12373: Pepsi—Live For Now Meh.

Advertising Age reported Pepsi broke its codependence with Omnicom to create thoroughly boring messages via other partners. PepsiCo Chief Marketing Officer for Global Beverage Brands Kristin Patrick explained, “…[PepsiCo has] a very deep, long-going relationship with Omnicom and we are using them for many aspects of our 2015 campaign. But having said that, we want to find creative talent around the world that really suits whatever project we are working on. And for this one, we really wanted small, super-creative, nimble, fast [agencies]—a different spirit.” Okey-doke. However, the new Pepsi campaign underscores three points:

1. The scenario appears to be another example of how the commoditization of the advertising industry—fueled by the maneuverings of White holding companies—has resulted in a planet full of generic agencies. Now clients realize there are no significant differences or measurable advantages in concept quality if the work is shat out by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Fathom Communications or a startup in Bangladesh. Plus, places such as Bangladesh offer efficiencies in production and talent costs. Ironically, White holding companies typically tout global capabilities as a benefit to advertisers. Guess the clients aren’t buying the sales pitch.

2. The scenario also appears to be another example of an advertiser talking about global branding that ultimately resembles locally baked bullshit. A commercial from the new Pepsi campaign proclaims “Make It Epic” in a bold typeface. Epic fail would be a more appropriate statement. Sorry, but casting abroad may reduce residual costs; however, as rival Coca-Cola demonstrated, the characters don’t play internationally—except maybe with White people, who tend to look alike from continent to continent. In the end, clients seeking one global idea for each megabrand wind up with one mediocre mess.

3. Pepsi hasn’t simply lost its edge. The brand has lost its way.

No Omnicom, No Beyonce: Pepsi Taps Small Shops for New Global Ads

There Are No Celebs in the Latest ‘Live for Now’ Spots

By E.J. Schultz

Pepsi, which has a long-term relationship with Omnicom Group, is bypassing the holding company for its latest round of global ads. Instead, the cola brand is relying on two smaller independent agencies for the next evolution of its “Live for Now” campaign. The ads also do not include big-name celebrities, which have been a hallmark for recent Pepsi work, including a 2013 ad starring Beyonce.

The shift in direction is occurring under Kristin Patrick, PepsiCo’s chief marketing officer for global beverage brands who joined the company in May of 2013. In an interview, she stressed that “we have a very deep, long-going relationship with Omnicom and we are using them for many aspects of our 2015 campaign. But having said that, we want to find creative talent around the world that really suits whatever project we are working on. And for this one, we really wanted small, super-creative, nimble, fast [agencies]—a different spirit.”

The two chosen shops are New York-based Lloyd&Co, which describes itself as a “collective of 35 creative, spirited individuals” and Moondog, a New York-based boutique edit, graphic and design shop.

The four new ads will run throughout the world, including the U.S., Europe and Latin America. Pepsi described them as featuring “friends coming together and turning what could otherwise be an ordinary moment into something extraordinary.” The soundtrack is “High” by the American band Young Rising Sons. The end of the ads features the sung phrase “Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba” that Pepsi hasn’t used in years. The mnemonic was last widely used in an ad starring Britney Spears called “Joy of Pepsi” that ran in 2001.

The selection of the two smaller agencies for the high-profile ads is further proof of Pepsi’s willingness to look beyond Omnicom. The holding company had historically handled Pepsi via agencies such as TBWA/Chiat/Day and BBDO. More recently, Pepsi used a flexible agency model within Omnicom dubbed Galaxy that was designed to pull from various agencies. At the same time, the brand has given significant assignments to independent shop Mekanism, including a 2014 Super Bowl spot.

The new global ads do not include A-list star power, which marks a departure from Pepsi’s recent global advertising. In 2012 Pepsi made Beyonce a “global brand ambassador” and ran a 2013 ad starring her called “Mirrors” by Omnicom-owned 180 LA. In 2014, Pepsi’s global campaign was focused on soccer and included talent such as soccer star Leo Messi. That campaign was also by 180 LA.

Asked to comment on the status of the Beyonce deal, a PepsiCo spokeswoman said in an email that “Pepsi and Beyonce have enjoyed a longstanding relationship and we continue to be fans of her and her work. She will not be featured in our 2015 commercial advertising.”

Ms. Patrick said Pepsi will look to continue building relationships with celebrities and that Pepsi will “always be a brand linked to celebrity [and] cultural influencers and personalities across different aspects of culture.” But Pepsi’s marketing will also include “relatable consumers,” she added.

12372: Saatchi Says The World Is Flat.

Advertising Age reported on the reorganization happening at White advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. New Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Robert Senior announced the network would be split into two clusters: Established Markets and Dynamic Markets. “The brands we serve live in a flat, borderless world and our agency must too,” declared Dynamic Markets CEO Justin Billingsley. “To cluster markets based on what they mean to our clients, versus where they are, is smart and I am energized to be leading our dynamic markets, from which the majority of the next half a billion middle class consumers will come.” Gee, this scheme has the makings of a global clusterfuck. BTW, Established Markets include the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, China and Australia; Dynamic Markets include Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. Hmmm. It looks like predominately White and non-White segregation and economic colonialism—with the minor exception of China, which is probably too important of a market to be clustered with the dynamic masses. Former Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts’ claim to fame was introducing Lovemarks. Not sure what to call Senior’s brainchild yet, but it appears to be driven by the love of money—as well as exclusivity.

Saatchi Reorganizes, U.S. to Report Into Singapore-Based Exec

Network Divides Into ‘Dynamic’ and ‘Established’ Markets

By Emma Hall

In his first move since taking over as Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO on Jan. 1, Robert Senior has ditched the agency’s traditional geographical regional structure and split the network into two clusters: “established markets” and “dynamic markets.”

He banished his own role as CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Chris Foster’s role as CEO of Asia Pacific. Mr. Foster, who is based in Singapore, will remain chief operating officer of the network, and the CEOs of all established markets—which include the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, China and Australia—will report to him.

Mr. Senior was announced as Kevin Roberts’ successor as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide in September, as part of a larger reorganization of its parent, Publicis Groupe.

Justin Billingsley, previously chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was promoted to CEO of dynamic markets, which includes 36 offices across 29 countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe.

“The brands we serve live in a flat, borderless world and our agency must too,” Mr. Billingsley said in a statement. “To cluster markets based on what they mean to our clients, versus where they are, is smart and I am energized to be leading our dynamic markets, from which the majority of the next half a billion middle class consumers will come.”

Mr. Billingsley, who will also lead M&A for the network, is a former marketer who joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2009 as regional CEO for Greater China. An Australian, he is based in London and has worked at Unilever, Coca-Cola, Orange and Nokia.

“I am delighted to announce a new, focused operating structure for the business and a well-deserved promotion for Justin,” Mr. Senior said in the statement. “I have known Justin for many years both as a client and a colleague, and his clarity of thought, decision-making and client-side experience make him the ideal choice to lead further growth across our new dynamic markets region.”

12371: Mickey D’s McTime Warp.

Businessweek pointed out the 2015 Mickey D’s brand transformation looks like the 1990s Mickey D’s brand transformation. Well, the fast feeder is still co-conspiring with the same White advertising agency—Leo Burnett—so it’s not surprising that things appear to be thoroughly unoriginal. In fact, by sticking with Burnett, McDonald’s can expect its marketing woes to continue for at least another 66 years.

McDonald’s New Turnaround Plan Is So 1990s

By Venessa Wong

In a period of lasting difficulty for McDonald’s, with U.S. same-store sales dropping over consecutive quarters, executives turn to regionalized menus, made-to-order burgers, and speed to bring the world’s largest burger chain out of a multi-quarter slump. Sound familiar? It’s almost an exact match for McDonald’s modern-day woes and current turnaround strategy. But all of the details above come from a 1997 interview with a McDonald’s executive about reforms at the chain.

Not much has changed in 17 and a half years. Even the language used by McDonald’s executives has uncanny echoes across the decades. McDonald’s “needs to operate with more speed, agility and decisiveness,” wrote then-Vice Chairman Jack Greenberg in a 1997 memo leading up to decentralized decision-making by five divisional presidents. Here’s how Michael Dean Andres, McDonald’s new U.S. president, explained the current revival plan to investors last month: “We have to be more nimble, we have to be faster, faster to market with new ideas, and more responsive to competitive threat.” Andres added: “[W]e’ve moved from the former division structure into a different model focused on empowering and supporting our regions.”

Back in 1997, McDonald’s was working to escape six quarters of negative same-store sales in the U.S. The chain finds itself in familiar territory today: Domestic same-store sales haven’t been positive since October 2013 and posted a 4.6 percent drop in November, the biggest one-month decline in more than a decade. McDonald’s announced a plan in October to draw four zones—Northeast, South, Central, and West—from the three existing regions that shape its operations. This will affect both the menu and how advertising is distributed. The changes, Andres said, will enable the chain “to be more sophisticated” in addressing diverse consumer needs across the country.

But McDonald’s already has a long history of regional organization. “I don’t think the weakness in sales or problems recently have anything to do with their divisional or zone arrangements,” says Dick Adams, owner of the McDonald’s franchisee consultancy Franchise Equity Group and a former franchise director for McDonald’s Western USA. He says over the decades McDonald’s has gone from three zones (East, West, and Central) to five divisions, back to three divisions, and now the change to four zones.

The virtue of regional menu options is they don’t force restaurants to offer items that won’t succeed in their markets. The McRib, for instance, only returned in some restaurants last year because “some areas of the country have more interest in pork than others,” as spokeswoman Lisa McComb told Bloomberg Businessweek in October. Other items are launched based on local cuisine, such as haupia pie in Hawaii.

The problem with this approach is that regional menus “are very hard for national chains to execute,” says Darren Tristano, executive vice president of food industry consultancy Technomic. “It would appear that 17 years later, McDonald’s still faces the challenge and has not found a way to meet these regional demands.”

McDonald’s isn’t merely rehashing regional strategies. Another issue it has discussed at length recently is evolving with changing consumer tastes without compromising speed. Back in 1998, the head of McDonald’s Western region told the Los Angeles Times about an effort to test a “Made for You” production system in which orders would be prepared for each customer, rather than having items precooked and kept warm until ordered. McDonald’s is now taking the late-1990s innovation (the system is still in place today) further with its 2015 test of the “Create Your Taste” program, which will soon roll out to 2,000 stores. The latest attempt at customization doesn’t only prepare-to-order but also allows consumers to choose the cheeses, toppings, and condiments on their burgers.

It’s a system, Adams says, that is bound to slow up kitchens. “I don’t think they know what they want to be,” the franchise consultant warned. He added: “There’s really nothing new here.”

Asked if McDonald’s is revisiting old strategies, spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in an e-mail: “It’s difficult to compare strategies from 17 years ago to today with the exception of our goal of always listening to our customers and evolving to their changing tastes.” While the chain has offered regional products for years, Hickey says, McDonald’s franchisees can now draw from its global menu pipeline.

Last week, meanwhile, McDonald’s announced a “brand transformation” that would include new advertising by ad agency Leo Burnett, and new uniforms, packaging, and signage. The slogan “I’m lovin’ it” is an old standby that dates back more than a decade.

12370: The Latest Leadershifts.

Adweek reported on the White executives moving through the revolving doors and musical chairs of leadership at various White advertising agencies. The story underscores how agencies generate as much turnover and disruptive upheaval in the C-suites as clients do—which ultimately creates commoditization of the industry and a sea of generic shops. So adpeople shouldn’t whine when advertisers appoint new CEOs and CMOs, prompting reviews and reassignments. Oh, and the story really underscores how minorities are excluded from the Caucasian-suites C-suites.

It’s a Busy New Year Already for Agency Leadership Changes

First TBWA, then Arnold and now JWT and Y&R

By Andrew McMains

‘Tis the season to make top management changes.

A day after TBWA named a new head of its New York office and Arnold hired a new chief strategist, JWT has elevated Lynn Power to president of its flagship office and Young & Rubicam Chicago has replaced chief creative officer Bill Cimino with a pair of executive creative directors: Jeremy Smallwood and Pam Mufson, who previously were cds. Cimino had led the department for more than two years.

At JWT, Power previously shared leadership of New York with Claire Capeci as managing directors. That arrangement was short-lived, however, lasting just 10 months. Power and incoming chief creative officer Adam Kerj become the top leaders in New York.

With Power’s promotion, Capeci is shifting to a new role of global president of retail—a nod to her continued stewardship of JWT’s Macy’s account. Capeci has worked at the agency for almost nine years.

In contrast, Powers is a newcomer, having joined JWT last year, after five years running the New York office of Arnold. New global CEO Gustavo Martinez recruited Powers and revealed her new role this morning.

Arnold, meanwhile, has hired Sara Bamber as head of strategy in New York where the agency’s top accounts are Hershey’s, Kao, Milk-Bone and Sanofi. Bamber succeeds Beth Fetzer, who held the role for four years and will remain at the shop as a strategic planner. The change was triggered by Fetzer’s desire to focus solely on key accounts like Kao (which encompasses the brands John Frieda and Jergens) and gave new office president Peter Grossman the chance to pick a key business partner.

Grossman, who started in August, cited Bamber’s maturity, poise and experience with integrated campaigns. Most recently, she was chief strategy officer at Draftfcb in New York, working on brands like Oreo. Before that, she held top planning roles at Anomaly and SapientNitro where she helped shape digital campaigns for several Coca-Cola brands. Her background in both traditional and digital particularly appealed to Grossman.

Bamber is “a real grown-up, which was important to me,” Grossman said. “Both intellectually and emotionally, I find her very easy to engage with, even when we may have a different point of view.”

The new chief at TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York is a familiar face: Rob Schwartz, a 17-year veteran of the agency and former chief creative officer at its office in Playa del Rey, Calif. Most recently, Schwartz was global creative president, contributing to key global accounts. In New York, Schwartz takes the title of CEO and succeeds Robert Harwood-Matthews, who was president for more than two years.

12369: Tussling With Tefla.

This Tefla Steam Station campaign from Publicis Conseil in Paris is reminiscent of the TUMS fighting food commercials. Except the Tefla concept feels like it’s depicting domestic violence and completely lacks humor. Then again, the French do view Jerry Lewis as a comedic genius.

From Ads of the World.

12368: Mono-Cultural McMimickry.

Adweek reviewed the regurgitated “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign, noting that it resembles the 2013 Oreos “Wonderfilled” campaign. The Adweek critique is an insult to the Oreos concept. Actually, the 2015 Mickey D’s advertising idea is a lame, lily-White copycat of the 2003 Mickey D’s advertising idea. “Consumers will hear, see, feel our new attitude in our marketing and in our restaurants,” promised former Mickey D’s CMO Larry Light when introducing “I’m Lovin’ It” over a decade ago. “It’s much more than just a new tag line or commercials—it’s a new way of thinking about and expressing our worldwide brand appeal to the consumer.” Current Mickey D’s CMO Deborah Wahl pretty much parroted Light’s summation—sprinkled with contemporary gobbledygook—to describe the latest McShit. The original “I’m Lovin’ It” launched with soundtracks by Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake, which offered some worldwide crossover appeal. Leo Burnett’s interpretation of the global idea for the megabrand feels very local from a planetary perspective, at least in terms of being US-based with its American pop culture imagery and White music. Hell, there’s barely cross-cultural charm for North America. But that’s to be expected from those wonderful White folks who gave you NO.2.66.

12367: We’re Off To See The Wizard.

From The New York Times…

Racially Ignited, a Magical World Is Uncanny

‘The Wizard of Watts’ Mirrors Debate Over Police Brutality

By Brooks Barnes

LOS ANGELES — “The Wizard of Watts,” a coming animated television musical, was conceived two years ago as a big, fat gob of raucous entertainment wrapped around a nugget of racial commentary.

Then, with the musical’s animation already far underway, Ferguson, Mo., became a flash point, starting a national debate about race, overzealous policing and the need for officers to wear body cameras. Then came the phrase “I Can’t Breathe” and the broader protest against police brutality.

Suddenly, “The Wizard of Watts,” with its devastated black neighborhoods and army of pigs, took on greater weight. How the musical will be received by viewers at a racially charged cultural moment is anyone’s guess. But when it arrives on Cartoon Network’s after-hours Adult Swim block on Saturday, “The Wizard of Watts” will at the very least become one of those eerie instances of art accidentally mirroring life.

The primary villain in the Magical Land of Oz-Watts, where the story takes place, is a vicious pig clad in riot gear. Water does not neutralize this Oz villain; instead this baddie gets melted with a camcorder. “Oh, no! Not an irrefutable visual record of my illegal actions!” the anthropomorphized pig wails as he turns to mush at the musical’s climax.

Even Carl Jones, the director of “The Wizard of Watts” and one of its writers, was surprised at hitting such a cultural bull’s-eye.

“I take pride in tackling things with my gloves off, but animation takes such a long time to produce that you usually don’t end up being all that current,” he said.

Mr. Jones had noticed on social media how African-Americans were increasingly using cellphone cameras as “protection from police, like as a weapon,” he said.

“Nobody was talking about it and so I decided we had to take it on,” he said.

Mr. Jones, 42, fits into a loose group of rising black writers and directors finding crossover success with comedy that doubles as biting racial commentary. Aaron McGruder (“The Boondocks”) has “Black Jesus,” an Adult Swim series set in modern-day Compton, Calif. Issa Rae has gained notoriety for her web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” Justin Simien’s searing film “Dear White People” was an art house hit last year.

But Mr. Jones’s style can be particularly over the top.

“I think there is a racial temperature in this country that has reached a boiling point, and the more we as artists can shine a light and make people talk about it, the better off we are going to all be,” he said.

“The Wizard of Watts” is a special episode of “Black Dynamite,” an Adult Swim series run by Mr. Jones that lovingly parodies blaxploitation cinema. Character voices in the special are provided by the likes of Tyler, the Creator, of the rap group Odd Future, and the singer Erykah Badu. “Black Dynamite,” adapted from the 2009 independent film of the same name, has sharp edges: Now in its second season, the show, set in the 1970s, stars a heroic brothel owner who runs an orphanage from the same location — the Whorephanage.

Overflowing with sexual imagery and profane language (often bleeped by Cartoon Network), “Black Dynamite” has featured an albino gorilla named Honky Kong and young black people who discover that slavery existed only after watching the mini-series “Roots.”

The musical special begins with the pimp hero, Black Dynamite, taking a rare day off. But without his muscle on display in the neighborhood, police start beating residents, who respond with violence. (The thrashings, one character says excitedly, “make me feel like burning down my own community!”) Black Dynamite investigates, gets hit with a brick and floats off to Oz-Watts.

There, the pigs terrorize a community of Rodney Munchkings. Trying to get home, Black Dynamite sets off not on the yellow brick road but on a trash-strewn Malcolm X Boulevard. Cue the drug-addicted winged monkeys, a Tin Woman looking for male genitalia and a chicken-and-waffles musical number.

“Basically, I set out to create a blacker version of ‘The Wiz’ and this is how it ended up,” Mr. Jones said, breaking into a hearty laugh.

Some viewers will find “The Wizard of Watts” in reckless bad taste — “Fat Albert” this is not. It’s not even “South Park” or “The Boondocks,” the controversy-courting series about two black boys in a white suburb that Mr. Jones once helped produce.

But to recoil at the vulgarity would miss the point, said Jon Steingart, a producer of the musical. “What Carl does is fair-minded, it’s smart, and, as a fan, I don’t see enough of that in comedy,” said Mr. Steingart, a co-founder of Ars Nova, a Manhattan nonprofit that nurtures emerging playwrights, comics and musicians.

He added, “Carl could write a much angrier story — he grew up in very difficult circumstances — but he understands that his viewers are predominantly white young males.” Aimed at men 18 to 34, Adult Swim has an audience that is about two-thirds male and two-thirds white, according to Nielsen data.

Mr. Jones grew up in Fayetteville, N.C., which he called Fayette-nam, a portmanteau comparing parts of that city to a Vietnam war zone. A high-school dropout, Mr. Jones became interested in comedy as a youngster by listening to Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor on cassette tapes.

His break in the entertainment industry came in 2010, with the animated TV special “Freaknik: The Musical,” a comedic skewering of the rowdy Freaknik, an Atlanta festival for black college students that no longer takes place.

“Music as a device,” he said, “gives you so much replay value. These issues, sadly, are not going away.”

12366: Choosy Moms Choose Exclusivity.

At Campaign, Nicole Kemp presented “15 ways to embrace change in 2015”—along with advice that read, “The new year brings with it the opportunity to supercharge your career and challenge the status quo.”

The 15 ways included the following linked quote from AMV BBDO Group Chairman-CEO and White Adwoman Cilla Snowball:

Um, couldn’t help but notice that “RACIST” is not part of the quote, despite evidence and acknowledgment for the institutionalized exclusivity in the UK advertising industry. Of course, what can one expect from the leader of a White advertising agency proud to have produced the Guinness Africa Made From Black campaign? Indeed, people should choose who you work for carefully. Snowball’s cultural cluelessness also clearly demonstrates that both the alleged dearth of dames and ageism routinely trump diversity.

12365: Not Thinking When Hiring.

Campaign published a perspective from Grace Blue Founder Gay Haines (pictured above) titled, “6 things agencies might not think of when looking for a new boss.” First, it must be noted that being an executive search firm specializing in communications, media and creative fields—i.e., Haines’ company serves adland—means Grace Blue has essentially helped perpetuate the exclusivity poisoning the industry. Plus, Haines neglected to list six more things that might have direct relevance to agencies in the UK (as well as in the US):

7. Look beyond your blood relatives

8. Look beyond your mirror

9. Look at the 49 percent of your workforce Oh, hell, never mind—White women are doing just fine

10. Look beyond your frenemies

11. Look beyond your skin tone

12. Look beyond search firms like Grace Blue

:::

6 things agencies might not think of when looking for a new boss

Gay Haines, the founder of global executive search firm Grace Blue, gives her tips about things to consider when looking for a new agency leader, whether chief executive or executive creative director.

Great advertising agency leaders are thin on the ground. Ideally, when your business needs a new CEO, CFO or ECD you’ll be able to promote an outstanding internal candidate or recruit from a top agency just down the road, but that isn’t always the case.

Even the best agencies struggle to find exceptional leaders. That’s why you need to be brave, creative and imaginative. Great leaders have transferrable skills.

1. Look outside adland

Most agencies still seem to think only a dedicated ad person will do. But confining a search to the advertising industry can mean missing out on the wealth of talent in, for example, adtech, media and client companies.

Look at how Grey London brought David Patton in from Sony and revitalised their business. Many said “client appointments never work” but we’ve rarely been brave enough to put it to the test.

You might lose out on craft skills, but those can be taught (and your agency will have them in abundance). Provided the client has a reputation for creative empathy, there is an upside in gaining broader knowledge and credibility with the agency’s clients.

2. Look outside your geographical region

It’s certainly true that people from another country may struggle to understand the brands and culture of your market. However, senior ex-pats in other regions may want to come home. It would be careless to confine your search simply to the UK market.

Just as you need to think globally with your ad campaigns, do the same when hunting for a new leader. It’s more difficult, but it can work when the candidate has had no experience in the market. For example, Ogilvy’s UK managing director Jaimes Leggett went to M&C Saatchi Australia last year and has quickly made a difference.

3. Look outside your immediate discipline

CHI recently hired Andrew Bailey from Proximity and has just won the huge Telus Telecoms pitch in Canada. Did his background hold him back? Hardly. In such a fast-moving sector, experience in digital or DM or shopper has real benefits.

4. Promote someone less experienced

Whether you look internally or from another agency, consider promoting someone exceptional from a number three to number one role. It’s a way to attract top talent to a less-than-top agency by giving them a leadership opportunity. And if it might upset one of your existing team, that’s unfortunate.

Nothing is as important as finding a great leader.

5. Bring back people who have moved away

Look at how Dare rehired Brian Cooper and Flo Heiss back in August. Stay in touch with your talent, whether they’re at another agency or went off to join clients such as Google, Unilever or News International.

6. Job share

This requires tremendous courage and I don’t know an agency that’s done this yet, but many people now want to work part-time (not just working mothers, either — perhaps an outstanding CEO wants to write a book?).

Might you consider having two leaders each for three days a week? The casting is all-important as they need to like, trust and respect each other, but it’s a way to seize strong leadership talent that is otherwise unavailable.

A significant by-product is that being given the rare opportunity to return to a senior role on a part-time basis will create both loyalty and commitment.

Given how scarce great leaders are, I’m often disappointed that more agencies don’t try something different when searching for the best people. Perhaps it’s time our industry showed off its innovation, imagination and creativity.

12364: Pope Promotes Diversity.

From FOX News…

Pope names 15 new cardinals from 14 different nations to reflect church diversity

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals Sunday, selecting them from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar, to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa compared to affluent regions.

Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam.

None came from the United States and only three European nations received new cardinals—Portugal and Spain in addition to Italy.

Francis told faithful in St. Peter’s Square that the new batch of cardinals “shows the indelible tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world.”

Five new cardinals come from Europe, three from Asia, three from Latin America, including Mexico, and two each come from Africa and Oceania.

With his picks, the Argentine-born Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, made ever clearer that he is laying out a new vision of the church’s identity, including of its hierarchy. He looked beyond traditional metropolitan area for the “princes of the church” who will help advise him and elect his successor.

He has said repeatedly that the church must reach out to those on the margins.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the selection “confirms that the pope doesn’t feel tied to the traditional ‘cardinal sees,’ which reflected historic reasons in various countries.”

“Instead we have various nominations of archbishops or bishops of sees in the past that wouldn’t have had a cardinal,” Lombardi said.

The pontiff ignored another tradition: limiting to a total of 120 the number of cardinals under 80 and eligible to vote for his successor.

Before his announcement on Sunday, there were 12 “vacancies” in this category. By naming 15 new voting-age cardinals, Francis went above that number, although Lombardi noted, “he kept very close to it (120), so it was substantially respected.”

Pope John Paul II, who put his conservative stamp on the college of cardinals, also went beyond the 120-limit.

Among Pope Francis’ picks are churchmen whose advocacy styles seem to particularly capture matters dear to his heart.

Monsignor Francesco Montenegro, a Sicilian, was at his side when Francis made his first trip a few months into his papacy. Montenegro welcomed the pontiff to Lampedusa, a tiny Sicilian island whose people have helped thousands of migrants stranded by smugglers offshore. The pontiff has repeatedly denounced human trafficking and urged more attention to people on the margins of society. He also has thundered against Mafiosi, and Montenegro’s Agrigento diocese includes towns where people have dared to rebel against Cosa Nostra.

The only native English-language speaker chosen by Francis is Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington, New Zealand. Summing up his own intervention at last year’s Vatican conference on controversial family issues, including gay marriage and divorced Catholics, Dew has said the church must change its language to give “hope and encouragement.”

Francis also bestowed the honor on five churchmen older than 80, including men from the pope’s native Argentina, Mozambique and Colombia.

Speaking from a Vatican window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Francis made another surprise announcement. He said that on Feb. 12-13, he will lead of meeting of all cardinals to “reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia,” the Vatican’s administrative bureaucracy.

Francis is using his papacy, which began in March 2013, to root out corruption, inefficiency and other problems in the curia.

Francis said he will “have the joy” on Feb. 14 of presiding over the ceremony in which the 20 churchmen will receive the red hat cardinals wear.

12363: On “Fast Thinking” Discrimination.

From The New York Times…

Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions

By Sendhil Mullainathan

The deaths of African-Americans at the hands of the police in Ferguson, Mo., in Cleveland and on Staten Island have reignited a debate about race. Some argue that these events are isolated and that racism is a thing of the past. Others contend that they are merely the tip of the iceberg, highlighting that skin color still has a huge effect on how people are treated.

Arguments about race are often heated and anecdotal. As a social scientist, I naturally turn to empirical research for answers. As it turns out, an impressive body of research spanning decades addresses just these issues — and leads to some uncomfortable conclusions and makes us look at this debate from a different angle.

The central challenge of such research is isolating the effect of race from other factors. For example, we know African-Americans earn less income, on average, than whites. Maybe that is evidence that employers discriminate against them. But maybe not. We also know African-Americans tend to be stuck in neighborhoods with worse schools, and perhaps that — and not race directly — explains the wage gap. If so, perhaps policy should focus on place rather than race, as some argue.

But we can isolate the effect of race to some degree. A study I conducted in 2003 with Marianne Bertrand, an economist at the University of Chicago, illustrates how. We mailed thousands of résumés to employers with job openings and measured which ones were selected for callbacks for interviews. But before sending them, we randomly used stereotypically African-American names (such as “Jamal”) on some and stereotypically white names (like “Brendan”) on others.

The same résumé was roughly 50 percent more likely to result in callback for an interview if it had a “white” name. Because the résumés were statistically identical, any differences in outcomes could be attributed only to the factor we manipulated: the names.

Other studies have also examined race and employment. In a 2009 study, Devah Pager, Bruce Western and Bart Bonikowski, all now sociologists at Harvard, sent actual people to apply for low-wage jobs. They were given identical résumés and similar interview training. Their sobering finding was that African-American applicants with no criminal record were offered jobs at a rate as low as white applicants who had criminal records.

These kinds of methods have been used in a variety of research, especially in the last 20 years. Here are just some of the general findings:

• When doctors were shown patient histories and asked to make judgments about heart disease, they were much less likely to recommend cardiac catheterization (a helpful procedure) to black patients — even when their medical files were statistically identical to those of white patients.

• When whites and blacks were sent to bargain for a used car, blacks were offered initial prices roughly $700 higher, and they received far smaller concessions.

• Several studies found that sending emails with stereotypically black names in response to apartment-rental ads on Craigslist elicited fewer responses than sending ones with white names. A regularly repeated study by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development sent African-Americans and whites to look at apartments and found that African-Americans were shown fewer apartments to rent and houses for sale.

• White state legislators were found to be less likely to respond to constituents with African-American names. This was true of legislators in both political parties.

• Emails sent to faculty members at universities, asking to talk about research opportunities, were more likely to get a reply if a stereotypically white name was used.

• Even eBay auctions were not immune. When iPods were auctioned on eBay, researchers randomly varied the skin color on the hand holding the iPod. A white hand holding the iPod received 21 percent more offers than a black hand.

The criminal justice system — the focus of current debates — is harder to examine this way. One study, though, found a clever method. The pools of people from which jurors are chosen are effectively random. Analyzing this natural experiment revealed that an all-white jury was 16 percentage points more likely to convict a black defendant than a white one, but when a jury had one black member, it convicted both at the same rate.

I could go on, but hopefully the sheer breadth of these findings impresses you, as it did me.

There are some counterexamples: Data show that some places, like elite colleges, most likely do favor minority applicants. But this evidence underlies that a helping hand in one area does not preclude harmful shoves in many other areas, including ignored résumés, unhelpful faculty members and reluctant landlords.

But this widespread discrimination is not necessarily a sign of widespread conscious prejudice.

When our own résumé study came out, many human-resources managers told us they were stunned. They prized creating diversity in their companies, yet here was evidence that they were doing anything but. How was that possible?

To use the language of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, we think both fast and slow. When deciding what iPod to buy or which résumé to pursue, we weigh a few factors deliberately (“slow”). But for hundreds of other factors, we must rely on intuitive judgment — and we weigh these unconsciously (“fast”).

Even if, in our slow thinking, we work to avoid discrimination, it can easily creep into our fast thinking. Our snap judgments rely on all the associations we have — from fictional television shows to news reports. They use stereotypes, both the accurate and the inaccurate, both those we would want to use and ones we find repulsive.

We can’t articulate why one seller’s iPod photograph looks better; dozens of factors shape this snap judgment — and we might often be distraught to realize some of them. If we could make a slower, deliberate judgment we would use some of these factors (such as the quality of the photo), but ignore others (such as the color of the hand holding the iPod). But many factors escape our consciousness.

This kind of discrimination — crisply articulated in a 1995 article by the psychologists Mahzarin Banaji of Harvard and Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington — has been studied by dozens of researchers who have documented implicit bias outside of our awareness.

The key to “fast thinking” discrimination is that we all share it. Good intentions do not guarantee immunity. One study published in 2007 asked subjects in a video-game simulation to shoot at people who were holding a gun. (Some were criminals; some were innocent bystanders.) African-Americans were shot at a higher rate, even those who were not holding guns.

Ugly pockets of conscious bigotry remain in this country, but most discrimination is more insidious. The urge to find and call out the bigot is powerful, and doing so is satisfying. But it is also a way to let ourselves off the hook. Rather than point fingers outward, we should look inward — and examine how, despite best intentions, we discriminate in ways big and small.

Sendhil Mullainathan is a professor of economics at Harvard. Follow him on Twitter at @m_sendhil.

12362: Stuart Scott (1965-2015).

From USA TODAY…

ESPN’s Stuart Scott dies after lengthy battle with cancer

By Chris Strauss, USA TODAY Sports

Stuart Scott, the ESPN anchor and reporter whose catchphrases became part of the American popular sports vernacular for the past two decades, died Sunday morning after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 49.

“ESPN and everyone in the sports world have lost a true friend and a uniquely inspirational figure in Stuart Scott,” said ESPN president John Skipper. “Who engages in mixed martial arts training in the midst of chemotherapy treatments? Who leaves a hospital procedure to return to the set?

“His energetic and unwavering devotion to his family and to his work while fighting the battle of his life left us in awe, and he leaves a void that can never be replaced.”

Scott, who received a standing ovation during his acceptance of the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the 2014 ESPY Awards in July, addressed his uncertain future at the time.

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” Scott told the audience. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

Scott joined ESPN in 1993 for the launch of ESPN2, quickly moving up the ranks as one of the network’s main SportsCenter anchors thanks to his rapid-fire delivery and unique phrasing to describe highlights. While Scott might not have invented the term “Boo-yah,” he certainly popularized.

By 2008, Scott was ubiquitous among the network’s programming. He anchored late-night SportsCenter shows, hosted Monday Night Countdown on location during the NFL season, served as the lead host for NBA on ESPN and ABC and interviewed Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

It was a workload he’d do his best to maintain during several recurrences of cancer, a diagnosis which first appeared during an emergency appendectomy in 2007. The disease reappeared in 2011, when Scott announced on Twitter that he was undergoing chemotherapy. He never revealed what kind of cancer he was fighting, and told the New York Times in March that it was not colon cancer.

By the time the illness reemerged in December 2012, Scott began to share more public details about his plight. In January 2013, he told USA TODAY about his routine at the time, which included only missing his ESPN work days for chemotherapy treatments every other Monday, after which he’d go train at a mixed-martial arts gym.

“I can take this,” he said at the time. “Deal with it easier than some people I see. So I think for the ones who can’t punch a heavy bag, can’t spar, who can’t do any of that. I’ll do it for you.”

Scott’s determination was well known to executives at ESPN long before his diagnosis. In 2002, Scott missed several months of work after his left eye was damaged by a football while he was working out with the New York Jets for an upcoming story. Due to previous problems with both eyes, including a right detached retina, Scott had to retrain his right eye to be his dominant eye, a task that presented a challenge when having to read from a teleprompter.

Scott is survived by his two daughters, Taelor, 19, and Sydni, 15, the latter of whom joined him onstage at the end of his ESPYs speech after he asked her to “come up here and give dad a hug because I need one.”

While Scott thanked his bosses at ESPN during that memorable oration, he made it clear that there was no career moment that could ever surpass what he considered his life’s best highlight.

“The best thing I have ever done, the best thing I will ever do,” Scott said. “Is be a dad to Taelor and Sydni.”

“Taelor and Sydni, I love you guys more than I will ever be able to express. You two are my heartbeat. I am standing here on this stage tonight because of you.”

12361: Anti-Social Mayhem Bullshit.

Advertising Age published a story on the freshest Mayhem bullshit from Allstate and Leo Burnett. For the advertiser and its White advertising agency to keep hyping and extending this campaign only underscores the fact that insurance salespeople and ad executives are among the least-trusted professionals ever. After all, positioning the work as cool—especially in a category where competitors run breakthrough and iconic concepts—demands peddling serious lies to oneself and others.

The new Mayhem and Dennis Haysbert commercials warn viewers about burglars tapping social media to target victims. It’s mind-boggling how Allstate and Burnett continue to use both characters—Mayhem and Haysbert—to deliver the same messages. Is it an admission that Mayhem does not communicate clearly, requiring Haysbert to explain matters in a more straightforward style?

Equally mind-boggling is the rationale behind the latest campaign. “We’re not saying don’t use social media,” said Allstate VP-Integrated Marketing Communications Pam Hollander. “We’re saying use it smartly. There are people out there posting everything about their lives and they leave themselves vulnerable. … This is just the beginning. The whole intent of the campaign is to launch into what we’re calling ‘Project Aware Share’… educating people about what they can do to be smarter about having the right home protection.” People can be smarter by opting for GEICO or State Farm over Allstate. Plus, Allstate should use social media smartly versus polluting the Internet with lame banner ads and native advertising starring Mayhem.

12360: Chevy’s Colorado Car Wreck.

Chevrolet rolled out a new 2015 Colorado truck commercial—created by McCann Commonwealth—that can only be described as a car wreck. After all the high-priced politics, consolidations and firings, Chevrolet manages to produce thoroughly forgettable advertising that could have been hatched by a local dealership’s in-house promotional department. Besides being extraordinarily White, the contrived and clichéd commercial counters its Find New Roads™ tagline; that is, the spot reflects a road well traveled—to mediocrity. Additionally disturbing are the many comments at YouTube praising the commercial and/or linking to Chevrolet dealers. It smacks of the Deutsch LA Twitter fiasco, where the FTC ultimately charged that the agency misled consumers with positive tweets from Deutsch staffers. Yep, it’s yet another road well traveled—to digital dumbness and deception.

12359: Black Tech Leaders Matter.

From USA TODAY…

Wayne Sutton: Why black leaders matter in technology

By Wayne Sutton, Special for USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s hard to believe that on the eve of 2015, instead of ringing in the new year, minority communities are marching across the country to send the message that black lives matter.

As a black man working hard to make a difference, it is sad that we have to start there: at life. Because life is just the beginning. What about quality of life? Creation of wealth? Contributing to an innovative society?

I ask myself: How do we change how America views African-American men? And how do we create more opportunity for African-American men?

The key: The technology industry, and bringing up a new generation of black technology leaders.

Over the past decade, the African-American community has been mobilized by technology.

We spend the most time on social media services. We are avid smartphone consumers and we are the No. 1 demographic on services such as Twitter and Instagram.

You can see the power and influence of African Americans in the response to the police deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. They have used these services to organize protests and create national awareness campaigns. To put it in perspective, the March on Washington in 1963 was attended by 250,000 people. With social media today, you can reach millions of people per tweet, Google+ post or Facebook status with hashtags such as #handsupdontshoot and #blacklivesmatter.

Yet few African-Americans benefit from jobs and wealth inside these social media hubs — let alone having a place in the leadership, on the board of directors or are founders of a start-up that goes on to become a household name.

There is a notable exception. Omar Wasow might not be a household name, nor is he credited with starting the revolution in social networking. But he founded BlackPlanet in 1999 long before MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, and he scaled the platform to millions of users before selling it for $38 million to Radio One in 2008.

There’s a saying in African-American culture: “Often we forget those who have paved the way for many.” As part of the diversity “Oorah” cry to create monetary role models, we keep saying we’re looking for a “black Mark Zuckerberg.” We should be looking for the next Wasow.

Mentoring is a simple yet effective way to do that. Shared experiences can help an individual save time, avoid making the same mistakes and open wide the doors of opportunity.

So I asked black male leaders in technology: “What advice did your mentor provide to help you become successful today?” This is what they told me.

Michael Seibel

Partner, Y Combinator

One of my mentors was our first lawyer at Justin.tv. His name is Carlos Ellerbe. What he told me is that it takes seven to 10 years to make a start-up into a billion-dollar company. He was right. It made me understand how important it is to start with a good team because we are going to be working together a building for a long time.

Justin Washington

QA Engineer, Snapchat

Take the time to build valuable, meaningful relationships versus attempting to connect with any and everyone in a seemingly glamorous position. Integrity beats titles any day!

Brian Dixon

Investment associate, Kapor Capital

It’s not just about having a seat at the table; it’s about having a voice. It’s also not just about you “making it;” it’s about you leaving the door open for the next generation.

Jon Gosier

Founder and general partner, Cross Valley Capital

I never really had a mentor and that was, ironically, the best advice I guess I (never) got.

It was like being a young boy growing up with my father not around. The parent may overlook his or her importance to the child, but the child never forgets. So the lesson I learned was the responsibility to do the opposite for someone else. So now I go out of my way to mentor and advise others. It’s more important to me than my own success.

Brandon Andrews

Director of IMPACT, co-founder of SkillTarget

“Write it down.”

This is a very simple piece of advice that has been incredibly helpful. Writing life goals, drafting legislative outlines, writing organizational plans, writing ideas, drawing wireframes, and writing code all start with putting pen to paper; or fingers to keys.

Effectively and frequently taking the ideas swirling around in my head and translating them into prose and points has been integral to any success I have had.

Diishan Imira

CEO, Mayvenn

A mentor told me to “stop focusing on how I can make money and become focused on how I can make others money.”

Brian Clark

CEO and co-founder, VUE

Two things I’ve found that work are 1) Focus on solving a problem and test it quickly by either getting people to use it repeatedly or pay immediately; and 2) Don’t give up too soon. There’s truth to pivoting but sometimes it can take a couple years until you really start hitting on the pain point, don’t die on your way.

Paul Carrick Brunson

Founder and CEO of Brunson Holdings

Invest in yourself. This is a very simple concept, but incredibly important. I was taught to spend a significant amount of my time dedicated to self-development (whether it be a new language, exercise, computer programming classes, etc.). The moment you stop investing in yourself is the moment you have written off future dividends in life.

Kanyi Maqubela

Partner, Collaborative Fund

My mentors told me that the best way to “get lucky” is to maximize opportunities for luck. More specifically: to meet and know every talented person available to me, because great people are the source of opportunity.

Hajj Flemings

CEO of Brand Camp University

As a community we consume everything and own nothing. It is time design the future versus buying what someone else creates.

Anthony Frasier

Co-founder of The Phat Startup

Advice I received was not from a personal mentor but from Jim Rohn. I saw an old YouTube video from the 70’s where he repeated advice from his own mentor:

“It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.”

Learning how to change the way I perceived a challenge or even a victory has helped me tremendously. It’s key not to put too much focus on things you can’t control.

Wayne Sutton is a serial entrepreneur and general partner at BUILDUP.vc. He has more than 14 years of experience in technology, design and business development.

12358: Interracial Luxury Bedmates.

Chicago Luxury Beds ran the advertisement above in Mandarin Quarterly. Interesting casting choice to show an Asian guy with his blonde trophy wife. Below is another image from the photo shoot.

Hallie Duesenberg Photography

12357: Not Heartin’ Mickey D’s Lovin’.

Advertising Age reported on Mickey D’s regurgitation of its “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign. Initial commercials feature cartoon versions of iconic foes—including characters from R-rated movies—falling in love over McDonald’s menu items. Ad Age also presented a video starring McDonald’s CMO Deborah Wahl delivering clichéd marketing gobbledygook on the “brand transformation” and “powerful ideas” igniting the fast feeder’s shift from a philosophy of “Billions Served” to “Billions Heard.” Perhaps the decision to dump the tagline options revealed by The Wall Street Journal is an example of listening to the billions who ripped the lame concepts—although the notion of lovin’ versus hatin’ is still a central part of the overall theme. “Lately, the balance of lovin’ and hatin’ seems off,” said Wahl. “Who better to stand up for lovin’ than McDonald’s?” Okay, but the latest Big Mac commercial sure is hatin’ on healthy eating and people advocating for healthier lifestyles. Finally, it’s odd for the new mnemonic device to display hearts when everyone knows that Mickey D’s food-like offerings definitely contribute to heart disease.

McDonald’s Describes New Brand Vision, Reaffirms Commitment to ‘I’m Lovin’ It’

Ads From Leo Burnett Will ‘Reinvigorate’ Tagline by Featuring More Positivity

By Maureen Morrison

McDonald’s on Friday described an updated approach to marketing its brand, but the long-running “I’m lovin’ it” tagline isn’t going anywhere.

The chain is instead “reigniting” the “I’m lovin’ it” theme “by introducing a new platform that puts more focus on lovin’,” said the company in a statement. The messaging will focus more on positivity “with more uplifting content and conversations in the lovin’ spirit.

Ad Age first reported the brand campaign after Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett won a pitch for ideas to refresh the brand. “I’m lovin’ it” was not expected to be jettisoned, but rather to be evolved.

“This new focus will inspire everything we do moving forward, from advertising and marketing to how we interact with customers in restaurants and on social media,” the company said.

National TV and digital ads starting Jan. 3 were created by Leo Burnett with support by partnering agencies, the company said. Other agencies on the McDonald’s roster include Omnicom’s DDB, Alma DDB for Hispanic marketing, Burrell for African-American marketing and OMD for media.

U.S. CMO Deborah Wahl, who joined the company in early 2014, said in a video about the brand refresh that the company will move from a philosophy of “billions served”—a line featured on the chains’ marquees—to “billions heard.” On various social media platforms, McDonald’s will continue to actively listen to customer feedback and keep the lines of communication open, as in its recent “Our food. Your questions” campaign, she said.

The central spot introducing the new vision is an animated ad called “Arch enemies.” In it the company illustrates its renewed focus on “lovin’” by showing characters that have long been enemies—the Smurfs and their antagonist Gargamel, Batman and the Joker, a Chicago Bears fan and a Green Bay Packers fan, Freddy from “Nightmare on Elm Street” and Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13th,” and so on—with each encounter ending happily.

Then comes the phrase “Choose Lovin’” before the commercial ends with “I’m lovin’ it.”

The company said other changes in 2015 will include new uniforms on crew members, as well as new packaging and signs in restaurants.

The move comes as the chain has been taking a beating, with decreased sales and increased competition from fast casual restaurants and competitors like Wendy’s. McDonald’s sales in November were down 4.6%, the weakest in the U.S. in more than a decade. Globally, its same-store sales for the month were down 2.2%. For the third quarter, both U.S. and global same-store sales were down 3.3%.

In particular, McDonald’s has been less popular with Millennials than other brands are, and the chain has been working to appeal to the cohort through transparency and quality-assurance initiatives.

Ms. Wahl also said in the video that the chain will feature classics like the Big Mac in more of its marketing—such as a new TV commercial that unapologetically warns vegetarians to look away. She also took the opportunity to tout the chain’s new customizable “Create your taste” platform, which will be rolled out in 2,000 U.S. locations in 2015. She noted that the company recently began offering Cuties mini oranges in its Happy Meals, adding that McDonald’s will market its Egg McMuffins in a way that illustrates that each sandwich is made with an egg that was freshly cracked.

The company is also expected to run an in-game Super Bowl spot, but the company declined to comment on that score.

12356: Looks Lovely Like Lévy.

Campaign spotlighted Publicis Worldwide CEO Arthur Sadoun, one of the White men pegged as a possible heir apparent—although clearly not hair apparent—to Publicis Groupe Chairman-CEO Maurice Lévy. The story repeatedly states that the 43-year-old Sadoun is essentially a younger clone of the nearly 73-year-old Lévy. Is that a good thing? Of course, the narcissistic Lévy must be giddy over the prospect of replacing himself with a fresher prototype… er, protégé. But isn’t the succession scenario similar to Kim Jong-un following Kim Jong-il? It’s such a clear confirmation of the good ol’ boys network ruling the industry—which is especially prevalent in France, when one considers the nepotistic nonsense at Havas. When the proposed Publicis-Omnicom merger fizzled, Omnicom Group CEO John Wren insisted the breakup resulted from corporate cultural differences as opposed to national cultural differences. Hey, if Wren could speak with a French accent, the deal would have cleanly consummated over croissants.

12355: Going From Goodness To Badness.

Adweek reported three White men who co-founded Goodness Mfg. were hired to join Deutsch LA—which should have inspired the trade journal to write the headline: Going from Goodness to Badness. While Deutsch LA has already established itself as a culturally clueless and digitally delinquent shithole, the boys from Goodness Mfg. do show some promise via the 10 X 10 and Intel and National Congress of American Indians projects they produced. Regardless, the scenario underscores how the ad game continues to be fueled by money and an exclusive buddy system. The constant nomadic shifting of White bodies from shop to shop only leads to the commoditization of agencies—Deustch LA is as generic as Goodness Mfg., Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Leo Burnett, Arnold, DDB, BBDO, Droga5, etc. Plus, for co-founders to abandon their baby en masse is pretty sad. When clients change agencies upon the appointment of a new CMO, adpeople whine, sob and gnash their teeth. But when White adpeople nonchalantly move from job to job, essentially disrupting—and even destroying—agency hierarchies and structures, it’s just business as usual.

Three Founders of Goodness Mfg. Are Heading to Deutsch L.A.

Keister, Cianfrone, Adams named executive creative directors

By Andrew McMains

Three co-founders of Goodness Mfg. are taking senior supporting roles at Deutsch L.A.

Paul Keister, who was chief creative officer at Goodness, and fellow executive creative directors Bob Cianfrone and Tom Adams, will now be key lieutenants to Deutsch L.A. CCO Pete Favat.

Each will be an executive creative director and split his time between new business pitches and existing accounts. The agency, which is on a hiring binge with the addition of Sprint’s national broadcast business, now has 13 executive creative directors.

Three of them, however, already work on Sprint: Matt O’Rourke, Gavin Lester and Daniel Chu. So Keister, Cianfrone and Adams will contribute to other agency accounts, which include Volkswagen of America, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Target and Dr Pepper. They’ll start Jan. 12.

“These guys will be jumping in where needed on many pieces of business, but they haven’t been assigned to anything in particular yet,” Favat said. “Our business is moving at a faster pace than ever—we need to be in front of it.”

The hires come two weeks after the trio exited Goodness, the advertising arm of Trailer Park Inc. Keister, Cianfrone and Adams were among five former Crispin Porter + Bogusky staffers who started Goodness Mfg. in 2007. Trailer Park acquired the shop in 2010, giving the production powerhouse the creative juice it needed under CEO Rick Eiserman.

With those three co-founders now gone, Goodness has begun a search for a single creative chief to replace them, according to a source. In the meantime, group creative heads will step up on their existing accounts, which include Toshiba and Vail Resorts. Goodness expects to find its new chief early in 2015.

12354: The Truth On LBJ And MLK…?

From The New York Times…

Depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson in ‘Selma’ Raises Hackles

By Jennifer Schuessler

Was Lyndon B. Johnson a civil rights mastermind, or a reluctant follower pulled along by activists led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

The question has long been a matter of contention, even flaring up in the 2008 presidential primary battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

And now, it has also come to another hard-fought political campaign, the Oscar race, once again raising the fraught question of who makes history — and who gets to write it.

The new film “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, has won rave reviews and awards buzz for its depiction of the tense maneuvering surrounding the protests in that small town in March 1965, as Dr. King (played by David Oyelowo) contended with racist authorities in Alabama as well as factions inside the civil rights movement.

But it has also drawn some sharp criticism for its depiction of Johnson as a laggard on black voting rights who opposed the marches and even unleashed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an effort to stop Dr. King’s campaign.

The charge began on Dec. 22, three days before the movie’s release, when Mark K. Updegrove, the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, wrote an article in Politico saying that the film was trying to “bastardize one of the most hallowed chapters in the civil rights movement.” A few days later, Joseph A. Califano Jr., a former top domestic aide to Johnson, issued another salvo, in The Washington Post, accusing the filmmakers of deliberately ignoring the historical record.

The criticism of the film’s depiction of the president has come not just from Johnson loyalists, but from some historians who said they admired other aspects of the film.

“Everybody has to take license in movies like this, and it can be hard for nit-pickers like me to suspend nit-picking,” Diane McWhorter, the author of “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution,” said in an interview.

“But with the portrayal of L.B.J.,” she continued, “I kept thinking, ‘Not only is this not true, it’s the opposite of the truth.’”

Fierce debates over the historical accuracy of movies, amplified by the heat of awards season, are nothing new. In 2013, Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” was denounced as endorsing torture. Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” another best picture nominee that year, drew criticism from historians who said it promoted an outmoded “great man” view of history and ignored the crucial role of African-Americans in emancipating themselves.

The dispute over “Selma,” the first major feature film squarely about Dr. King and the rare studio offering directed by an African-American woman, may have particularly charged present-day resonances.

Julian E. Zelizer, the author of the new book “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society,” said it recalled the moment in the 2008 primary when Mrs. Clinton declared that Dr. King’s dream of equality only “began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act” of 1964, prompting accusations that she was playing down Dr. King’s role as part of her own effort to best an African-American political rival.

“The debate isn’t just about L.B.J., but about how American politics works,” said Professor Zelizer, who teaches history at Princeton. “Is it a matter of powerful elected leaders, or average people who put their bodies on the line?”

The sparring over “Selma,” which is set for wide release on Jan. 9, has certainly taken on a populists-versus-establishmentarians tinge. In his op-ed article, Mr. Califano wrote that the Selma marches were “L.B.J.’s idea,” citing a transcript of a phone call two months before the marches in which Johnson urged Dr. King to generate white political support for a voting rights bill by seeking out “the worst condition that you run into” in the South and getting images of racist brutality widely circulated in the news media.

In a Twitter post on Sunday, Ms. DuVernay called the notion that Selma was Johnson’s idea “jaw dropping and offensive” to the “black citizens who made it so.” People, Ms. DuVernay added, should “interrogate history” for themselves. (A spokeswoman for Paramount Pictures, the distributor of “Selma,” said that Ms. DuVernay was not available for comment for this article.)

Gary May, a professor at the University of Delaware and the author of “Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy,” said the heightened rhetoric on both sides was unsurprising.

“Here you have the first film about King, and some people are coming in and saying, ‘The story is really about the white people,’” he said. “In historical truth, the story was really about everybody.”

Johnson has been the focus of a rehabilitation campaign among historians and others eager to burnish a legacy shadowed by the Vietnam War and by a lingering popular view of him as “a Southern racist in liberal clothing,” as Professor Zelizer put it.

Professor May, who said he had communicated informally with Ms. DuVernay over the past year after sending her a copy of his book, said that at a preview screening for invited guests in November, some audience members hissed when Johnson appeared.

“On balance, the film is a positive force,” he said. But in the Johnson scenes, he said, “there is a problem with the tone.”

Some civil rights historians, while questioning Mr. Califano’s wording, agreed with his broader point that Johnson and Dr. King were partners, not adversaries.

“Selma was not Johnson’s idea, but he was happy that King was out there mounting a voting rights campaign,” said David J. Garrow, the author of “Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” who has not yet seen the movie.

The movie’s depiction of Johnson’s attitude toward F.B.I. surveillance of Dr. King’s personal life, which began during the Kennedy administration, is particularly problematic, several historians said.

In an early scene, Johnson seems disgusted by J. Edgar Hoover’s suggestion that Dr. King — “a political and moral degenerate,” Hoover says — be taken down. But later the president, angered by Dr. King’s plans in Selma, asks to get Hoover on the phone. Soon after, Coretta Scott King is shown listening to a tape of anonymous threats, followed by the sounds of Dr. King moaning with a lover.

In fact, the tape, which Mrs. King listened to in January 1965, had been recorded and sent to the headquarters of Dr. King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in late 1964 by the bureau’s intelligence division, and had no direct connection to Selma or to Johnson, Mr. Garrow said.

“If the movie suggests L.B.J. had anything to do with the tape, that’s truly vile and a real historical crime against L.B.J.,” he said.

It is true, historians say, that Johnson was hesitant to introduce a voting rights bill so soon after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But Professor May noted that on Dec. 14, 1964, Johnson directed his attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach, to begin drafting such a bill — a fact the film does not mention, he said.

Also omitted, Professor Zelizer said, is the fact that when the Selma marches began, Katzenbach was already negotiating secretly with members of Congress over the eventual bill.

“They obviously wanted to create a villain, and really miss who Lyndon Johnson was,” he said.

The movie, Professor Zelizer said, does a powerful job of depicting the courage of the activists, and the tactical genius of Dr. King. And it gets one thing absolutely right: the crucial role of the movement in pushing Johnson to act more quickly than he thought was possible.

“The real story wasn’t about a president who didn’t want voting rights,” he said. “It was about a president who couldn’t get them through. And it was the civil rights movement that made that possible.”

12353: Flying Too Fast With News…?

Advertising Age published a story titled, “Crisis Management Lessons: How Two Asian Airlines Responded to Disasters”—examining how “AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines Handled Communications Very Differently.” Really? Bodies are still being pulled from the Java Sea and the trade journal runs a case study on crisis management? What’s next—a creative review of the airlines’ advertising campaigns?

12352: Bling In The New Year.

THE YEAR OF THE SHEEP (GOAT) 2015

The Sheep (Goat) is a Yin energy, a symbol of Peace, Harmonious Co-existence and Tranquility.