view DDB's Diversity Powerpoint presentation here.

continued...

With the news of horrific fires coming out of Australia, the country's tourism board along with DDB needs to surge on. Their most recent campaign was crafted by Baz Luhrmann in an attempt to wipe the slate of a previous effort, which was widely considered a flop and came with the tagline, "So Where The Hell Are You?" For the third effort in this series, DDB is supposedly going to include "just about every cliche of Australia." Slated to launch in June, the campaign will echo the theme of transformation that was kicked off by Luhrmann with its copy line, "Come Walkabout."

The problem? Australians are up in arms about the planned work. As The Sydney Morning Herald said:

"With the global tourism market in the doldrums - overseas visitors are forecast to drop by 4 per cent - do we really need to have a one-size-fits-all ad for Australia? Unlike a Mars Bar or McDonald's, which delivers the same experience the world over, people come to Australia for different reasons. Yes, Luhrmann and TA made two Walkabout ads - one for Westerners and one for Asians - but they deliver the same message that Australia offers a transformative experience. Now is not the time to have another stab at creating a brand for Australia as a tourist destination. It is the time for getting more bums on seats."

Basically, the newspapers of Australia are not only re-working the creative, but building a media plan for the campaign, while the Tourism Board and DDB sit in the wings preparing to do what they damn well please. The ad campaign is ignoring travel trends caused by the global recession: trips closer to home and smaller budgets, which may knock out trips to bush country. Australians are thinking - there's more to our country than just the bush. The Tourism board also has no intention of shifting their media dollars to countries that are better weathering the economic decline. Instead, the largest feeder markets (Japan, New Zealand, America) are getting small slices of the overall spend, while nearly 10 percent is targeted to Australians themselves.

When newspapers and citizens are acting as planners, perhaps one should listen? The wisdom of crowds and all that.

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Peter Hempel, president and CEO of DDB New York, announced today that former BBDO ECD Eric Silver is joining DDB as Chief Creative Officer.

Silver, 41, will start at DDB on Feb. 17th. At BBDO, he worked on BBC, Guinness Monster.com, FedEx and DirecTV. Silver replaces Lee Garfinkel; both men were taken to task week by commenters in an Adweek article alleging the changeover.

So there that is.

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We've spent the past week going on about race relations in the ad business. Don't think us writers here at AgencySpy are not sensitive to that other issue - the big "G", gender. From Copyranter comes the picture above - a prime example of how much work needs to get done on behalf of the vagina set.

The Vancouver office of DDB was asked by the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS) to submit a page for its 2009 calendar. The NABS is the only charitable organization in Canada that provides assistance to industry professionals, who may need help due to illness, injury, unemployment or financial difficulties. Copyranter describes it as an ad "featuring a DD-cup boob and a B-cup boob (looks more like a C). Not surprisingly, the creative team was all male. You stay benevolent, Great White North ad guys."

Surprise! The creative team was all male! Right. The joke here is that her disability is lopsided breasts and so she needs NABS? How funny. It seems that DDB decided not to create something that befitted the cause at hand. Could it be that these dudes also failed to think that maybe, women wouldn't want this spot hanging on their fridge for the entire month of May? Good cause. Totally, totally whack ad.

And yet, the ad industry often allows all male creative teams to handle female targeted brands. When there's more than donations involved, but millions of marketing dollars and clients on the line, perhaps we might want to think again.

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The end of the year is when one can expect to see the best the film industry has to offer. Is that case with the advertising industry as well? Judging by this new Volkswagen ad by DDB London, you could make the case.

Director Ivan Zacharias, whose is repped by Smuggler, totally nails that whole Bourne-Matrix vibe, no?

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