News

Deutsch NY promoted Stephen Murphy to executive VP, customer and data strategy and a host of others. link

Brent Smart was named EVP/MD of BBDO West. link

-Twitter reaches out to its premium accounts. link

-Luxury brands are embracing the web. link

-YouTube adds auto-captioning. link

-The ad industry added 800 jobs in September. Phew. link

-Conde Nast unveiled an initiative to build digital mags. link

-Digital firm Tribal Fusion welcomed former Yahoo! Europe Head of Ad Product Strategy, Tim Brown, as European General Manager.

-Digital media predictions for 2010. link

-You want your Black Friday list? You got it. link

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"

-Saatchi & Saatchi NY named AOR for Mead Johnson in the U.S. link

-Leo Burnett will offer pro bono agency services to small business owners who win "The Leos". link

-My big thrashed Greek wedding comes courtesy of Heineken. link

-Digitas puts Ellen DeGeneres in a GMC Terrain. link

-Fox unleashes a branding bonanza for Avatar. link

-Google proposes FDA-friendly online pharma ads. link

-AT&T, BK and Volvo are all buying into New Moon mania. link

-Intel kicks off a digital e-card holiday campaign. link

-Question mark suit guy Matthew Lesko starts an anti-advertising campaign. link

-Seatvertising commences. link

-NYC & Company launched a "hyperlocal, fully experiential holiday campaign. link

More: "Wednesday Odds and Ends"

AT&T lost its first legal argument against Verizon Wireless, a blow that was only made worse when juxtaposed with their first rebuttal advertisement — an ad that more or less falls flat compared to Verizon's campaign.

Hoping to get Verizon's ads stricken from the airwaves, AT&T filed a restraining order — but an Atlanta judge turned down the request. It's just the first step in AT&T's legal battle, which hopes to prove that Verizon caused irreparable damage with ads claiming that AT&T's 3G network is lacking.

AT&T doesn't refute those claims, rather states that their competitor has confused consumers into thinking the 3G map shown represents the slower EDGE or GPR networks, which are used for basic services like calls and texts. Verizon has since modified the spots to clarify they're referring to 3G.

Maybe the most poignant move on Verizon's part came in their legal rebuttal, a 53-page document, stating AT&T is suing "because it doesn't want to face the truth about its network," reports CNET.

In what appears to be an attempt to counter Verizon's "There's a Map for That" campaign, AT&T has produced its own spot using actor Luke Wilson. A chubby-faced Wilson stands in front of a chalk board containing a checklist of features available to AT&T customers. He then asks which provider (AT&T or Verizon) has a certain feature, and puts an "X" next to the "better" company. Unsurprisingly, Verizon's only win is for "Name that starts with letter v."

"Hey, they got one," says Wilson. Here's what you get with AT&T:

1. "Nation's fastest 3G network"

2. "Talk and Surf at the same time"

3. "Access to over 100,000 apps"

Well Verizon's ads take care of number 1, since being fastest doesn't help when service is spotty. The second claim is easily defeated: think about the last time you spoke on the phone and surfed the Web — handy at times, but ultimately it's hard to pay attention to both at once. Also, the iPhone can't run multiple applications at once, a feature users seem to find more appealing. And who has the time to look through 100,000 apps?

That this is all AT&T could muster indicates the provider was not ready for such an attack, despite the fact that a major qualm among iPhone customers is the provider's 3G network (and has been for years). They've had more than enough time to both beef up their network, an effort that has likely been hampered by the high costs associated with the iPhone. For example, AT&T pays Apple not only for exclusive rights to the device but also every time a new customer buys one. Meanwhile Verizon has strengthened its 3G network while awaiting a competitive smart phone. And now they have three: HTC's Droid Eris, HTC's Imagio and Motorola's Droid.

More: "AT&T to Verizon: 'There's a Lawsuit for That'"

-Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore alum Nathan Hackstock joined Sapient Interactive as West Coast creative director. link

-Omnicom cleaned up at the Digital Media Awards. link

-Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness didn't do too shabby either at the Clio Healthcare fete. link

-Toshiba sends a chair into space and gets it all on tape. link

-W+K and Target will launch a Black Friday sale campaign tomorrow. link

-The MITX Interactive Awards winners were announced last night in Boston. link

-Despite positive reviews, DJ Hero is being considered a flop. link

-The U.S. Army's online game has been an effective recruitment method. link

-JPMorgan Chase launched a $5M charity giveaway through Facebook. link

-A Harvard business grad posits the "illusion of brand control." link

More: "Tuesday Odds and Ends"

1. BBDO Detroit to Close Doors on Jan. 29th

2. Doner CCO's Wife Causes a Stir on Howard Stern

3. Blind Item: Stranded in L.A.

4. Jersey Shore Eaten by Jumping Shark

5. Joe Shands Left Chiat to Start His Own Agency: Vendor

6. BBH Art Director Opts for Farewell Slideshow

7. Colbert Takes on Miracle Whip Campaign

-Cramer-Krasselt won the global Crocs business. link

-Barbarian Group denies it was sold for $10 million to South Korean network Cheil Worldwide. link

-Michael Walrath, who sold his ad exchange Right Media to Yahoo for $680M in 2007, has left his SVP of ad strategy post at the latter company. link

-Coke unveiled a unified look for all its juice brands. link

-Tim Burton is being honored at the MoMA. link

-Walmart's Black Friday ad leaked. link

-Joseph Jaffe rants about A-listers, talks two "great" crowdsourcing projects. link

-Total ad pages for monthly consumer magazines slipped 13.4% in December. link

-AOL moves audience research unit to ad division. link

-Google's Admob launched an interactive video format for iPhone ads. link

More: "Monday Odds and Ends"

-Is Apple prepping an ad-supported OS? Quite possibly. link

-Gary Ginsberg, News Corp's EVP of Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs, is stepping down at year's end. link

-A special level of Call of Duty 2 gets unlocked. link

-Research firm Millward Brown unveiled a celebrity/brand compatibility solution. link

-Chicago-based agency Hoffman York was named AOR for the Museum of Science and Industry. link

-The IAB released a 2009 update to ad unit guidelines. link

-Marketing duo Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum launched a new ad campaign for ReadtoVote.org that includes wild postings. link

-Nationwide Insurance entices Ohio State football fans with a web effort. link

-MDC agency Adrenalina launched a new multicultural-themed microsite. link

-An Aussie business class taxi driver was chided for advertising. link

-JWT India will handle TV/radio creative duties while Crayons will take on print/outdoor for the Congressional elections in the state of Jharkhand. link

More: "Friday Odds and Ends"

Working on your next big out-of-foors advertisement campaign launches? Try inflatable innovation machine device object (recently upgraded): ARMZ, or as this press release headline says "Innovative Outdoor Advertising Medium Transforms Static Inflatables to Moving Inflatables."

"SkyDancers International Inc., the technology leader in inflatable advertising today announced a major breakthrough with its introduction of an industry first, ArmZ, moving arms for static inflatables."

Thank peaches, we'd been waiting for this advancement for years and seconds. And then (emphasis ours), "But until now, never the twain has met, that is, static inflatables remained static and the moving inflatables remained moving, but what if the static, non-moving inflatables started moving? What then? Would it be the making of a sci-fi movie? Would the inflatable Godzillas start crushing cars and breathing fire?"

ZOMG, zoinks, even. Could the world itself explode, ceasing to be due to the extreme awe? "Not quite" said some guy familiar with this product.

More: "CK Ads Continue to Shock Sensitive SoHo Residents"

continued...

It's been a contentious week for News Corp head Rupert Murduch after remarks given to Australia's Sky News spread across the globe. Now, the company's chief digital officer Jonathan Miller has provided a loose end date for News Corp's relationship with Google.

In "months and quarters — not weeks" Miller says the two will have split. Though when pressed on the subject during a quarterly report call, Murdoch feigned responding directly, noting, it's something "we are all working very hard."

Mashable via Telegraph

-Microsoft selling Razorfish was probably good for Microsoft. link

-The Redmond, WA giant also unveiled new branding opportunities via Windows 7. link

-W+K London thinks this might be the best ad ever. link

-Elevator Safety Week isn't complete without a dancing, rapping cat. link

-Draftfcb New York's EVP of CRM Michael Brzozowski discusses online tracking and the importance of transparency. link

-Ad pages are dropping in Conde Nast pubs. link

-So is consumer sentiment it seems. link

-Burberry gives social networking a go. link

-LeBron James wants to surrender #23 and give fans a new overpriced jersey to buy. link

-Hyundai is prepping a Super Bowl ad blitz. link

More: "Thursday Odds and Ends"