John Cusack wants to know: “Why just go from A to B when imagination can take you everywhere?” It’s a valid question, especially coming from the guy who played Lloyd Dobler. Would  the boombox move from Say Anything exist with conventional thinking?

The tagline is the adspeak centerpiece of Commonwealth’s new Chevrolet campaign titled “Find New Roads.” The 90-second spot premiered last night alongside irresponsible tweets about Katy Perry‘s cleavage and Justin Timberlake‘s bad haircut. Chevy’s ad acts as a trailer for what’s to come, showing off the Volt, Spark, Sonic, Impala, and Stingray. There’s also a robotic pet dog and a doe interacting, which may be awkward symbolism for combining technology and nature, but we can just pretend that part doesn’t exist. The response thus far has been positive, and the ad already racked up a six-figure view count on Youtube.

It makes sense for Commonwealth to jump outside the box. The agency, which unites folks from Goodby and McCann, was born thanks to unconventional thinking from ex-GM CMO Joel Ewanick, who didn’t want to waste money on Super Bowl ad space. One could easily see “Find New Roads” debuting during last week’s game, but it didn’t have to compete with farmers and sloppy kissing noises. GM fired Ewanick last summer, but his auto agency and some of his ideas are still in play, apparently.

I guess he didn’t try the boombox move with GM’s senior leadership. Credits after the jump.

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McCann NY and director Paul Hunter are behind this :60 spot that promotes Sony’s Xperia ion, which marks the electronics giant’s first attempt at launching a 4G LTE smartphone in the US. The lad above has quite the adventure, albeit a short one, in this ad called  “One Block,” which comes equipped with the obligatory Amazing Spider-Man tie-in as well as some chipper Matt & Kim music and, why not, a raging war scene. Our smartphone-loving protagonist, though, is totally impervious (sound familiar?), weathering it all and finding comfort in the safety of his home, couch and furry friend. Uh, dude, look behind you. Credits after the jump.

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According to a statement from McCann, “Karlsson will focus on the network’s global clients, including his creative leadership role in Commonwealth, the joint venture created to manage Chevrolet globally. Karlsson will maintain his title as Chairman of McCann New York and London.”

Of course, Karlsson’s expanded global responsibility has left a bit of a hole in McCann’s New York office. The agency is filling it by promoting Sean Bryan and Tom Murphy, previously co-ECDs for McCann’s Verizon business, to NY co-CCOs.

And, in case these weren’t enough promotions/position changes for you, we should also mention that Andreas Dahlqvist, a member of McCann’s global leadership collective, will work with Karlsson as deputy global CCO. Dahlqvist will also be maintaining his current role as vice chairman of McCann NY. Now, who wants to make a colorful infographic of all this?

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In agencies, the ol’ buddy system has its benefits. From agency head honchos to creative director teams to the traditional copywriter/art director duo, working in close quarters with someone ensures that strategies and ideas meld together in a cohesive who. Of course, sharing a creative brain with someone else can have different, unexpected consequences.

TBWA/Chiat/Day art director Lacey Waterman is documenting an interesting phenomenon occurring in agencies across the globe. Yes, agency partners are going so far as dressing in a similar fashion, and Waterman is compiling photos of these instances, done purposefully or coincidentally, on her Tumblr, “Partnerganger.” Above, you’ll see that McCann Erikson’s Linus Karlsson and Andreas Dahlqvist opt for a never-out-of-style black sweater/rolled-sleeved dress shirt combo, and my, do those gentleman look dashing!

See what happens when “TWINSIES!” goes wrong here. Really, did they call each other before work to coordinate their wardrobes or what?

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Odd, but interesting turn of events as rival holding companies Omnicom and IPG earlier joined forces to create “Commonwealth,” which will now serve as global AOR for Chevrolet. Specifically, the Chevy business will be jointly handled by Goodby and McCann Erickson and based in Detroit. Guess our tip from yesterday afternoon stating verbatim that “GSP is going to win the Chevy business” was pretty spot-on.

GM’s VP, global CMO Joel Ewanick explains in a statement, saying, “This is the first time that two large marketing communications holding companies have come together to form a single company. Commonwealth will be based right here in Detroit, and its only focus will be on strengthening and growing Chevrolet into an iconic global brand.” The four creative execs at Commonwealth will consist of creative chairman/GS&P namesake Jeff Goodby, Washington Olivetto, McCann London/New York CCO Linus Karlsson and Prasoon Joshi.

We suppose the alignment of two major agencies, following a six-month review, shouldn’t be too far-fetched considering Goodby has been working on domestic advertising while McCann has handled a fair amount of global work. Responsibility for global efforts, according to the announce, will be transitioned by Commonwealth, save for China, India and Uzbekistan, which will continue handling regional efforts assigned to their specific agencies. We’ve been told China and India were not part of the RFP, though McCann has been leading the ad accounts for Chevrolet in said countries.

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In Jennifer Lopez‘s first commercial appearance since that whole FIAT fiasco and director Darren Aronofsky‘s first ad since graphically depicting the horror of meth addiction, the two Hollywood stars are joining forces in a lighthearted TV spot for Kohl’s department stores.

In this spot from McCann NY, Aronofsky seems to be finally giving a gift to those who assumed his film Black Swan would be about dance and not Natalie Portman going hilariously insane. The “Classic: Remixed” title is both referring to J. Lo’s clothing line’s twist on spring fashion staples as well as her own twist the Kiki Dee Band’s 1974 single, “I Got the Music in Me.” Add to that a supporting cast of male back up dancers, and you have what may be a look inside Aronofsky’s strong desire to direct a sequel to Save the Last Dance. Credits after the jump.

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The above web film from McCann NY (which is slightly different than the TV spot that’s been airing) is for Verizon’s FiOS network, advertised as “America’s fastest Internet” with “speeds higher than advertised,” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but we’ll roll with it.

In “Vision,” McCann employs good comedic timing and simplicity, the latter of which being an element we don’t see much in marketing for the latest, fastest technology products. For comparison, look at it next to TV spots for Verizon competitor, AT&T. AT&T’s been pushing their 4G mobile broadband service in TV spots for about a year now, and each spot depicts someone’s lagging Internet speed preventing them from sharing in their peers’ revelry on a similar time frame. The slice-o-life spots portray scenarios that could potentially happen to someone, but only in an extreme circumstance.

With “Vision,” on the other hand, the viewer doesn’t realize it’s a slice-o-life ad until the punchline, which in this case depicts an event that is an actual regular occurrence for most Internet users. And, it’s here that Verizon’s insight bests AT&T. The most frustrating problem with slow Internet is not the “fear of missing out” due to a slight network delay, it’s being forced to play the waiting game. Credits after the jump.

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In addition, Pat Lafferty has been bumped up to COO of McCann Erickson North America just a year after joining the agency as MD of global brands. Summy and Lafferty’s boss, McCann Worldgroup CEO/chairman Nick Brien, says in a statement, “[Hank]has successfully built technology-marketing businesses that have all achieved double digital growth and deep levels of client satisfaction. Pat is the ideal partner for him, having proven himself to be a highly effective leader across many of our most complex global accounts.”

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While at Fallon, in fact, DiLorenzo also served as EP on the Titanium-winning “The Hire” online film series for BMW. During his five years at BBDO, meanwhile, he helped develop the HBO “Voyeur” and “Imagine” campaigns and worked on other accounts including AT&T, FedEx and Starbucks.

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“As part of McCann’s reinvention, the agency has had to make some very difficult decisions.  One result is that some employees will not make the transition with us.  Protecting both individuals and the health of the company is a difficult balance.  The decisions made were hard.  But they were based on a clear strategy for the agency.”

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Hey, why not throw in a little across-the-pond news this morning. McCann Worldgroup has bought up  London-based interactive design shop AllofUs, which was founded in 2003 and has worked for clients and organizations ranging from the BBC and Tate Britain to Nokia and Microsoft.

McCann’s CEO Nick Brien says that for now, AllofUs will work most closely with the Worldgroup UK offices, McCann London, MRM London and Momentum London. In addition, the AllofUs name will remain intact and the founders–design director Nick Cristea, director of R&D Orlando Mathias, AD Simon “Sanky” Sankarayya and business director Phil Gerrard–will partner with McCann NY/London CCO Linus Karlsson and McCann Erickson’s European chief innovation officer Matias Palm-Jensen.

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During his decade-plus stay at his former employer, Whalen held various titles including VP, digital marketing at Rapp Collins, VP, digital marketing strategy at Rapp Collins Worldwide and finally, SVP, head of delivery at RAPP.

In other McCann NY news, the agency’s been named global AOR for the IKEA catalogue, marking the first time the Swedish brand has handed out a global AOR assignment (all of  its other agency relationships are local but are not affected by this). McCann NY will work closely with IKEA’s in-house, Almhult, Sweden-based communications team, ICOM.  With this new partnership, McCann NY/London creative boss Linus Karlsson gets to reconnect with an old client. In a statement, he says, “This is a dream opportunity because it exists on the cutting-edge media, arts and commerce for a company I know and grew up with. Ultimately, it about creating a more exciting and useful IKEA experience for the many people, and letting the story of IKEA come alive in new ways in the catalogue.”

Finally, to answer a tipster’s question, we’ve been told that there has been no winner announced for McCann’s push-pin story contest as of yet. Don’t worry, fella, we’ll let you know.

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Well, looks like McCann NY is sticking to the online slideshow approach that CCO Linus Karlsson first introduced us to back in May (hell, they’ve even stretched it from the initial 30 day idea to 100 years). Today’s entry consists of a brainstorming session that the McCann staffers apparently had this morning involving push-pins. Yes, push-pins, and now the folks there want a story from you based on their favorite one of them all (above). Don’t ask, but here’s the copy:

You choose the format: a short story (743 words or less), a short film (2 minutes 4 seconds or less),
a series of photos (no more than 11), an mp3 (3 minutes and 39 seconds max), or some other form of media (no limits). We’ll post the winning story here and send its creator this push-pin in the mail within 7 business days. Guaranteed. Oh, and we’ll also give the winner a 3-month creative internship. Please send stories to hkmccann@mccann.com.

Um, good luck?

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The Hong Kong native, though, is no stranger to NYC, having worked from 2003-2008 at R/GA, where she was a creative director on the global and U.S. Nike+, NikeiD and Nike running accounts. Karlsson, who as you know is the CCO of McCann NY/London, raves about his newest hire, saying, “Natalie is one of the most inspiring and accomplished creative leaders in the world. Her work is always beautiful, smart and innovative, and she has a unique global perspective and leads with grace.”

In her new post, Lam, who’s earned Grand Prix and Titanium Lions, a D&AD Black Pencil, a One Show Best of Show, etc. during her career (take a guess for what), will across McCann NY accounts and will try to help boost McCann’s digital capabilities.

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Before Dahlqvist officially took on his ECD/partner post at DDB Stockholm, he served as creative director for four years at its predecessor agency, Paradiset. The new vice chairman, who started his ad career as an art director back in Sweden, waxes a bit dramatic about his move to McCann, saying, “We are on the cusp of a creative renaissance. Formulas are dying and a fundamental transformation is coming. As I thought about the next stage of my career, I realized that when McCann shifts, the entire industry shifts. The agency’s scale and DNA offer the opportunity to help set new creative benchmarks and standards, which is very exciting.”

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