It's a press release kind of day. Here is another about the settlement between Interpublic and the SEC. The SEC has been looking into the financial reporting practices of the company and its subsidiary, McCann-Erickson, since 2002. Basically, McCann gave their parent company tweaked financials to hide their accounting issues. After a three-month internal investigation, which uncovered accounting irregularities, centered on double-booking of revenue, at the agency's European operations, IPG got rid of Salvatore LaGreca, vice chairman and CFO of McCann. What a mess. His replacement, Arthur E. D'Angelo, began reporting straight to Interpublic rather than the CEO of McCann. Gotta watch the kids!

"While neither admitting nor denying the allegations brought by the SEC, Interpublic and McCann have agreed to an injunction against violating the applicable provisions of the federal securities laws, and McCann has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $12 million and disgorgement of one dollar."

As you well know, Universal McCann has lost the mega-Intel account and not a moment to soon if you ask us. Why they McCann Erickson didn't lose creative, too? They should have. Come on.. you MUST recall this little print debacle above, right? If not, go here.

I readily admit McCann is one of my least favorite agencies, like ever for their ability to squander amazing talent and play a game of follow the leader with Grey. Seriously... I think they want to be Grey. That's their aspiration. Sick, sick.

The $300 million dollar advertising and marketing account for Intel will go to OMD from here on out. Mr. Cantankerous, George Parker, said: "IPG will be sans Intel long before the year is out."

We well fucking hope so. Pardon the french.

McCann is trying to make their brand be hear. This time, they've used New York office head Nina DiSesa, who is also bumping up her profile these days, with a video talking about their recent Mastercard campaign. She goes on to speak about effective advertising and how important the brand is in the consumer's life. She also dabbles in the metrics, as well as why creatives are needed in this business and why user generated video won't take over from agency created content. Actually, she has a ton to say about creativity. Hmm... to bad McCann ain't so creative.

On a whim, we decided to check in on our best friend Nina DiSea, Chairman and chief creative officer McCann-Erickson. You remember her, right? She's the one who thinks that anonymous bloggers and those who post comments on them should all be shoved into hell. Nina is also the author of a book called "Seducing The Boys Club" that comes with an associated spiritless blog where, that's right! Anonymous comments like the ones on her post about Hillary Clinton (above) are piling up. Nope, nothing to do with blog, but it did make me chuckle.

What I missed was that the New York Times reviewed her book. That might be because Nina has yet to comment on the Times' gentle scrutiny. Let us fill you in, yeah? Nina's book was reviewed along side another title, “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business” by Christopher V. Flett . From the Times:

“Ms. DiSesa, the chairwoman of McCann Erickson New York, the ad agency, urges women to make up their own rules and to use tactics like flirting to woo colleagues and conquer rivals."

"-Christopher V. Flett, a Canadian-born entrepreneur, urges women to forgo flirting and take a much more straightforward approach."

"The two principal tactics advocated by Ms. DiSesa are seduction and manipulation. After bundling them together in a glib Madison Avenue abbreviation, she declares that, “All the men in our lives — the ones we work with or live with, admire or desire, and love or hate — are easier to control if we master the Art of S.& M.” Why would men fall for such tactics? “First of all, they love seduction,” she writes. “And second, they are oblivious to manipulation."

"Frankly, I found the ways in which Mr. Flett and Ms. DiSesa invoked persistent sexual stereotypes to be rather depressing. To my mind, the most illuminating comments in either book come from James Patterson, a former advertising mogul who now writes best-selling mystery fiction. Ms. DiSesa reports that Mr. Patterson urged her to think of life as a game in which we juggle five balls labeled Work, Family, Health, Friends and Integrity."

One of Nina's guidelines for women is: "Screw the rules. Make up your own." That should have been her book title and its entire contents. Girlfriend got sidetracked. Give me Shelly Lazarus any day, okay?

Ashton Kutcher, is to be the new face for Nikon's COOLPIX Style series cameras. The campaign will debut nationally on March 25th with a television commercial, which precedes the print advertisements and an interactive online component. The television campaign spots, directed by Brian Buckley, have Kutcher's COOLPIX camera being discretely taken and passed around by numerous adoring fans who take several pictures with it before slipping it back into Ashton's pocket.

McCann Erickson is Nikon's agency of record. You know, we liked McCann's campaign for Picturetown U.S.A., where the agency gave away high end, point and shoot cameras to a small town. The resulting ads and microsite were beautiful. Nice work. The problem with Picturetown? You didn't get much more than the picture and this is where McCann failed their client. It didn't breathe beyond it's flat frame. Yes, you could send a photo to a friend. Yawn.

Why couldn't you:

- Purchase a print of one of the photos with the proceeds going to this small town's fire department or the individual who took the photo? The first is a "do-good" angle, the second is an empowerment of consumer creativity. Overall, it would be a way for consumers to understand what Nikon had really done and own a piece of it: the brand captured moments of Americana and real life and beautifully, too.

- The photos could have been posted in other small towns tied to semacodes and created a nationwide hide and seek of sorts.

- The concept could have gotten amateur photographers in San Diego and those in Deluth of their towns and sent them to Nikon. Consumers would have to list what Nikon camera you used and some other details about the photograph much like the Lomographic Society. This would of created a consumer generated American art show.

- At the least, they could of repeated the project from US town to US town or from age bracket (1st graders) to age group (octogenarians).

- Oh! And why can't you buy the camera straight from the website? For fuck's sake!

Riddle us this: Why do so many campaigns stop short of being a larger movement, digging its fingers into the community and taking advantage of the legs that are beneath it? We don't understand.

Crispin has won Microsoft. We repeat. Crispin has won Microsoft. Pick your jaw up off the floor. You better recognize. The $300M brand (Pretty. Fucking. Sweet.) has selected the upstart, the rebel, the defy the odds and take prisoners agency of the day. They took JWT and McCann - two agencies that have been around the block and back. Fallon, the runner-up, has got to be shocked.

This is where you must sit back and consider. You've seen the Mac vs. PCs ads. Microsoft is a stalwart. A heavy machine that is the pillar of the economy, of the American way. This is no little brand. This isn't a burger chain looking to be hip. This is Microsoft. The software titan has bypassed the death stars, the agencies with all the resources and international locations, hundreds of workers to select Crispin. The game has changed and permanently. The Rebel Alliance has won.

Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman At the Top is a new memoir written by Nina DiSesa , chairman of McCann Erickson/New York. The book is half memoir, half guidebook for ladies in the industry. DiSesa began her career in the creative department at Young & Rubicam then bounced to McCann and then JWT/Chicago and finally, back to McCann. In 1999, Nina was chosen by Fortune magazine as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business." In 2005, she received the Matrix Award, given each year to a select group of women in communication. In 2007, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for CEBA (Creative Excellence in Business Advertising).

Her book covers these basic points:

- Learn to appreciate men. Men like women who like them.
- Remember that women are biologically wired to succeed.
- If you want to make a name for yourself, find a mess and fix it. A secure and comfortable job only holds you back.
- Don't assume that men never listen. They listen like a dog does.
- Don't be a quiet achiever.
- Act brave and you will look brave.
- Screw the rules. Make up your own.

And these basic warnings for women operating within a field of men:

1. We get drunk with power;


2. We stop reading the room;


3. We become real witches;


4. We take the reins and don't make rain; and


5. We forget that we have to be better than men.

"- for all DiSesa's talk about using the feminine ploys of seduction and manipulation to claw her way up the ladder, her life in advertising, in truth, reads more like the story of how she finally morphed into one of the males she was allegedly trying to seduce and manipulate. Among other things, DiSesa became adept at yelling (literally) to be heard, and at behaving, when necessary, like a cold-blooded political animal."

"Men listen like dogs, and hear only what they want. I found this controversial, but when she says we only hear what we want to hear, I know exactly what she means. Women, though look beyond the content and look at body language and tonality, and pick up on nuance. She has actually trained some of these alpha males to develop some of these superior qualities."

WE HEAR THAT... John Mcneil is no longer the ECD over at McCann San Franciso. We love his work on the XBOX spots (see below). McNeil joined the SF shop from Ogilvy & Mather, New York, where he was senior partner and creative director.

We called, got dumped onto the longest hold time ever. We sent an email. And now, we're waiting. By the way, the McCann SF website needs a total overall. It's nonsensical.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXiGOpzZapE&rel=1]

Remember when we harangued on and on about McCann's plan for Weight Watchers? While we like the positioning that tells women that dieting is bollocks, which kind of follows the Dove "Real Beauty" logic), the application strategy is pretty uncreative if you ask us. Here's the first broadcast spot for your review.

Although we live in New York City, we have zero intention of slogging through Times Square to see the latest addition to the billboard menagerie. Weight Watchers and Special K are launching electronic billboards tonight in the fight against fat.

The cereal maker is promoting its Special K Challenge, a diet program developed four years ago that includes a range of Special K products. From The New York Times:

"That's the biggest moment of self-evaluation of the year. We want to be part of the resolution," said Per Jacobson, a creative director at Leo Burnett in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Weight Watchers is pushing their “Stop Dieting. Start Living" slogan, which is the first effort from their new agency McCann Erickson New York.

Oh yes! Here comes the genius of McCann. Hold your hats kids. Lori Senecal, the head of McCann Erickson New York, said that the Weight Watchers system is "a natural fit for the modern dieter. But, she said, the brand needed some updating."

True. True. So, whatcha going to do McCann? Oh right! Lean on YouTube and user generated content, but of course! There's also a MySpace page and YouTube video of old dieting gimmicks. The creativity just runs wild at McCann. Wild we tell you!

"The company will be soliciting user-generated content. Through Jan. 25, people will be able to send stories to the Weight Watchers Web site about the strangest or craziest diets they have tried. Some will be chosen to appear on the billboard in Times Square."

Joyce King Thomas, chief creative officer of McCann Erickson New York, had a good thought when she said that these outlets could be a modern take on the classic Weight Watchers group meeting.

However, um... why is it that McCann, again, fails to go the extra mile? Remember the Applebee's campaign? Another perfect example. It's like, what - you guys can't think beyond YouTube?

There are eight million diet based social networking sites out there. Why not tap directly into these established bases?

Or consider that women have long seen their phones as a tool for expression and social communication. Plus, a fairly new Pew research study makes it clear how connected we all our to the darn things. So... why not pull in mobile and really connect users to Weight Watchers (through upbeat messaging about the weight goals, connecting the consumers to one another a la Twitter, etc.).

Ugh. There's so much more they could be doing, but we're going to stop here. If you guys have your own feedback, thoughts, ideas, you know the drill - email us at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com or use the anon tip box and we'll post.

We miss you guys.

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COMMENTS:

Comment #1:

Leo Burnett Chicago has for years bought billboard space to put up ads that their clients wouldn't pay for, but would let them run. Did this for both the Army account when they had it and for McDonalds. Y&R Chicago also is known for buying space in odd, cheap magazines to run the fake ads they do. Both Burnett and Y&R have won major awards with the fake stuff they've done.