-Blind Item: SF Management Supervisor Crowdsourcing Love

-Jason Sudeikis Confuses American Football with Soccer for NBC Sports

-Ogilvy Cuts More Staff in Chicago

-Mark Taylor Leaves CP+B…Again

-McGarryBowen Parts Ways with ECD, CFO

-Coca-Cola Makes Personalized Billboards with Geofence Technology

-Mackler, TBWA C\D NY Part Ways

As you may recall, a few weeks ago, the Publicis Groupe agency now known as DigitasLBi unveiled a new logo complete with a unicorn (see Vine intro clip below). Despite a few folks scratching their heads about it, DigitasLBi apparently remains undeterred in celebrating their new magical, mystical mascot as you can see above. The image was posted on Facebook earlier this week and features DigitasLBi North America CEO Tony Weisman and, yes, a pony dolled up as a unicorn. You can just feel the enthusiasm though none more so than from the guy dressed like a conductor standing behind them. Where was our invite? Anyways, happy Friday!

This column has been pinballing around my head for the past few months. I’m curious about hashtags. I’m under the impression that although everyone knows what a hashtag looks like, not many people pay attention to Twitter statistics beyond Follower counts. And now that every commercial – online or televised – comes with a hashtag, many of which seem perfunctory, I want to make an inexact science a bit more exact by evaluating basic Internet data and applying it to our coverage for the previous week.

Twitter clearly has value. Celebrities of varying degrees get paid silly amounts of money for sponsored tweets (sidebar: did you know that Melissa Joan Hart makes $9,100 for some of her tweets? That’s more obnoxious than silly). With money and brand equity to be had in the Twitter economy, every company can now slap a hashtag onto a visual ad and pretend to know what it’s doing. Remember when Newsweek ran with #MuslimRage? Or McDonald’s unintentionally eviscerating itself with #McDStories? Twitter can be tricky for the lazy and oblivious.

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-President/creative director Rick Colby and CEO Andrew Orci have officially launched Santa Monica-based shop COR, which we’ve been told is “dedicated to serving the new general market.” Oh yeah, COR, which works with brands including Sutter Home and Cox Cable, will also be appearing on this season of AMC’s The Pitch. link

-Arnoldnyc has unveiled the first national TV spot for “personal genetics” company, 23andMe (above).

-A VentureBeat writer wonders what’s wrong with mobile ads. link

-Victors & Spoils CEO John Winsor tells us why agencies are to blame for deferred payments.

-Facebook is proceeding with caution when it comes video ads because Mark Zuckerberg apparently doesn’t want to annoy the social network’s one-billion-plus members. link

-Two months after taking over lead creative duties on Cadillac, Boston-based IPG agency Hill Holliday has found a new chief strategy officer in Graham Ritchie, who heads to the States after serving as managing partner of Publicis Mojo, Australia and New Zealand.

-TBWA\Chiat\Day LA has appointed Peter Ravailhe as managing director of its Gatorade account.

-Fresh fruit arrangement specialist Edible Arrangements has appointed The Richards Group and Horizon Media as its creative and media AOR, respectively.

-Canadian-based Scotiabank has enlisted a variety of odd characters to support its 2013 AIDS Walk for Life, which will take place Sept. 14-22 (above). link

-Whitehouse Post has welcomed editor/Spot Welders alum Lucas Spaulding to its Los Angeles office.

-YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are back with a new, free mobile app called MixBit. link

It looks like our tipsters from up north were on to something as sources familiar with the matter confirm that the relationship between Union and Tourism Toronto “has come to a close.” Union of course is the Toronto-based, MDC-backed agency that was formerly known as CP+B Toronto. The now-defunct latter agency’s relationship with Tourism Toronto dates back to 2010 and subsequently resulted in campaigns such as the holiday-themed “Torontoland.”

Those on the Spy line tell us that Tourism Toronto remained one of Union’s biggest accounts, though, as perhaps the tell-tale sign, the brand no longer appears on the agency’s client list, which currently includes notable names such as Best Buy, Kraft and Pfizer. From what sources tell us, Tourism Toronto isn’t going to replace Union as of now, but we’ll let you know if we hear more.

Well, as you may have heard, Darren Moran has officially joined Havas Worldwide’s New York office as its new chief creative officer. Once again, we’ve obtained a memo (confirmed legit), this time sent from Havas global president Andrew Benett (who also doubles as NY CEO) to staff just a couple of hours ago regarding Moran’s arrival. The newly minted CCO most recently spent his second tour of duty at BBDO New York, which he rejoined just last fall as executive creative director. During his career, the creative exec also served as EVP/chief creative officer at Draftfcb NY.

Anyhow, feel free to check out Benett’s memo, which also mentions a few other key leadership notes, in full after the jump.

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You’ve never seen an episode of the fictional figurine drama “The Real Soccer Moms of Datalandia,” but you’ve probably seen a show just like it. And for anyone who has encountered the frustration of a malfunctioning TV signal or a storm-induced blackout, missing that crucial moment in whatever show you’re watching can make you want to punch your monitor until it breaks (side note: if you have Time Warner Cable, this process happens daily). Though we watch the shows, we, as consumers, don’t really pay attention to how the sausage gets made, that is: how the wires and signals connect to make sure that our real soccer moms stay on the screen.

For the past few weeks, General Electric and Mekanism have been using a series of online videos to explain this process to consumers. The newest spot, “Stormageddon,” is shown above. I’m not sure if consumers care much for big data explanations. They’d rather watch bad reality shows where women frequently toss glasses of pinot grigio on each other. Thinking about how General Electric makes the sausage feels a little like they are patting themselves on the back as their bank account gets smaller. If I liked sausage, I’d rather just eat it. Check out a second clip after the jump.

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We’ve received confirmation that Lange Taylor, who’s spent the last nine years at what is now DigitasLBi, serving as SVP/managing director of the Atlanta office for the last three, has resigned from the agency–and apparently the ad world altogether. Here’s a quick statement from a spokesperson that somewhat clarifies things: “Lange Taylor has decided to explore professional opportunities outside of DigitasLBi. While it is possible that Lange may reunite with agencyland in the future, whatever direction his passion brings him, we wish him our collective best.”

No word yet on his next venture or who’ll take over his duties in the interim as of yet. If you recall, Taylor’s role changed somewhat last fall when he was tapped to head up a new, Atlanta-based Publicis Groupe unit called Agency:D7, which we’ve been told is still in operation. We’ll hopefully find out who’s taking over on his dual roles soon enough.

Where art thou, David Caruso? The subhead of the announce about this reads, “DDB Canada launches arresting campaign for the Vancouver Police Foundation” and somewhere a PR intern is smiling with self-satisfaction. Initially, the Vancouver Police Foundation approached DDB for a print ad that they could distribute in local newspapers with 1950s flair. Thankfully the agency got back to them and said something along the lines of, “Today we use computers.” Thus DDB Canada’s hometown office created a social media campaign around police sunglasses, wherein community members can purchase the glasses and, if they snap a photo of themselves and share it with the hashtag #VPDPartners, win a Ride-Along experience. The Department’s website will feature the photos from the contest.

Two 30-second spots advertise the sunglasses, with the best one featuring a large man skidding on the hood of a car. We watch him, like a beached whale, for a little too long until the tagline arrives: “Wearing the sunglasses supports the cops. It doesn’t make you one.” It’s cute, and shows why we need advertising agencies. Otherwise, these spots would have been 6×9 Ariel-font jokes in the back of the Vancouver Sun.

“In the short term, the goal of the campaign is simply to raise awareness for the Vancouver Police Foundation and show support for the VPD by wearing the sunglasses,” says Martina Meckova, executive director of the Vancouver Police Foundation. “Our long term objective is to increase the membership of the Foundation and broaden the support base, so that more people in Vancouver can benefit from the work that we do in the community.” Second spot after the jump.

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