The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl is a British TV show about a high class prostitute and her wonky adventures. So, DraftFCB's explosive billboard seems a bit, erm... off. The new campaign that went up down under to promote the show has caught the eye of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Complaints have rolled in and the board will surely be banned.

One billboard features a clothed woman during the day and then at night, back-lighting on the boards reveal the lady to be in sexy lingerie. Another (pictured above) features a skirt that blows up in the wind to reveal a lady's bottom. Um... "sexy?" This is a girl's ass in bad panties and expensive garters. Not too sexy. It's boring, yan worthy, crude crap. Yawn. Besides that, I've watched the show. It was kind of fun. I didn't feel any sort of misogynistic thing was going on in the least. The character, named Billie Piper, was well formed, loved her gig and owned it. Simple as that. These ads are a total turn off to someone like me, meaning someone with a vaj-jay-jay. Too bad.

Catch this - Stuff reports that "several motorists spotted by The Press were so transfixed by the billboard that they failed to move when the traffic lights turned green."

Points to DraftFCB for creating a traffic stopping ad. Minus points for not having a wit of sophistication to bring to the topic and turning off the ladies to boot. Any girls work on this campaign? Doubt it.

The show is set to launch in the US on Showtime in June. Watch the trailer below.

Draft Italy is moving to a new office and so, they posted this little video to announce the news.

Yes, yes.. ideas are moving. In big, square, clunky brown boxes, which staffers can't see out of. That sounds about right for Draft, no?

The staunchest crusader against all things DraftFCB, George Parker, noted on his blog this Friday that twenty-five people were escorted off the agency's property.

Meanwhile, Draft has appointed Tito Favino to the new position of deputy director of international planning. The department oversees planning for the Draftfcb global network with the exception of the US. Hell, maybe the US needs it. Maybe, not the New York office, but everyone else? Don't leave them out!

The agency is also set to launch their newest effort for KFC, a sort of ARG if you will. In this instance, consumers are being challenged to find a secret image in both the point-of-purchase in-store advertising for the KFC Snacker and in a new commercial that has three teenagers discussing the value of a dollar and the KFC Snacker's 99-cent price tag.

What about people? Eight year veteran of Draft, Nancy Grebey, (she was the Managing Director of the Verizon account) has bailed on the shop to join G2 Direct & Digital to lead its Financial Services Practice.

And even farther afield in the world of Draft is the little noted fact that US Lacrosse, the Baltimore based national governing body of men's and women's lacrosse, announced the addition of Bill Schoonmaker as Chief Operating Officer. Schoonmaker was once Vice President and Management Director for 361° Sports + Event Marketing at the Draft unit..

We got word of a little, erm... mishap? No, no. How about theft? Yes, theft of some new Macs from the DraftFCB New York office. The thief was captured on video tape and of course, turned out to be an old freelancer who's security card was never disabled. Apparently, dude was balls to the wall on this one coming in at around closing time while staffers were still snapping away on the keyboards.

And here's the real gem, he supposedly asked security guards on the first floor to look after his shopping bags full of Macs, while he hailed a cab.

Oh boy... so good, right?

Thanks Tipster!

Disney is "is looking for BIG ideas that break the traditional movie-marketing concepts," according to a document issued to agencies that Brandweek got its hands upon. This brief goes on to say that Disney "will pay $50,000 for your time and own all your ideas and concepts." Agencies preparing for presentations in this project based review include Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners; Droga5, StrawberryFrog and Wieden + Kennedy, Cutwater in San Francisco; and DraftFCB in Chicago.

Rewind. Excuse us? For $50K, you get totally powned. They want to own your ideas, forever and ever and ever. Make millions of them, while you struggle to pay the staff who created those awesome concepts. Other brands have gone this route including Hilton, and Kraft. We're not against brands attempting to own your ideas. That's business. This is the jungle baby. In many cases, maybe some of these folks just want to add Disney to their roster, boost their agency profile and so, lie down for the lion. Two unnamed agencies pushed back. We're going to guess one was Droga. We applaud whoever they were. However, this is a no-no. Don't do it! If you guys go in for this, then Disney knows it really does hold the industry by the balls. Other brands will follow suit and, and, and... this is the way it has always gone. It's cyclical and totally depressing.

Seriously? You guys are gonna go for this? Yes, it's great to have Disney on the client list and yes, maybe you have some groundbreaking idea for movie marketing you want out in the world, but you guys are willing to set the course of I.P. ownership for the rest of the advertising business?

Main entry: Sell Out

Pronunciation: \ˈsel-ˌaut\

Function: noun

Date: 1859

1: the act or an instance of selling out 2: something sold out; especially : something (as a concert or contest) for which all tickets are sold 3: one who betrays a cause for personal advancement.

Something else totally depressing? Julie Roehm is involved. Back from the media cyclone, Julie was contacted to help pick the initial list of agencies. She was on the phone calls for the agency briefings, but supposedly, is no longer involved in the process. This just gets ickier and ickier.

The "Protector of the People" aka George Parker alerts us to the latest Facebook group, "Fuck Howard Draft!" We're not surprised that there's a Facebook hate group for Howard. You shouldn't be either. Draft is arguably one of the most hated CEOs in the business. Maybe it was the whole sleazy Julie Roehm scandal that tipped you over the edge. It could have been their full placement ad featuring the lions with the tagline, "It's good to be on top" that really irked you or more likely, you just worked at Draft and got emails like this one or perhaps, you got laid off when the agency lost Verizon. Oh wait! Maybe it's his affiliation with Laurence Boschetto that gets the feathers in a bunch. Whatever it is, Howard is always in the line of fire. Always.

TBWA\C\D client Embassy Suites has gone up for review. The shop has been the AOR for the hotel chain since 1998. Yeah. Move on Embassy.
TBWA\C\D and the Tequila are expected to defend says AdWeak.

Embassy Suites is a Hilton brand. Hilton is handled by Young & Rubicam and DraftFCB holds Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites. Why DraftFCB is holding onto three accounts each valued around or above $20M is beyond us. Maybe Blackstone, who bought the whole Hilton chain last year, will shift their business around, too. Seriously... have you ever even heard of a Homewood suite?

DraftFCB is looking to bolster its data and analytics programs. AdWeak is reporting that this is due to a "growing demand among clients such as Citi and CA and has recruited OgilvyOne's Ira Helf to run it."

Ira used to be the Managing Director of Marketing Analytics at OgilvyOne. His new title at DraftFCB is executive director data and analytics.

Helf, 55, is an analytics man. He was VP at Claritas, The Nielsen Company; a senior analyst at IRI and a department manager at CACI with a degree from Stanford (statistics, marketing, mathematics). At Draft, Helf will report to one time colleague Peter DeNunzio, former general manager of OgilvyOne.

"The DraftFCB model is built on extracting consumer insights through data and the demand for our ability to analyze [such data], has never been greater," DeNunzio said. DraftFCB is alway touting their analytics program, since they are a direct marketing shop at heart. Helf will direct 20 to 30 strategists and technologists with growth sounding like a definite.

Hey, not a bad move for Draft. The agency should focus on the data, because the creative thing just isn't their strong suit.

That's not our headline. That's from The Onion. However, it fits as Taco Bell and DraftFCB seem to like what the kids are doing these days.

We previewed Taco Bell’s stinker of a Super Bowl ad yesterday, and now tips are flying in from across the far reaches of the globe. Well, the Midwest anyway.

It's true that everyone’s out there right now trying to figure out how to make a campaign that catches on with “the kids on the world wide web.” You can imagine the brainstorm: How do we get a little YouTube chatter going, a little home made tribute action? How do we get this to go viral?

Well Taco Bell’s way ahead of you, Alex Bogusky. You don’t wait for those tech-savvy urban tastemakers to remake your idea… YOU remake THEIRS! Taco Bell is the midst of testing a fresh new campaign where kids roll up to drive thru windows with a camera in the passenger side, a beatboxer in back, and a rapper in the front, confusing the lady in the speaker. Sound familiar? Damn, you must have looked at the internet last year. These things have been all over YouTube since at least 2006. We’ve seen them remade, and parodied, and now it seems we have the first example of a Global Food Service Enterprise actually stealing ideas directly from an Awesome Subculture for a broadcast spot. At least we think. You'll let us know in the comments section if really this first, right?

Riddle us this - why not hire the actual kids? Why not get some fan pages, contests, and cult followings going for the "actors", instead of the possible bad press from just making a glossy-film version of something that had actual appeal? Be on the look-out for these new spots. We're guessing - April? Ah, Draft. Draft... Sigh.

Taco Bell is using its Superbowl time to launch a new product, Fiesta Platters, which cost just $4.99. Yum. The 30-second HD spot was created by their agency of record, DraftFCB California, and will run during the fourth quarter. Debbie Myers, Vice President/media and promotions at Taco Bell said that,
"Whatever happens, viewers will hang in there, they tune in to watch not just the game, but the ads themselves," she says. "[The Super Bowl] is the consistently highest-rated program of the year, where people--instead of avoiding commercials--are anticipating and looking forward to seeing them."