One of the oldest agencies in America, Young & Rubicam turns a whopping 90 years old tomorrow, and they’re throwing a party.

Now, a 90th trip around the sun can’t be taken lightly. I mean think of all the thousands of people whose hard work kept Y&R going through the Great Depression, World War II, and a third event of equal or greater importance! So, as any great agency in a similar position would, Y&R is celebrating nine decades with a hashtag, #advertisingis. It’s a pretty big deal.

Those who tweet their opinion about what #advertisingis (Bread? Love? Incest? Spite?) tomorrow between the hours of 2-3:30 pm ET will see their tweets appear on a large interactive digital billboard in Times Square. It’s supposed to be a big billboard, probably almost as big as the giant American Eagle billboard, but not quite. Still, pretty big one would assume. Add your Twitter avatar to Y&R’s birthday mosaic, and watch the hashtag event of tomorrow live here.

We’ve received confirmation that Joe Caruso, who’s spent nearly 20 years at Doner and has most recently served as the MDC-owned agency’s EVP/director of integrated production, is leaving. When asked for comment, the Doner camp has told us that details on when is last day is and/or the agency’s plans for his replacement are being kept “confidential” for now. Sorry, kids. Caruso was elevated to his most recent position three years ago and prior to that, spent well over a decade serving as SVP/director of Doner’s integrated studios unit. That’s what we got for now, but we’ll keep you posted if and when we hear more.

While you’re battling Wednesday workdays at the office, Geico has a new addition to their “Happier Than” campaign that gives a literal visual representation to Hump Day. Yes, a camel, with humps. The camel’s coworkers don’t look thrilled with their humped friend running through channels of cubicles and interrupting their productivity. Wednesdays should be a time of cautious optimism – by the end of the day, a majority of the week will be finished – but these guys look like they just got demoted.

The Hump Day spot – created by the insurance brand’s longtime ally The Martin Agency – won’t be going up on the Mount Rushmore of  ”Happier Than” ads. That space is reserved for Dikembe Mutombo‘s supermarket exploits and Eddie Money’s entrepreneurial skills, commercials that dealt with clever concepts that riffed on pop culture. “Hump Day” is more of a cheesy pun dragging itself over 30 seconds of airtime. Re-strum the banjo, there’s always next time. A ridiculously long credit list awaits after the jump.

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Meet Deadpool, a Marvel supervillain-turned-superhero who comic book fanatics regard as “awesome” and non-comic fans refer to as “who?” Deadpool came into existence during the early 90s, a time when a collector-driven mentality molded the industry into what some regard as the “Style Era.” With sales at an all-time high, comic books publishers made an effort to churn out as many different characters as they could, focusing more on pizazz (elaborate costumes, big muscles, and huge breasts) than actual storytelling. Many now regard the early 90s as a low-point for the industry, a time when publishers bankrupted themselves both morally and financially to put whatever they could on the shelves in the flashiest packaging possible only to have demand nosedive.

However, a few characters from this era didn’t get swift deaths when the industry adopted a back-to-basics approach to storytelling in the early 2000s. Among them is Spider-man’s black-suited monstrous nemesis Venom, who has a ridiculous backstory but looks too cool to dislike. Another is Deadpool, originally an X-Men villain whose Peter Parker-esque sarcastic, quippy persona endeared him to fans who enjoy honest-to-God humor in their superheroes’ repertoire.

In fact, the above trailer from Ignited alums and Activision for Deadpool: The Game actually hits the character’s personality right on the nose, even if his whole backstory of looking for a job at Marvel HQ makes abso-fucking-lutely no sense in context. Why would Deadpool look for a job at Marvel? It isn’t explained at all during this trailer’s 2-minute runtime, nor is it hinted at during the character’s public appearance at Comic Con. Either way there’s a Deadpool video game coming out in June, so fans are probably almost as stoked as they were when Ryan Reynolds played the character in 2009′s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Have fun, you guys!

Well, we tried to put two and two together when we reported last week about DJ Pierce resigning from his position as executive creative director on the BMW account at KBS+. But alas, we unfortunately failed to mention what the status was with his partner-in-crime and fellow ECD on BMW, Michael Craven, who joined up with Pierce 15 months ago to work on the account. We’ve now received confirmation that Pierce and Craven actually resigned together, though no word yet on what either person’s next move is yet (we’re checking). Prior to KBS+, Craven served as a VP/creative director at CP+B and has also published a couple of novels along the way.

As has been reported, the pair was essentially replaced at KBS+ by Paul Renner, who has taken over as ECD on said automaker’s account.

-Ewen Sturgeon will take on the expanded role of chief exec of DigitasLBi International. link

-TPN Chicago and prodco Octane take square aim at AT&T’s “More is Better/It’s Not Complicated” campaign in a new spot for Cricket Wireless (above).

-Former Intel social media strategist Ekaterina Walter has joined marketing firm Branderati as partner/chief marketing officer.

-Entertainment-focused digital marketing agency Think Jam has appointed Jackie Turnure as VP of its L.A. office.

-Culver City, CA/Vancouver-based VFX house Zoic Studios has welcomed Robert Moggach as senior VFX supervisor/creative director of commercials.

TEDx Sydney 2013 was probably full of great ideas, speakers, and presentations, but it’s a two-and-a-half-minute video about babies and food that wound up stealing the show. “The First Taste,” created by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and Heckler, shows young children reacting to their first experiences with unusual foods like anchovies, gherkin, and Vegemite. Set to orchestral music and shot in slow-motion, the video somehow takes a subject that could’ve easily dipped into boring humor and turns it into a strange and compelling combination of food, art, and social science. Props to the first kid for not freaking out more when shoving an anchovy in his mouth.

Creative director Matt Gilmour, who also directed the clip, credited the visceral, pure culinary responses of his two-year-old daughter for inspiration. I couldn’t agree more about the honest ways kids respond to sensory overload. It not only cinched the greatness of the video but also reminded me of when I was six and spat out a terrible jellybean (possibly fart flavored) at the supermarket. A random woman chided me and told on me to my mom. I couldn’t help it, the bean tasted that bad. I imagine the incident was crude from the woman’s perspective, but with some slow-motion and beautiful music, it could’ve been poetic. Credits after the jump.

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Soooo, a friend forwarded a memo sent to staff from Duff Stewart, CEO at Austin-based, Omnicom-owned GSD&M (the Idea City part, by the way, was dropped like third-period French in early 2011; the sign on the building, though, is another story). Anyhow, changes are now afoot specifically in GSD&M’s communications department, mainly that SVP of said division John McGrath, who’s been with the agency for well over six years, and senior manager, comms Adele Hazan, are striking out on their own. As a result, eight-year GSD&M vet Melanie Mahaffey is moving up the ranks. Why spoil it all, though, read on for Stewart’s explanation, verbatim:

“Over the past few years, our GSD&M Communications team has been at the center of some of the most innovative and entrepreneurial activities at the agency. From expanding our digital properties to live-event production including regular music showcases, the SXSW Industry Party and other major events, they have consistently created and championed new ways to build our agency brand, business and culture.

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-Detroit-based design firm Skidmore Studio has hired former Y&R Chicago exec Michael Hill as its VP/director of business development.

-Deadspin has an ongoing rundown of the mass layoffs today at ESPN. link

-BBDO Atlanta and Tool teach “babysitting basics” for the American Red Cross (above). link

-Motion design/production studio Royale has appointed a trio of Superfad alums including EP Chris Volckmann, head of digital production Beck Henderer-Peña, and senior art director Loren Judah to head up its new Seattle office.

-The American Advertising Federation has announced its 2013 Advertising Hall of of Achievement inductees including Twitter president/global revenue Adam Bain, Mondelez VP/global media and consumer engagement, B. Bonin Bough and Tara Walpert Levy, managing director/ads marketing for Google/YouTube. link

-Director Albert Kodagolian has joined bi-coastal prodco Interrogate for U.S. representation.

-So, did Dove lie to women in its latest “Real Beauty” campaign? link

-Houston advertising/PR firm Design at Work added two new clients in Portland-based HealthCo Information Systems and Texas-based State Service Company.

Lately, there’s a lot of content to cover on the bathroom humor beat. Yesterday, we reviewed some poop comedy for the new Clorox campaign. Today, we have a 30-second spot titled “Poop vs. Pee” from Arnold Worldwide and truth, the anti-smoking organization. This ad takes a radical shift in tone from meaningless poop jokes. There may be some uncomfortable chuckling here, but the point is to make the viewer aware of two facts: methane, a chemical in dog poop, can be found in cigarette smoke; urea, a chemical in cat pee, is also used in cigarettes. As you’ll see in the clip, there are some silly sound effects and visual representations to make it obvious that bodily excrement is gross, and in turn, chemicals found in our waste shouldn’t be voluntarily inhaled.

On truth’s website, you can read about their strategy for raising awareness, which is echoed in the commercial. They don’t tell people to stop smoking, because that sort of pitch doesn’t work on little children, let alone addicted smokers. So, to get the point across, they appeal to their target audience with alternative methods, such as disgusting facts. Stripping away moralistic lecturing in favor of poop jokes might just be bizarre enough to catch someone’s attention. Credits after the jump.

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