11642: Jesus, Megyn Kelly Is Ignorant.

From The New York Daily News…

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly declares Jesus and Santa were white

Kelly causes a stir with on-air response to Slate article on Santa Claus

By Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Megyn Kelly is dreaming of a white Christmas.

The Fox News star has stepped into a holiday hornet’s nest by insisting on her show that both Jesus and Santa Claus were white — and that anybody who believes otherwise needs to get over it.

“For you kids watching at home,” Kelly said during her prime-time show on Wednesday, “Santa just is white. But this person is arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa.”

Then Kelly, a Fox franchise player, dug herself in further by saying that Santa couldn’t be anything but Caucasian because he’s like Jesus.

“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change,” Kelly said. “You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too.”

Kelly was reacting to a Slate.com piece by Aisha Harris, who had made the case that maybe, as the U.S. becomes more diverse, it was time to “ditch Santa the old white man altogether, and embrace Penguin Claus.”

“People love penguins,” Harris wrote.

There was no immediate response from Kelly to the uproar, but a Fox News spokeswoman said she would address the controversy on her Friday broadcast. She was ill Thursday.

While it is true that both Jesus and Santa Claus have been depicted by European painters as white for centuries, many scholars say the historical figures probably weren’t the kind of white that would have passed muster with a segregated 1950s golf club.

Jesus was a Jew born in Bethlehem, a Semitic town in what is now the West Bank.

And the New Testament does not describe his appearance.

The historical St. Nicholas is believed to have been a Greek bishop living in what’s now Turkey, two countries where fair-skinned blondes like Kelly aren’t as common as they are in, say, Sweden.

The jolly, red-cheeked figure we’ve come to know as Santa Claus appears to be a melding of the Father Christmas figure from England and the Dutch Sinterklaas.

Sinterklaas’ sidekick, however, is Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, a figure some complain is a relic from Holland’s racist past that should be retired.

11641: Saturday Night—In Living Color.

From The New York Times…

‘S.N.L.’ to Add Black Female Performer

By Bill Carter

How seriously did “Saturday Night Live” take the furor around its lack of a black female performer?

Seriously enough to hold a special audition Monday night on the “S.N.L.” stage for seven or eight candidates, one of whom will be hired and will join the cast for shows beginning in January.

The show’s creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said in an interview on Thursday that he had committed to that timetable to add the show’s first black woman since Maya Rudolph left the series in 2007. Several casting sessions were held over the last few weeks leading to this week’s audition.

“All told we’ve seen about 25 people,” Mr. Michaels said. “A lot of the people we saw are really good. Hopefully we’ll come out of the process well.”

He said he believed that as many as two performers could potentially be considered, but he did not want to add too many women at this time because the cast already includes five.

“S.N.L.” had been subjected to a barrage of criticism over the last several months over what seemed to be a glaring absence on the comedy show, which has had relatively few black female performers over its long history.

The criticism was kicked off by comments from two of the show’s black cast members, Jay Pharaoh, who said the show needed to “follow up” on the promise to add a black woman, and Kenan Thompson, who announced he did not want to do any more impressions of black women in drag.

Comments reverberated in the media and around the Internet, with Mr. Michaels explaining that his process for selecting cast members was driven purely by talent considerations.

He repeated that point on Thursday, saying, “We’re all about talent. It doesn’t help if somebody’s not ready — and ‘ready’ is one of the charged words. But you want to be sure you give people the best possible shot.”

Mr. Michaels said he had seen two black women performers in Chicago when he was hiring for the show this fall, but “it just wasn’t there in the studio” when they were brought to New York for the final audition. “Then when the deck got reshuffled and as we premiered we realized, it looks a different way.”

That was when a new search began, he said.

The show’s talent department held an audition for about a dozen in Los Angeles at the theater used by the improvisational group The Groundlings on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Mr. Michaels saw another dozen in New York the following Monday. (The news of the auditions first appeared on the website Gothamist on Thursday, which included a series of tweets from the women who had tried out in Los Angeles.)

Though he did not attribute the surge of interest in securing a black female directly to the criticism the show had faced, Mr. Michaels acknowledged that it was “100 percent good for the show to have an African-American woman” in the cast.

It is not merely because the show could use a woman capable of playing the first lady, Michelle Obama, in sketches, he said, though that was important enough a consideration that all the candidates will be asked to try an impression of her Monday night.

Mr. Michaels said there had been too much focus on how the show had no one to play Mrs. Obama or Beyoncé. “That’s a weird sort of way at looking at it because you don’t judge comedy that way,” Mr. Michaels said. “Versatility is what we look for.”

Mr. Michaels said he could not remember ever adding a new cast member in the middle of its season, but he said he had frequently added players in March or April to work them into the last few shows of a season. This season is different, he said, because NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in February will pre-empt two editions of the show.

Given the attention the issue has received, the woman who makes it onto the cast is certain to be much talked about — and subjected to unusual scrutiny. “That’s one reason we took extra time,” Mr. Michaels said. “You have to be careful to try to protect your players.”

Mr. Michaels will be in the middle of probably the busiest period of his career when all this takes place, because he is also preparing the new “Tonight” show starring Jimmy Fallon and the new edition of “Late Night” with his longtime “S.N.L.” star Seth Meyers.

And then there is the pilot he is working on for NBC’s prime-time schedule, a new take on the traditional television comedy-variety show. The star of that one: the “S.N.L.” alum Maya Rudolph.

11640: A Real Santa Claus.

From The Los Angeles Times…

At South L.A. mall, a Claus with quite an effect

Langston Patterson is the main attraction at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza at Christmas: a rare black Santa in a sea of white ones.

By Angel Jennings

Dressed in a red Santa suit, white beard and rimless glasses balanced on his nose, Langston Patterson sits on a velvet couch and waits for his adoring fans.

Some call first to make sure he will be there. They come from Palmdale, Thousand Oaks and San Bernardino, driving past many shopping malls with Santas, but none that look like him.

For nearly a decade, Patterson has been the main attraction at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza during Christmastime: a rare black Santa Claus in a sea of white ones.

The mall, located in the heart of black Los Angeles, is one of the few in the country with a black Santa Claus. Some say Patterson is the only black shopping-mall Santa Claus in the Los Angeles area.

As visitors approached him on a recent afternoon, it was hard to tell who was more excited: the youngsters or the adults. The parents are the most loyal. They return with grandchildren, passing on a family tradition with a deep personal meaning.

“We need our kids to understand that good things happen in chocolate skin,” said Til Prince, 50, of Palmdale, watching her granddaughter, niece and her niece’s son pose with Patterson. “We are often bombarded with the opposite. We’re not trying to exclude anybody, but [instead] celebrate our chocolate skin.”

Patterson’s place in the Christmas traditions of black families seems only to have increased as the African American population of Los Angeles continues to decline amid waves of Latino immigration. The Crenshaw mall now has both a black Santa and a Spanish-speaking Latino Santa, a nod to the demographic shift.

“We make a point to stay in tune with our community,” said Rachel Erickson, the mall’s marketing director.

Perched at his post in the middle of the mall, Patterson greets the eager and the weary. He disarms frightened children with a swift high-five and shares jokes with their parents.

They’ve come to expect him the last two months of every year, seven days a week, four hours a day.

Like many of the children who visit him, he doesn’t believe his skin color makes him different. He’s simply Santa.

“I never even thought about it,” the 77-year-old said. “I’m just giving back and making the kids happy.”

He got the job on a fluke. In 2004, Patterson was sitting in the shopping center’s food court when a mall worker approached him and asked: “How would you like to be Santa?”

Patterson had heard the comparison before. Ever since he stopped shaving and a crop of wiry white hair sprang from his face, people would say he resembled St. Nick.

As Patterson considered whether to take on the role, he recalled the elaborate Christmases his parents created for him and his four siblings in Houston during World War II.

His dad would don a Santa suit and let out a thunderous “Ho! Ho! Ho!” in the middle of the night, to the delight of the children. They would rush downstairs, just in time to see Santa sneak out the door.

“We had beautiful Christmases,” Patterson recalled, smiling at the memory. “My mother didn’t let us know we were poor.”

Although he was initially hesitant, the timing was right. Patterson, a computer technician, retired from the Los Angeles Unified School District years earlier, and he could use the extra cash. Plus, he wanted the diversion. His best friend had just died of cancer. And his two sons lived out of the area.

“I just thought I was getting paid to put on a Santa suit and say ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’” he said. “But then I sat down and saw their reactions. I get a chance to make kids happy.”

Nobody tracks the number of African American Santas nationwide. But Timothy Connaghan, head of the International University of Santa Claus, a Los Angeles-based Santa school, said: “It’s a very lopsided number.”

He keeps a Rolodex of the more than 2,200 Santa Clauses he has trained throughout the country. In the decade since he opened his school, he has had three black pupils.

“Santa is very strongly typecasted because he was born out of Europe and as his story traveled throughout, he was mostly Caucasian,” Connaghan said.

Patterson’s boss, Mac Siu, said he has tried for years to find a backup but has yet to find anybody with Patterson’s charisma, grandfather-like gentleness and Santa features.

On a recent Saturday, 3-year-old Jahleel Logan anxiously walked up to Santa Claus, arm outstretched with a letter in his tiny hand. Santa took the folded paper and lifted his gloved hand. Jahleel gave him a high-five.

As Santa read Jahleel’s wish list — Play-Doh, Lego, Ninja Turtles — the little boy stood calmly.

You’ve been a good boy this year, Santa told Jahleel, reminding him to listen to his mother.

Arlene Graves watched from the sidelines. Seeing her godson with a black Santa meant more to her than to the youngster.

“I just don’t want him to think that all greatness comes from a different race,” said Graves, 45. “There are Santa Clauses his color doing good work, too.”

Tracy Price, 52, was surprised when she spotted a black Santa and rushed over with her 31-year-old daughter, Kelly Ross.

After a few pictures and some lighthearted advice from St. Nick, the two women marveled at seeing a non-white Santa.

“To know we have something that’s positive, wholesome and traditional,” Price said. “This is a Santa that our children can relate to.”

11639: Out Of Furnace, Into Stereotypes.

From The New York Times…

New Film, ‘Out of the Furnace,’ Accused of Stereotyping Ramapough Indians

By Corey Kilgannon

MAHWAH, N.J. — The past week has been unsettling for the Ramapough Mountain Indians, who live on this northern stretch of the Appalachian Mountains that overlooks the Manhattan skyline and wealthy parts of Bergen County. The new movie “Out of the Furnace,” featuring a star-studded cast that includes Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson, also features numerous negative references to the Ramapoughs. They include a fight-ring subplot.

Keith Van Dunk, 27, a member of the tribe, took a break from feeding the chickens at his father’s house up on Stag Hill here on Sunday morning and gestured at the surrounding woods.

“You see any fight ring up here?” he said. “Absolutely not.”

Tribal leaders and local elected officials held a news conference last week, speaking out against a film that they claim portrays them as trashy backwoods bumpkins involved in drugs and violence. One Ramapough henchman in the movie even bears Mr. Van Dunk’s last name.

The references constitute a “hate crime” that has “stained the community and stirred up animus” by increasing marginalization and stigmatization, said the Ramapoughs’ chief, Dwaine C. Perry, 66, in an interview.

In the past few days, he said, there had been several instances of Ramapough students in local high schools being picked on by classmates who had seen the film, including one case in which a teacher had to intervene.

At a showing of the movie last weekend, someone hurled slurs at a Ramapough woman in the theater, he said. There was also a fight at a local mall that tribal members said was stirred up by the film.

“The film contains ugly stereotypes that stain you for life,” Chief Perry said. “The undertones are racist and personal. It’s a hate crime when you look at the psychological impact on the kids.”

Contacted for comment, the film’s production company, Relativity Media, released a statement saying that the film is “entirely fictional” and not “based upon any particular person or group of people.”

“As is the case with most films, the filmmakers conducted research and drew upon their own personal life experiences in creating an original screenplay, and the story and the characters are entirely fictional,” the statement read.

Scott Cooper, who directed the film and co-wrote the script, was unavailable for comment Wednesday night. But a Relativity Media spokesman said that John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, Pa. — the other main setting in the film — had nothing but praise for the way the movie portrayed Braddock. Mr. Fetterman called it a respectful depiction that was “eloquent, forceful and honest,” in a guest column he wrote for Variety magazine.

Several characters in the film have last names that are prevalent Ramapough names, including De Groat and Mann. The film was not shot in the area, but the Bergen County Police Department is portrayed as the local authority.

Mr. Van Dunk said he refused to buy a ticket to the film, but he consulted the IMDB website and saw that several cast members were listed as “Jackson White.”

The term “Jackson White” is a slur used by outsiders to deride the Ramapoughs, Mr. Van Dunk said, referencing the tribe’s descent from Native Americans, whites and runaway slaves who settled in the mountains in the late 18th century. The term dredges up decades of a long, ugly history of discrimination and marginalization.

“To me, it’s like calling a black person the N-word, and my father is black,” said Mr. Van Dunk, who works for a moving company in Hackensack. “In high school, kids would call me a Jackson White in the hallway, and if I stuck up for myself, they’d say I’m living up to the stereotype.”

Before the opening of the film, which was the third-grossing film in the country last weekend, The New York Post published an article saying that it depicts the Ramapoughs as “New Jersey hillbillies.” The article characterized tribe members as unsophisticated, intermarrying types who are ridiculed, who hunt and eat squirrels, and who drive all-terrain vehicles on dirt roads.

“After reading in The Post about the Ramapoughs being a bunch of hillbillies eating squirrels, I drove into Manhattan the first night it opened to see the film for myself,” said Mahwah Mayor William C. Laforet. He added that a mine depicted in the film appears to be modeled on the local Abex foundry, now shuttered.

“There are numerous connections, factual and implied, and now the producers are backpedaling and saying it’s fictional,” Mr. Laforet said. “It’s unfair to the folks on the mountain to resurrect those stereotypes. It’s a disgraceful depiction of that community.”

The mayor also said he feared the fight-club element would lead teenagers to test Ramapough children. Local school officials have been “keenly sensitive” to watching for discrimination against students from Ramapough families in the wake of the film, he said, stepping up what has already been a “zero tolerance policy” in recent years regarding discrimination against Ramapough children.

The mayor said he feared the film could add to the longstanding problem of young people driving to Mahwah to take joy rides on the roads of Stag Mountain.

“It’s going to bring outsiders to the mountain looking for some Wild West,” he said. “This isn’t the backwoods of Kentucky — it’s within eyeshot of New York City.”

The Ramapough people trace their roots back thousands of years to the Lenape tribe. Now there are perhaps 5,000 members living in mountainous areas around the border with New York.

For a group long known as “mountain people,” the film is another in a long line of indignities, which include a lack of federal recognition as a tribe, despite gaining official recognition decades ago from New York and New Jersey.

There was the humiliation a few years back of becoming the butt of late-night jokes, after the Ramapoughs’ practice of hunting and eating squirrels drew governmental warnings regarding lead levels in squirrels at a local Superfund site. Then there was the unusually high level of health problems that tribal members connected to toxin dumping by the Ford Motor Company. When the tribe wanted to apply for a casino permit, even Donald Trump joined the fight against it.

Regarding the influx of joy riders, Elmore Wilson, a tribal member who lives on Stag Hill, said they had been on the increase.

“One of them just busted my windshield,” said Mr. Wilson, 54, as he stood on his front lawn on Sunday with his son, Michael Wilson, 24, near the tribal headquarters. Elmore Wilson, a security guard at Ramapo College, said he sat Michael down years ago and gave him the Ramapough facts of life.

“I told him, ‘This is what you’re going to be facing because of where we live,’ ” he recounted. “You’re going to hear we’re a bunch of inbreds, all kinds of stuff. You just got to let it roll off your back.” Nicole Ginsburg, 21, who works the counter at Jersey Boys pizza parlor at the foot of Stag Hill, said some local residents made fun of the Ramapough members as banjo-playing hillbillies.

“Some of the Mahwah kids call them inbred,” she said. “One kid said, ‘Oh, you don’t want to bump into a Jackson White up there.’”

As for Mr. Van Dunk, before returning to his chickens, he said he was rethinking his future.

“Right now, my pride keeps me here, but I guess I’ll have to move as my kids get older,” he said. “I don’t want them growing up with people looking at them funny.”

11638: More 4As “Ad Tax” Whining.

Adweek reported the 4As board of directors—comprised of CEOs from major advertising agencies—made the unprecedented move of going on record to oppose the “ad tax” being proposed by the Senate. Not sure why this is such a big deal. After all, 4As President-CEO Nancy Hill already published an Advertising Age editorial on the subject last month. Plus, the trade group employs lobbyists to politick for them. So the board’s fervent support should be a given. “This is truly beyond the ordinary,” gushed a 4As wonk. “We wanted to stand apart and emphasize what a serious threat to the business this is.” Right. And how many board members have ever done anything beyond the ordinary—or even anything less than ordinary—for industry diversity? Just wondering.

Major Agency CEOs Come Out Against Ad Tax Deduction Limits

Letter from 4A’s board is a departure for group

By Katy Bachman

For the first time, the 4A’s board of directors, execs from the nation’s largest advertising agencies, have gone on record opposing the Senate proposal to limit the advertising tax deduction.

The letter, sent today, was in response to a proposal from Senate finance committee chairman Max Baucus that would reduce the ad tax deduction by half for the first year and amortize the other half over five years.

“The recent proposal from the Senate Finance Committee would severely undercut the economic power of advertising to generate sales and support jobs,” wrote more than two dozen high-profile agency execs such as Bill Koenigsberg, president and CEO of Horizon Media; John Montgomery, COO of GroupM Interaction; Tim Spengler, worldwide CEO of Magna Global; Matt Anthony, CEO of Young & Rubicam North America; and Lisa Donahue, CEO of Starcom Worldwide.

They cite research from IHS Global Insight that found every dollar of advertising generates $22 of economic output or sales and that every million dollars of spending supports 81 jobs.

Since tax reform proposals to limit the ad tax deduction come into play in the House and the Senate, the lobbying arms of the 4A’s, Association of National Advertisers and the Direct Marketing Association, among others, have gone into overdrive to try to fight them. But while it’s one thing for agency and advertising lobbyists to write letters and knock on the doors of lawmakers, the 4A’s board of directors have never personally joined the lobbying scrum.

“This is truly beyond the ordinary,” said the 4A’s top lobbyists and evp Dick O’Brien. “We wanted to stand apart and emphasize what a serious threat to the business this is.”

11637: Zesty Zoë Saldana.

From Modern Luxury CS…

11636: Shhhhit From Special K.

Special K produced this lame video that comes off as a poor woman’s Dove Real Beauty concept, examining how women “fat talk” about their figures. Um, if women are indeed obsessed about their bodies—and incidentally, there are different cultural attitudes about body image not being acknowledged by the Special K video—it’s mostly fueled by advertisers like Special K and Dove. After all, these brands have historically depicted female models reflecting ideal White beauty standards. Plus, The video feels forced and staged, with “real” women that resemble advertising agency account executives.

11635: OOH-No!

Facing foreclosure? Dance your debt away!

11634: You’ve Come A Long Way, Barra.

Reuters reported General Motors is elevating Global Product Development Chief Mary Barra to CEO, making her the first woman to run the automaker. Since GM was founded in 1908, the move was arguably long overdue. However, it must be pointed out that a White woman still rose to the top before a Black executive. Then again, one might argue that President Barack Obama officially took over GM during the bailout.

General Motors names product chief Mary Barra as new CEO

DETROIT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Tuesday said Chief Executive Dan Akerson will step down next month and be replaced by Mary Barra, the company’s global product development chief, marking the first time a major U.S. automaker has been led by a woman.

The company said in a statement that Akerson, who is also the chairman, will leave on Jan. 15, pulling ahead his planned departure by several months. His wife was recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer.

Barra, 51, the executive vice president for global product development, purchasing and supply chain, was elected by the company board as the next CEO and will become a director. Theodore Solso, 66, will succeed Akerson, 65, as chairman.

11633: Ad Age Fumbles The Obvious.

Advertising Age published a story titled, “Why There Are So Many Jewelry Ads on NFL Football.” First of all, “NFL Football” is a redundant term that only an idiot would use. Second, even an idiot doesn’t need an explanation for the media placement, so we won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by clarifying matters.

Why There Are So Many Jewelry Ads on NFL Football

Jared, Kay Target Female Viewers, But Also Look to Hook Men About to Pop the Question

By Beth Snyder Bulik

When Matt Coen and his sons watch NFL football, there’s one commercial that never fails to crack the boys up. It’s the Jared’s spot in which a guy proposes on an airplane and the flight attendant makes an announcement.

Mr. Coen himself remembers seeing jewelry ads in Sports Illustrated and thinking how “ridiculous” that was—until he was ready to propose, and recalled the ads down to the four C’s lesson of color, cut, clarity and carat. “It’s content marketing,” said Mr. Cohen, president of software-platform-promotions company Second Street. “You move from thinking it’s funny or it’s ridiculous to ‘Hey, wait a minute—that’s me.’”

Jewelry ads on football are a big business, especially around the holidays. Combined TV spending for Jared, Kay Jewelers and Zales Jewelers during NFL football programming was $42 million in November and December 2012, up 4% from 2011, according to Kantar Media.

Jewelry spending for this year is expected to be even better thanks to a confluence of factors: easing of the recession, more women watching football and more weddings planned for 2014. (Last year was slow, according to TheKnot.com, in part because of reluctance by some couples to have “13” in their wedding date.)

“The NFL is just a smart move, especially with more female viewers now who are more involved with the [engagement] ring choice,” said Denise Favorule, exec VP-national enterprise at TheKnot.com.

The NFL ads aren’t just focused on engagement rings, even though 16% of engagements occur in December. Jewelers also know what the Knot’s other research shows: More than half (55%) of people return to the same jewelry store where they bought their engagement ring to buy wedding bands, and 73% return to that retailer for future jewelry-gift purchases.

Around $11 billion is spent annually on wedding jewelry, according to the Knot. Total U.S. jewelry revenue is $32.8 billion, according IBISWorld. “Hooking [consumers] early with your store and your services is a lifetime value of jewelry purchases,” Ms. Favorule said.

Jared and Kay’s parent company, Sterling Jewelers, declined to comment. Zales did not return calls.

NFL Network Director of Sales Brad Van Nostrand said the overall NFL fan base is 45% female. “It’s a cross-section of targeting—men giving gifts to women, and women who plan on shopping for themselves,” he said. “The jewelry category has always shown strong interest with the NFL … [especially] for the past six or seven years. It’s really an annual thing.”

11632: Customers’ Bill Of Rights.

See details here.

11631: NFL Sign Shows Sonic Offense.

Catch the play-by-play at NBC News.

11630: Infinite Infiniti Options.

Adweek reported the Nissan Infiniti brand is up for review. Incumbent agency TBWA\Chiat\Day is defending the account, which has been serviced by the shop for roughly 15 years. Guess Nissan United wasn’t enough to keep the automaker happy. Look for holding company Omnicom to throw Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Juniper Park and Fathom Communications into the pitch. Why, if Omnicom also taps Publicis Groupe, the Corporate Cultural Collusion possibilities for Infiniti are infinite.

Infiniti Launches Global Creative Review

Incumbent TBWA is defending

By Andrew McMains

Nissan is reviewing global creative responsibilities for its luxury Infiniti brand, an Infiniti representative has confirmed.

Worldwide media spending on the brand was not immediately available. In the U.S. alone last year, however, Infiniti spent nearly $230 million in media. That figure represented a substantial uptick from 2011, when spending totaled $125 million, according to Nielsen.

TBWA has been Infiniti’s lead global agency since the late 1990s. The Omnicom Group shop, whose largest global client is Nissan, is defending. The agency had no immediate comment.

The review is in its early stages and includes regional responsibilities, such as in the U.S., according to the rep.

“Infiniti has worked with our current advertising agency for 15 years,” the rep added. “We feel it’s prudent to review this relationship on a regular basis to ensure the best possible service and performance levels. To this extent, we are currently reviewing our options, and have asked several agencies, including our current agency, to present their capabilities.”

The review coincides with a separate search for an agency to handle a new global assignment to lead social media efforts. That search is also at a preliminary stage.

As another Infiniti rep explained, “Social Media is an integral part of the company’s interaction with consumers, media and other stakeholders. It is global by nature and so, we have an opportunity from taking a global view at this part of the business.”

Both reviews will extend into the first quarter of next year, if not longer.

The searches come three months after Michael Bartsch was named to replace Ben Poore as vp of Infiniti Americas—the top post in the region. Before that, Bartsch was chief operating officer at Porsche Cars North America. He started his new job in September.

11629: Turn To Stone With Rihanna.

From British GQ…

11628: Waving A White Flag.

American Advertising Awards proclaims, “This Show Was Made For You And Me.” OK, but it’s mostly a showcase for White advertising agencies. Why else would the AAF see the need to also hold a segregated minority awards program?

11627: Uh Oh, SpaghettiOs.

From those wonderful folks who gave you canned pasta products, here’s another example of why brands should not be on social media.

11626: Unilever To Cut Out Fat.

Advertising Age reported Unilever plans to axe about 800 marketers and slash advertising agency fees, which won’t be a real beautiful move.

Unilever Plans To Cut 800 Marketers As It Slashes Agency Fees, Products

Weed: ‘We’ll Be Able to Remove Quite a Few Regional People’

By Jack Neff

If there was a single theme at Unilever’s investor seminar in London today it was cuts. The company will slash marketing headcount by 12% globally, or more than 800, mostly in regional operations such as the U.S. It’s also cutting the number of product varieties it sells by 30% and will continue to trim agency and commercial production fees, company executives said.

Unilever executives framed the moves as part of continuous cost savings of the sort that have been common since Paul Polman became CEO in 2009. But the talk of spending cuts, particularly in marketing, was more detailed than usual in this year’s investor presentation, which followed a quarter when Unilever disappointed investors with top-line growth that fell behind that of its biggest global rival Procter & Gamble Co. for the first time in years.

Unilever’s growth has slowed particularly in what had been its biggest competitive strength—developed markets—as economic growth there slowed and competition from the likes of P&G and L’Oreal, among others, increased.

Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet said Unilever expects to find more than $470 million in marketing savings this year, up from $260 million last year, in part from reductions in “non-working media,” or what the company spends on such things as agency fees and commercial production. It also expects to save by shifting more spending to digital, which now accounts for 15% of ad spending for the world’s No. 2 spender. That’s up from 14% last year and 12% in 2011.

Unilever also will reduce the number of stock-keeping units (SKUs), or sizes, flavors and varieties of products, 30% by the end of 2014, Mr. Huet said. It’s a huge cut for a company in an industry that has been trying to control SKU proliferation for decades, but also a risky one given industry trends favoring variety and smaller players with SKU-intensive product lineups that have been taking share from bigger players in the U.S. in recent years.

A Unilever spokeswoman in an e-mail declined to give details on precisely how, when or where the company will cut marketing jobs, but said it was safe to assume the 12% applies to a base of 7.000 global marketers referenced by Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Keith Weed in his presentation at the seminar.

“The marketing world has changed dramatically,” Mr. Weed said. “There’s an awful lot we can do to tailor our organization.”

Go direct

Part of that will be to allow global brand leaders to “go direct to big countries, rather than through regional hubs” and by using more global concepts and advertising, he said. “You can see in that organization we’ll be able to remove quite a few regional people.”

While Unilever has hiked advertising spending by $2.7 billion since 2009, Mr. Weed said it’s also saving money through lower-cost “earned” and digital media, or close targeting, such as only showing taxi ads near stores.

Some of Unilever’s biggest cost savings have come in so-called “non-working media,” or what it spends on such things as agency fees and production. Mr. Weed said non-working media outlays have shrunk from 32% of advertising and promotion spending in 2010 to 26% last year and an expected 24% this year. He said his ultimate goal is 20%.

Unilever spent $9.1 billion on advertising and promotion last year, which would suggest nearly $2.4 billion in agency and production costs. That compares to $8.2 billion in reported marketing spending for 2010 and $2.6 billion in agency and production costs.

The agency and production savings have come from doing fewer, bigger and higher-quality initiatives, Mr. Weed said, also pointing to the company having been recognized by Advertising Age as the advertiser with the most creative awards globally in the past year. Overall, the marketing spending per new initiative has risen 29% the past two years as the number of smaller projects has declined, Mr. Weed said.

11625: The Crazy Ones Is Crass.

CBS series The Crazy Ones took its reliance on celebrity guest appearances to a new low, integrating lingerie-clad Victoria’s Secret models. The hotties allowed the program to show some diversity, offsetting the predominately White cast. And the heterosexual appeal was offset by homosexual tension between Simon Roberts and Gordon Lewis.

11624: Dearth Of Dames Abroad.

Campaign asked, “Why are there so few female creatives?” Advertising agencies in the U.K. have a dearth of dames too? Imagine that. Then again, the trade journal managed to find a handful of White women to weigh in on the topic. Which means on the ad industry corporate totem pole, White women are only a head below White men—and waaaaay above minorities.

11623: Nelson Mandela (1918-2013).