Enjoy AdForum’s daily roundup of the latest news, trends, and notable work in the advertising industry.
AdForum Exclusive: 5 Questions for McGann | Zhang, the Agency that Just Landed Air China
"Air China recently tapped McGann | Zhang as its Agency of Record, so AdForum wanted to follow up with the global agency to better understand its creative culture, strategy for the Air China account, and philosophy on the trends and influences that are having a profound impact on the advertising industry." Read the full interview at AdForum.
Arianna Huffington Wins Adweek’s Annual Brand Genius Brand Visionary Award
“The honor, a celebration of Huffington's career as the chair, president and editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group, will be presented to Huffington at the 2015 award show on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at historic Guastavino's in New York. Read the full story.
Digiday Asks New Yorkers “What’s the first thing you’d dislike on Facebook?”
And it’s hilarious. “After years of people clamoring that Facebook make some sort of “dislike” button, Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that the company is working on some sort of feature like that. And the Internet, of course, went crazy. So we decided to ask a few New Yorkers what they would dislike on Facebook.” Watch at Digiday.
McCann Creatives’ “500 Under 500” Mixes Advertising Comedy with Reality
“There's no shortage of lists ranking ad people—people profess to hate them, but of course, everybody reads them. And now, Lex Singer and Jesse Yowell have unveiled the bloated, bloviating mother of them all—the 500 Under 500. That's right, 500 people, each of them under 500 years old, who are doing great and/or really innocuous things in the business.” More at Adweek.
Anheuser-Busch InBev Courts SABMiller with Possible Takeover
“Anheuser-Busch InBev said on Wednesday that it had approached SABMiller about a potential takeover, in a deal that, if it passed antitrust muster, would combine the world’s largest beer makers into a global giant. Such a deal would bring some of the most popular beers under one roof, including Budweiser, which is made by Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Miller Lite, from SABMiller. It would also create a company with $69 billion in annual revenue and a stock market value exceeding $276 billion.” Read the full story at The New York Times.
Refinery29 Seeks Global Expansion Throughout UK, Europe
“Refinery29, the leading digital lifestyle media company for a millennial-minded audience, today announced its initial plans for global expansion. The company will launch with a dedicated U.K. platform in mid-November, followed by France and Germany in early 2016 with additional markets to follow.” Full story available at BusinessWire.
Job of the Day: Associate Creative Director at Huge in Brooklyn, New York
Our Associate Creative Directors combine killer design skills with a proven ability to make strong decisions and push their team to deliver stunning work developing original creative concepts and approaches as well as overseeing project design all the way through execution. Associate Creative Directors should not only act as mentors for the creative employees working underneath them, but also work seamlessly across departments to deliver the best work possible. See more details at Huge.
Advertising Week Launches “Limitless”-style Ad Promoting Advertising Week
Advertisng Week XXII is about to descend on New York City, so the event has released its own ad celebrating the not-so-creative elements of the creative process. Watch the video at AdForum.
Wayback Wednesday: Coca-Cola’s Iconic 1979 “Hey Kid, Catch” Ad with Mean Joe Greene
“In advertising, 1979 was the year of the iconic Coca-Cola, Pittsburg Steeler Mean Joe Greene “Hey Kid, Catch” commercial that debuted on October 1, but most notably aired during Super Bowl XIV (a parallel with last week’s featured Wayback Wednesday ad that ran during Super Bowl XVIII) and forever changed the dynamic between NFL players and fans.” Read the full Wayback Wednesday piece at AdForum.
Agency of the Week
Ogilvy & Mather: “We sell. Or else.”
These words of David Ogilvy sound simple, but are deeply meaningful to us. David began the agency in 1948 and built Ogilvy & Mather into one of the most legendary branding companies in the world. Underpinning this is the philosophy of “divine discontent” — the simple belief that in order to be creative one must be permanently dissatisfied and always seeking to be better than good.
Learn more about Ogilvy & Mather by visiting their AdForum profile.
Because it is Wednesday and you already need and deserve a stiif drink, check out this Jose Cuervo ad below featuring music by The Rolling Stones.
(Bloody Mary photo courtesy of Anthony. Thank you! It looks delicious!)
