News

-Hyundai tapped Havas' MPG to handle its estimated $300 million international media planning/buying account. link

-Google advertising Droid on its homepage. link

-Agency folks do the darndest things. link

-New Zealand lets Kiwis have their say. link

-Apple will open its Upper West Side NYC store on November 14th. link

-Lookee, R/GA has a new website. link

-A federal judge in Kentucky basically said fuck you to Big Tobacco's request to block new marketing restrictions. link

-DraftFCB launched a cross-network philanthropic event today called "The Global Day of Giving". link

-When is it OK to start your holiday ad campaign? link

-NBC taps social networks to promote the 2010 Winter Olympics. link

-Marketers still believe in banner ads. link

-Arby's invades Hipsterville. link

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"

-Tribal DDB creatives Dave Johnson and Jason Pickar engage in a 'stache battle to help fight pediatric cancer. link

-Firstborn welcomed FL2 alum Kristin Keefe as a senior producer, added Nikki Defeo as creative copywriter and promoted Crystinue Cho to EP. link

-Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago hired Fallon/Goodby alum John Nussbaum as ACD. link

-MySpace's $900 million search ad deal with Google is at risk. link

-The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing a "secret" show tomorrow to help Verizon launch the Droid. link

-Apple's App store hits the 100,000 mark. link

-Pizza Hut's generated $1 million in sales from its iPhone app. link

-Rio de Janeiro firm Espaco/Z gives local subway riders a little end-of-the-world fever. link

-Vivendi's in no rush to sell its 20% stake in NBC Universal; Comcast keeps quiet. link

-Our fave toys are becoming live-action gold. link

More: "Wednesday Odds and Ends"

-An update from today's Chrysler telethon: the Dodge Viper will die again and be replaced by an all-new sports car in 2012 using Fiat parts for internal organs. link

-Chrysler update #2: The company promises better quality at launch, adds 200 engineers. link

-180 LA promoted Amir Farhang to creative director of digital and innovation. link

-Kolle Rebbe in Hamburg unveiled the frisky ad above for KY. link

-Charges have been dropped in NYC against the G20 "Twitterists". link

-Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs. link

-AOL ad revenue continues to slide. link

-Seniors yell "Don't Cut Medicare!" at Congress in a national TV ad. link

-Dr. Mehmet Oz will be accepting an Honorary CLIO at the CLIO Healthcare Awards on November 13th. link

-Vaseline, ESPN and BBH want men to love lotion, too. link

-TechCrunch bans Microsoft PR "forever" for blowing an embargo about the MSN.com redesign. link

More: "Tuesday Odds and Ends"

-Kellogg's dumps JWT for Leo Burnett. link

-Wisk laundry detergent now has a Facebook app. link

-Cookie Jar Entertainment launched a Hulu-like site for kids. link

-Kelly Fuller and Justin Bayett, formally of Stimmung and MJZ respectively, launched LA-based music/sound design company Barking Owl. link

-Dentsu, Japan's largest ad agency, is looking to expand its base. link

-New Jersey GOP candidate Chris Christie is using behavioral targeting to reach voters. link

-Gawker TV makes its debut. link

-Bob Marley's heirs have hired a Canadian firm to help protect their trademark rights to the Marley brand. link

-A Wiccan employee files a sexual/religious discrimination suit against Google. link

-A YouTube vid helps an unfortunate car owner get a free Hyundai in Canada. link

More: "Monday Odds and Ends"

Prodigious Worldwide is Digitas' stand-alone production unit. Built up in 2007, the company serves Saatchi & Saatchi, Arc, Publicis, Leo Burnett and of course, Digitas. About a year ago Prodigious lost a chunk of GM production — a loss that due to the business cycle and GM's bankruptcy — is only taking effect now.

So, if it happened a year ago, who cares? We're told the teams only found out last week. Also, what could be billed as a Prodigious loss is technically a Digitas blow as well — though the agency retains digital AOR status, service & parts, in-market digital marketing, fleet and commercial, gm.com, CRM and some incentive deal duties for GM brands Buick, GMC and OnStar. What was lost then, is production for those pieces of business.

Production for Saturn and Pontiac just disappeared with the brands, so nothing "lost" there — just gone.

Where did Prodigious' work go? MRM — a move that AdWeek gave a C+ in their Emerging Media Digital Agency Report Cards 2008, noting "MRM's efforts in social media can be schizophrenic." Apparently, MRM's contract is for US-digital production only, on the four remaining GM US brands — GMC, Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac. The tie in to social media there seems off.

Presumably, Digitas still considers GM a top tier client and will try to fill in the gap. But how? With rumors that the client could leave all together, and that McCann Detroit's grip maybe slipping (yeah, we've heard that too), it's not fair to assume the business is all heading in McCann's direction.

In fact, we're told that MRM is still going over pricing for this production work. That might mean that the transition was not born from a lower cost structure at MRM as AdWeek suggests, but something else. Take the rumor that Cadillac could land in McCann's hands, for example. The agency tells us it's not yet in the bag, though the shop has been pulling all nighters to get ready. Some within the shop feel that the only reason they've been allowed to pitch has to do with Cadillac's marketing and advertising director Steve Shannon's ties to McCann Detroit CEO Garry Neel. The two are reportedly long time friends.

What that means for Saab is yet to be seen, but "they would probably have to resign that account since Saab is being sold," says another source. There's also GM Planworks and GM Reputational to be sorted out.

Though the win is a year old, it could play an important role when GM chooses brand assignments.

More: "GM's Bob Lutz Promises/Threatens Radical Marketing Makeover"

There's a lengthy piece in the New York Times about digital video recorders like TiVo, and the units you can rent from your cable provider. The scope is basically that the devices may not be hurting programs as much as was once believed — in fact, folks may just be watching those ads and "forgetting" to fast forward through them. Other interesting hypotheses regarding the uptick: commercials are being made "better". Right.

So the debate about DVRs is that people don't watch commercials because when they've recorded a show, they can simply skip over them. The fear that sprang up then, and still exists today: people will never watch commercials again followed by implosion. Well, that's not happening, exactly:

— "The reason is not simply that more households own DVRs — 33 percent compared with 28 percent at this point in 2008 — helping some marginal shows become hits. It is also that more people seem content to sit through the commercials than networks once thought."

— "Individual shows have gained substantially."

— "Almost across the board, the gains for playback are growing."

It goes on like this, using anecdotal hypotheses and some data showing that — in the least — people sometimes don't fast forward through ads. What's interesting is that the article basically states that everything is fine with regards to DVRs, and a smaller-than-assumed chunk of dough has been lost.

What's amazing is that TV ad space sales-folk will now use information like this to sell space to your clients, and you'll let them, even though things like this are said without even trying to hide: "The most basic reason, according to Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, a media buying firm, is that the behavior that has underpinned television since its invention still persists to a larger degree than expected.

"'It's still a passive activity,' he said."

So TV viewers still like to get up and go to the bathroom during commercials. The TV plays on while they drain, or get some soda. Who knows what's happening, really, most definitely a confluence of things. There's a psychological aspect to TV viewing that should probably be mentioned, based in the fact that most "watching" is a guilty pleasure that takes away from other activities. Watching something live bumps the guilty pleasure up a notch or two on the priority list, because you don't want to miss it. So, when the same show is recorded, the only way to make it feel "live" and therefore OK to watch instead of doing laundry/taxes/whatever, is to let it play.

Seem nuanced? It is, because it's only one observation about how we watch. And that's what gets me — you can't track why people do what they do, and maybe they don't even know how they rationalize their habits. Nonetheless, brands spend tons on ad space based on assumptions that don't come close to covering the field, meaning there's a gap between perception and reality so broad that "commercials" really shouldn't exist as we know them. Lucky for the business, there's enough alcohol and account executives to sell 30 seconds spots from here until David Ogilvy rises from the dead.

More: "Must Sue TV: NBC Accused of Font Filching"

-Microsoft's commercial director Chris Ward has left the company after 13 years. link

-Speaking of the Redmond, WA giant, the company picked The Martin Agency and Collins Design as AOR for its new stores. link

-Right Guard opts for smell-o-vision. link

-Amazon closes its Zappos deal and winds up paying $1.2 billion. link

-Business Insider conducts an interview with WebMediaBrands boss Alan Meckler. link

-The ALS Association picked Omnicom's Grizzard Communications Group as its AOR. link

-The Susan G. Komen Foundation knows how to brand in the NFL. link

-Everything Terminator, from the merch to the films themselves, will be put up on the auction block this month. link

-The IAB is lobbying against a proposal to expand the FTC's power. link

-Music pirates also happen to be the biggest music spenders. link

-Will the web run out of addresses by 2010? link

More: "Friday Odds and Ends"

-Axe now sponsors NYC street musicians. link

-Razorfish appointed Barbara Ward Thall as MD, Media and Marketing, Domenic Venuto as MD, Client Solutions and Missy Foristall as MD, Experience and Platforms in its flagship NYC office. link

-Hill & Knowlton was selected as the official media sponsor for the UN Conference on Climate Change. link

-DDB Sydney snagged Publicis Mojo alums Steve Wakelam and Grant McAloon for group creative head roles. link

-Brooklyn-based interactive agency Huge named Initiative alum Tom Siebert as director of communications, while Tessa Barrera was named media strategist. link

-Yahoo and Microsoft missed their Oct. 27th deal deadline. link

-WPP's Mediaedge:cia won Agency of the Year honors at the Media Week Awards. link

-Billy Mays tops the list of brand spokesman costumes for Halloween. Chris Farley apparently wasn't in the running. link

-What are the 50 hottest brands on Twitter? link

-Lexus will sponsor in-flight WiFi on American Airlines during the first week of November. link

-Happy Halloween, folks!

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"

The ad industry lives and dies by golden pencils, upholding the merits of an organization that tells you who is and who isn't worthy of greatness. This week, the One Club let go of Julius Dunn II, who moved to New York to run Adversity, the One Club's get-diverse-creatives-in-the-biz initiative — a move that will set the club back as a leader in that area.

Dunn, who was not immediately available for comment, just celebrated the end of his organization's first year as a partner with the One Club (he started and owns Adversity — which seeks to bring creative talent of diverse backgrounds into the business). The party was hosted at JWT, where that agency's diversity leader Singleton Beato sang Dunn's praises before a crowd of 200 plus advertising pros and diversity leaders. Our own Kiran Aditham was there, too.

The news came earlier this week, and already the One Club has pulled down a blog and information pages tied to Adversity. Adversity-oneclub.org now points to the organization's education page. The effects of this move have already been felt by top industry creatives. Kash Sree, ECD at Pereira & O'Dell said "I thought that the adversity program was making huge strides in the right direction. Showing many people who had no idea what the business is about or how to get some accessibility to it. Julius was working tirelessly and selflessly towards that."

To clarify, One Club CEO Mary Warlick informs AgencySpy that the program is not going away, but the partnership with Adversity is ending, "because of financial reasons." Two support staff in the New York office were also let go, as was a full time staffer in the China office.

Adversity, which was founded by Dunn and two Creative Circus colleagues, has been successful in gaining industry recognition. Initiatives include educating youth about the business (after an event headed by Dunn applications to the Creative Circus in Atlanta went up by 200%), speaker and video series, columns on AdAge, seminars, panels, and discussions on career options. Howard University, the National Urban League, Nike brand Jordan, Best Buy, Deutsch, JWT, Omnicom, R/GA and many others had been working with Dunn to strengthen the cause.

Dunn also helped the One Club create a new award, The One Club|ADCOLOR Creative Award (a black pencil), which was presented for the first time to TBWA GCD Jimmy Smith at this year's AdColor awards. The award was meant to highlight creative talent specifically of diverse background for their efforts over the last year — and give it the One Club pencil cachet so the rest of the industry would respect it.

"This is all because of JD's determination and humility in serving as a conduit for change," said Omnicom's Chief Diversity Officer, Tiffany Warren. "His work will continue no matter where he is and I hope the industry continues to support his very important mission."

Warlick reiterated the non-profit's devotion to diversity initiatives, which will include career days, boot camps and continued support of agencies involved in similar efforts. But the organization's internal structure isn't reflective of their beliefs: of the 16 members of their directorial board, only one isn't caucasian — José Mollá of la comunidad. No African Americans, Asians et al, represent the industry.

Even worse may be the fact that there hasn't been an African American judge in the One Show for 15 years or that there isn't one single African American in their hall of fame.

The One Club's mission is "to champion and promote excellence in advertising and design in all its forms," an effort Warlick says is represented (most recently) by the feature length documentary "Art & Copy." Though she would not divulge how much the production cost, "we won't break even," she admitted, adding, "we don't break even on the show, either." We've heard the film cost upwards of $1 million — money that went to "reinforce our mission", said Warlick. Meanwhile, Dunn has packed his things and moved out.

A quick perusal of the cast list reinforces the need for people like Dunn: Lee Clow, Dan Wieden, David Kennedy , Phyllis K. Robinson, Hal Riney, George Lois, Rich Silverstein, Jeff Goodby, Mary Wells, Cliff Freeman and Jim Durfee. The One Club isn't to be blamed for excluding anyone, per se — but as an industry it might be time to put aside million dollar movies about the art of advertising (however beautiful they may be) and focus on ensuring that the people who do this work are representative of the country we live in. And that's something you can bring to the party.

(note: we initially published this story at 12:00 p.m. EST, and it was up for about 30 seconds when we received an email from Mark Warlick. Prior to that, the story was written without her comments, so we pulled it down to ensure the One Club's side was reflected. We apologize for any concerns this may have caused.)

Update: It's come to our attention that we missed a number of Dunn's accomplishments. Perspectives Interview Series, Morehouse Marketing Symposium, One Club–Adversity Industry Introduction, Creative Diversity for the Atlanta University Center, JWT Multi-Cultural Mixer: Creative Week NYC, Members Only Party: Creative Week NYC, One Club-Adversity Industry Introduction: Creative Week NYC, Empowerment by Design w/ Nike (Jordan) for National Urban League annual youth conference, Kingsborough College Career Expo, and the list goes on. Needless to say, Dunn was busy.

More: "Julius Dunn Doesn't Mince Words On The Future Of The Biz"

-Twitter revises its privacy policy again. link

-Top-ranked tennis pro Roger Federer becomes global brand ambassador for chocolate company Lindt. link

-While we're in the Halloween mood, anyone for zombie pinups? link

-BBH and Talenthouse are sourcing artists for a global campaign on behalf of a personal safety alarm product for women called iDusk. link

-The WSJ's Digits blog kinda sorta reveals the creators of that now-famous anti-Droid ad. link

-MDC Partners is reporting strong Q3 results. link

-Colin Kinsella, currently the chief innovation officer at Razorfish, will take over as Digitas' North American president effective January 1. link

-Fox will promote James Cameron's Avatar to sports fans. link

-Video search engine firm Blinkx signed a deal to secure ad spend. link

-Hill Holiday explains its redesigned website. link

-Can Fiat cars save Chrysler? link

More: "Wednesday Odds and Ends"