Well, who knows where our relationship with Saatchi & Saatchi X fell apart as we went from being an industry mate to a Siberian exile in a matter of months. Whatever, rather than going all Blue Valentine on you, we’re just going first instinct on this one. According to multiple sources, Saatchi’s shopper marketing agency division is losing its Chicago SVP of business development/managing director Kevin Shelhamer, who we hear is leaving X for a gig at Ogilvy. When we inquired, we were met with the usual “he’s in a meeting” and the comms side, as mentioned, has been giving us the unusually cold shoulder thus far. Ogilvy has yet to respond to the matter as well.

Shelhamer has had two stints at Saatchi & Saatchi X, first joining 10 years ago to serve as SVP, client development and in his next turn, he assumed the role three years ago as SVP/MD of its Chicago branch.

San Francisco shop Heat, who you may know best for their high-profile work on a bevy of EA Sports video game franchises, just launched a brand new agency website that reveals a new logo, in which the “e” in “Heat” is backwards because that’s how you know someone is hip to 2013, yo. But, you gotta keep dat ish lowercase, because you don’t want to end up like KoRn with a backwards capital “R” or you’ll look super 90s. You don’t want that.

Having worked in an agency during a full site redesign, I know the hard work and excitement that goes into the endeavor. Many times, almost every creative in the agency contributes to the finished product, which you’ll talk about at length to your friends in the weeks leading up to the launch. “Just wait until our new site launches,” you’ll say, eyes wide with excitement and wonder. “It looks amazing.” It’s hard to blame you for being so giddy, as it feels as though your employer’s site is representative of your own job. The cooler it looks, the more it validates you. “I work at ‘x’ agency,” you imagine saying to a hot young thing at a bar. Oh, what’s that? Bam, show them that sexy new site on your phone (it better be responsive), and explain how cool your job is.

Of course, the problem is, no one outside of your agency gives the slightest shit what your site looks like. Now, this SHOULD NOT make you feel you bad about being emotionally invested in a redesign. After all, even though your friends don’t care, it doesn’t mean that potential new business won’t. So go ahead, be like Heat. Hire a weird second-line style band confused if they should be from New Orleans or Germany to dance around your office for a little while. Film yourself looking at your new sign, backwards “e” and all. Get stoked and know that, for the record, I think your new (responsive!) site looks pretty frickin’ cool. So cool, in fact, that I’m going to link it again right here. Congrats!

-Suffice it to say that it’s been a busy week for Yahoo as the company follows up its Tumblr acquisition by giving Flickr a makeover. link

-Well well, after months of being “under construction,” Naked has finally launched its new site (promo clip above). link

-It sure didn’t take long after our post for Gene Liebel, founding partner/chief strategy officer at Huge, to divulge what he’s doing next. link

-Here are your 2013 Bees Awards nominees. link

-YouEarnedIt, the employee rewards/engagement platform launched in beta six months ago by WPP Digital agency Rockfish Labs, has appointed former Demand Media execSteve Semelsberger as its new CEO.

-U.K. housing/homelessness charity Shelter has appointed London-based digital shop Chameleon as strategic partner to work across its online giving platforms.

Well, the decision came a tad quicker than we expected but according to reports from you know who, Chicago-based Cramer-Krasselt’s relationship with Porsche continues as the automaker has retained said agency’s services after a pitch that dragged on for six months. You’ve probably read Porsche’s perspective, now here’s a quick note from C-K president/CEO Peter Krivkovich:

“During the past five and a half years, C-K has enjoyed a great relationship with Porsche and we look forward to continued success together.

After the client’s best sales year ever in 2012, the best Q1 in their history to kick off 2013, and all of the industry recognition for smart strategic and creative thinking, we know we’re onto something good as PCNA’s agency partner.

When reviews like this happen – and this was a long and thorough one – it’s a good reminder for everyone that we are prepared for the challenge to work just as hard for our clients now as we were the day we were invited to their first pitch.

In the end, the proof is in the results. And Porsche has them.”

Peter Krivkovich”

As we mentioned last week, sources in the know were telling us that Porsche narrowed down its creative review to incumbent C-K, which has handled the account since 2007,  and Minneapolis-based Olson.

It’s been almost a year since we last covered Jack Link’s and their Sasquatch antihero, but everyone’s favorite ugly creature is back to sell some beef jerky and beat up anyone who messes with him (it). Minneapolis-based agency Carmichael Lynch has produced three new spots for the campaign, all of which were once again directed by Rocky Morton.

In the above commercial – “All Dolled Up” – three fools try to get their kicks by putting makeup on Sasquatch. He responds by flipping their car and possibly killing them, because, well,  Sasquatch doesn’t wear lipstick. The ads tap into the creature’s vaguely redneck brand appeal with foggy rural settings and the fact that the product is beef jerky. If I learned anything here, it’s to avoid Jack Link’s beef jerky, because eating it will lead to serious personal injury and an upset Sasquatch. Two more clips and the credits after the jump.

Read more

-Darren Aronofsky, director of films including Black Swan, The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream of course, has teamed up with Ted Robbins and Sandy Haddad to launch bi-coastal commercial production house, Chromista. link

-The 2013 AICP Week lineup has been announced. link

-GSD&M has promoted several staffers including creative partners Victor Camozzi and Bryan Edwards, who work on Walgreens among other accounts to SVP/group creative directors. In addition, the Austin-based, Omnicom-owned agency has bumped up Nancy Ryan and Carrie Hines to SVP/account directors while elevating Ronnie Steck to VP/account director and Madhavi Reese to VP/strategy director.

-B-Reel created a video for Google Chrome as part of Google’s 2013 I/O conference that helps the Mountain View, CA giant thank developers for their contributions to the internet’s evolution (above).

-Brooklyn-based agency Carrot Creative has launched its new website. You can find out more about the new site from Carrot CPO/co-founder Chris Petescia here.

-Portland, ME-based The VIA Agency has welcomed Richard Fryling as group strategy director for the Sam’s Club account, Deep Focus alum Abha Dhakal as client strategist and Chris Gilbert as a copywriter.

-Filmmaker Greg Kohs joined the roster of Venice, CA prodco Backyard for U.S. commercial representation.

Another year, another round of PETA’s “Great Ape Pledge” PSA campaign which aims to bring awareness of the plight of primates that suffer physical/psychological abuse at the hands of the entertainment industry. BBDO New York, which has taken the “Pledge” before with its nifty auto-correct effort from two years ago, joins forces with PETA once again for the spot above, which also features VO services from Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and VFX/production work from The Mill. If you stick around for the end, you’ll see that no real ape was used in the above PSA, which reemphasizes PETA’s whole purpose for launching “The Great Ape Pledge” in the first place.

Instead, the parties involved hammer home the message that primates shouldn’t be used as actors by creating  a photo-real CG chimp that’s seemingly at its wit’s end. If the stark message touched a nerve or inspired you to pledge (it’s perhaps a bit more effective than auto-correct messaging), you can go here. Credits after the jump.

Read more

It seems like we’ve been hearing about cuts at TBWA\Media Arts Lab (although relatively minor) pretty much every week this month but all tips up until now have proven to be fairly inaccurate . Now, though, we’ve received word from sources that TBWA’s Apple-focused, L.A.-based unit did let go of some staffers last week (the \MAL camp, like always, is keeping quiet). From what we’re hearing, approximately a dozen or so \MAL folks have been cut based on skill sets needed for the business at present.

On the flipside, though, Media Arts Lab, which also has office space in London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Sydney, did make some creative hires in recent weeks including former B-Reel creative directors Hector Muelas and Ricardo Viramontes, who now serve as GCDs at the former agency.

Not sure if you’ve peeped this epic effort just yet, but in case you haven’t, Tim Nolan, former JWT New York creative director and current head of BBH Labs/interactive GCD at BBH New York, has spearheaded a book project called The ABCs of Contemporary Creatives. As mentioned, Nolan, along with partner/Droga5 creative Jen Lu, have unleashed an alphabetical guide of sorts to the creative industry, complete with visual accompaniments for each letter from a roster of designer/illustrators repped by New York-based talent management agency, Bernstein & Andriulli.

This is not a snapshot, mind you, but a tome (ok, maybe not Ten Commandments-esque). It’ll take a few minutes of your time at least to scroll down and not only check out forewords from the likes of BBH CCO John Patroulis, but an elemental A-Z breakdown of what defines contemporary creativity, at least in Nolan’s mind. Some folks on the Spy line (perhaps haters, if you will) call it “advertising douchebaggery,” but being from the outside looking in, we can totally appreciate the effort.

This is no Merriam-Webster, but if you’ve ever wanted to define words like “poopocalypse” and “glueslime,” then the “Language of the Domestic Jungle” is the right dictionary for you. Created for Clorox by Onion Labs – the creative services unit launched by The Onion a year ago – the Domestic Jungle spots employ Discovery Channel-esque narration to color their potty humor with some faux-sophistication. If you’re a legal adult who thinks poop jokes never get old (like me) there’s even a comprehensive Icktionary that can provide grammatical guidance for immaturity.

In the coming weeks, three more spots will air for the campaign. I can confirm that one of the terms is, in fact, “Splatteral Damage.” Even though that’s a dumb phrase that will make some people shake their heads, I wish I could’ve come up with that myself. These dirty situations do exist, and it’s easy to shrug them off as disgusting, but maybe you’ll get a kick out of watching some silly videos. And maybe you’ll think of Clorox next time you need to disinfect. Or maybe I’m 23 and alone in my appreciation for bathroom humor, and commenters will line up to criticize these ads. We’ll see. You can watch the “Glueslime” spot after the jump.

Read more