11038: WALTER Not Wise.

JWT launched a pop-up agency for SXSW called WALTER. The website reads:

The only thing making a difference is different

Five days. That’s how long we’ll be around in Austin. WALTER is the start-up, start-down ad agency powered by JWT. A collective of industrious outsiders who embrace uncertainty, invent within chaos, and make a difference by being different.

Sign up here to meet with us about your idea or company. If we like what we hear, we’ll create a customized, strategic marketing plan for you.

Call us WALTER.

It was cool while it lasted.

Wow. That’s lame.

Why the hell would tech-minded startups want to connect with a dinosaur BDA incapable of even assembling a decent website? It’s like seeking dating advice from Taylor Swift. Or beauty tips from Joan Rivers. Or advertising insights from, well, JWT.

Adrants reported JWT CEO David Eastman said, “Walter is meant to be a reciprocal thing—we’d learn from the startups, where technology is going culturally, and they’d learn from us and could be partners for our clients. It’s a value exchange. We get exposure to new tech and startups and those people would get exposed to the brands and the creative thinking that they wouldn’t necessarily have access to.” Jesus, this guy has delusions of grandouche.