11585: Men Are Animals.

This campaign from Thailand is sure to win Bestiality of Show.

From Ads of the World.

11584: Carter Murray’s Monsterpiece.

Advertising Age published a fluff piece on Draftfcb CEO Carter Murray’s hiring moves, stating the maneuvers show a desire to burnish the agency’s creative reputation. Okay, except Draftfcb’s creative reputation has been in the fucking toilet since even before the infamous 2006 merger. The former FCB was a crumbling relic, while the former Draft was never known for its creativity. Murray’s actions to date essentially reflect the Way of the White Man. That is, White admen recruit their cronies to recreate teams that were marginally effective in past lives and obsolete in the present reality. The Agency of the Future has become the Agency of the 90s.

New DraftFCB CEO’s Staff Shake-up Proves Talent Is Top Priority

Appointments Reflect Desire to Burnish Shop’s Rep for Creativity

By Maureen Morrison

Carter Murray isn’t even three months into his new job as DraftFCB’s CEO, but he’s wasting no time putting his imprint on the beleaguered shop by shaking up its executive ranks.

Just last week Mr. Murray appointed creative veteran Lee Garfinkel CEO of the New York office—an unusual move, considering agencies typically don’t hire creatives for CEO posts.

Since Mr. Murray’s appointment in September, executive changes include:

Naming former Publicis execs Chris Shumaker and Nigel Jones DraftFCB’s North American chief marketing officer and worldwide chief strategy officer, respectively.

Bringing in Morgan Shorey, also a Publicis alum, as senior VP-strategic business development in October.

Hiring Karen Spiegel from Interpublic sibling R/GA as exec VP-global chief communications officer.

Retaining Jonathan Harries, who had planned to leave the agency at the end of the year, as global chief creative officer.

Promoting Elyssa Phillips, previously exec VP-worldwide creative manager, to chief of staff. Ms. Phillips and Mr. Harries will help elevate the agency’s creative product and in managing DraftFCB’s creative community worldwide.

Blue-chip departures

Those moves, taken together with Mr. Garfinkel’s appointment to the New York CEO post, indicate Mr. Murray is keen to place more creative talent into key leadership roles and improve the agency’s creative reputation. Since its merger with Draft, blue-chip creative accounts of the former FCB, including SC Johnson and MillerCoors, have left the agency. Another creative client, Taco Bell, has greatly reduced its reliance on DraftFCB.

In the months leading up to Mr. Murray’s September start date—and since his arrival—the agency has picked up a number of smaller accounts, including food-service and uniform supplier Aramark and Raybern Foods. The New York shop picked up an assignment from the USDA, and the San Francisco office picked up the Nature Conservancy.

Prior to Mr. Murray’s arrival, DraftFCB’s Chicago office retained Kmart’s creative account after a protracted review. However, it lost its Newell Rubbermaid account, which includes the Sharpie brand, and the remainder of its U.S. Postal Service business, which included retail, promotion and point-of-sale. DraftFCB was the No. 6 largest U.S. agency, with revenue of $443 million, down from No. 3 in 2011, according to Ad Age DataCenter. It is the 13th largest global agency network, with $1.3 billion in revenue.

The New York outpost, rather than Chicago, is now the flagship for the network. Mr. Murray said he has no plans to shake up Chicago’s senior ranks.

“They are picking up new business and doing some incredible work for our clients,” he said in a statement.

11583: Overreaction Of The Week.

Anybody else unsure about the bug-eyed, big-speaker-lipped Beats Pills characters with their predominately Black voices in this, this, this and this commercial?

11582: RaceMan Answers Unveiled.

Artist/Writer/Recovering Adman Lowell Thompson will unveil his smallest book and biggest painting on November 24 at Chicago Book Expo. Learn more about RaceMan Answers at the event—or order a copy right now.

11581: Rock Your Mocs Day.

From The New York Post…

NM gal celebrates Native American Heritage Month with Rock Your Mocs Day

By Post Wire Report

A New Mexico student is celebrating Native American Heritage Month by following in her ancestors’ footsteps in the US.

Jessica “Jaylyn” Atsye, 21, a Laguna Pueblo member, designated last Friday as Rock Your Mocs Day — honoring the unique footwear of many American indigenous peoples by wearing moccasins.

“They show who you are,” Atsye said.

Moccasins historically were the footwear of many Native American tribes. The shoes’ decorative elements including beads, quillwork and painted designs used on moccasins varied among tribes.

“It’s like you’re wearing these pieces of art; they’re all unique.” said Jessica Metcalfe, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa from North Dakota.

11580: Better Ingredients. Better Ads…?

Advertising Age reported Papa John’s put its creative account into review. Adpeople backing Obamacare need not apply. Ditto supporters of legalizing marijuana.

Papa John’s Launches Creative Review

Move Comes a Month After Bob Kraut Named CMO

By Maureen Morrison

Papa John’s has put its advertising account into review.

The account is currently at ZGroup, a unit of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Zimmerman. The review, which will focus on creative only, was initiated following several months of evaluation of the brand’s advertising needs, according to a press release. Zimmernman has declined to participate in the review. NJS Consulting will handle the review process.

A spokeswoman for ZGroup said “the numbers speak for themselves. We are incredibly proud of our relationship with Papa John’s and wish them the best.”

“As the recognized industry leader in customer happiness and the leader in digital ordering, Papa John’s has built an incredible amount of momentum over the past few years,” said John Schnatter, Papa John’s founder, chairman and CEO. “We feel the timing is right to seek an agency partner that can capitalize on that momentum and help advance our brand to the next level through fresh thinking, brand messaging and more innovative, integrated marketing.”

The move comes a month after the company named former Arby’s marketing exec Bob Kraut its senior VP-CMO. Mr. Kraut replaced Andrew Varga, who left Papa John’s in March to become president at Zimmerman. Mr. Kraut said that the agency “has been an important partner and member of the Papa John’s marketing team for many years. We thank them for their contribution and loyalty to the Papa John’s brand and believe they will continue to serve us well in their media and co-op buying role.”

Papa John’s is the No. 3 pizza chain in the U.S. by systemwide sales, according to Technomic, following category leader Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It has 7.3% market share, with $2.4 billion in U.S. sales in 2012. Pizza Hut has 17.1% market share and Domino’s has a 10.5% share.

Papa John’s spent about $119 million on U.S. measured media in 2012, up 4.8% from $113 million, according to Ad Age DataCenter analysis of Kantar Media data. Pizza Hut spent $239 million in 2012, while Domino’s spent $197.2 million.

11579: Black | Up Is Beautiful.

From black | Up Paris

11578: T&A With Tyson & Ines.

Tyson Beckford and Ines Rau for OOB magazine.

11577: BK Worker Flame-Broiled.

From AOL Jobs…

Burger King Worker Fired For Sign Saying, ‘Now Hiring Must Be Mexican’

Burger King says worker acted on his own

By Dan Fastenberg

As countless Americans struggle to find work, many can’t help but wonder—is the search all the more difficult because of competition with immigrants? The conflict may be irrelevant at times, but here appears to be an instance when the role of immigration in the workforce was forced under the spotlight. “Now Hiring Must Be Mexican,” a billboard outside a Burger King in Ephrata, Washington, recently read, as was reported by local radio station KFFM.

There are some questions about the image. Initially, KFFM wrote it wasn’t “exactly sure of the reasoning. Maybe none of the current staff can speak espanol,” the site conjectured, as was reported by the news site, Opposing Views. But an update on KFFM’s website noted a “disgruntled employee” was fired for putting up the sign. The radio station has also questioned whether the image was actually taken at the Ephrata branch, as well.

Burger King has released a statement through its Facebook page in which it made clear the worker, who has not been named, was not acting on behalf of the parent company:

“The sign in question was posted briefly last summer, without approval at a franchise-owned and operated restaurant. Please know the franchisee has informed us that the employee who posted and photographed this sign was immediately terminated as a result. The Burger King team is dedicated to diversity and inclusion.”

KFFM also polled its readers on whether they found the sign offensive. Eighty percent have said yes, as of the latest tally. The incident has also touched a nerve among Burger King fans on Facebook. And even though it appears just one employee was behind the sign, people like Susie Carol Mallard Hortman are calling for a boycott of the company on its Facebook page. “I will not be your customer ever again,” she wrote.

The immigrant card

Either way, as AOL Jobs has reported, the large school of academic research on the subject maintains the effect of immigrants on America’s jobs landscape to be largely negligible. As Pia Orrenius, a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, previously explained to AOL Jobs, every 10 percent increase of foreign-born workers in a region leads to a 1 percent change in the average wages of the legal residents. And the statistic holds true for skilled workers as well, she said.

Why is that? For starters, many immigrants occupy jobs many Americans would simply rather not take. And with new arrivals doing much of the grunt work, other workers are allowed to specialize in a field, allowing them to thrive. Finally, the so-called “immigration surplus” holds that the economy must benefit from the uptick in goods and services used by the new arrivals. And so in the long run the impact on native-born workers’ wages is a “wash,” according to Orrenius.

11576: Is Total Market Total Bullshit?

The Big Tent featured columns by Chiqui Cartagena and Rochelle Newman-Carrasco on the latest Total Market mumbo-jumbo spewed at the annual ANA Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference. Um, given that Total Market has been fuzzily defined by cross-cultural cheerleaders as being distinct from multicultural marketing—with strong implications that Total Market is better than multicultural marketing—it seems a little silly for Total Market to be a major topic at the ANA Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference.

Based on the comments left at Cartagena’s column, not all minority marketers embrace the Total Market concept—or even understand it, for that matter. Multicultural marketing enthusiasts have already pooh-poohed cross-cultural marketing. The civil wars erupting among non-White adpeople appear to be growing daily.

Cartagena claimed that a majority of marketers are adopting Total Market strategies. According to Santiago Solutions Group CEO Carlos Santiago, about 54% of advertisers are executing Total Market theories on some level, with roughly 66% of the 54% insisting Total Market efforts were already showing positive market share results and return on investment. With all due respect, Cartagena and Santiago are probably wrong. In 2008-2009, ANA surveys showed the majority of advertisers were not engaged with minority marketing firms and multicultural marketing initiatives were underfunded, under-supported and unappreciated. Sorry, but adland has not dramatically evolved in the last five years—or the past 50 years.

Until Total Market translates to total slices of the marketing pie versus random crumbs, it’s just a new smokescreen designed to divert attention from the continued separate-yet-unequal conditions that minority professionals face and minority audiences receive. In short, it’s Total Bullshit.

11575: Draftfcb Reinventing Disaster.

Adweek reported Draftfcb CEO Carter Murray continued his peculiar hiring maneuvers by naming veteran Lee Garfinkel as CEO of the New York office. Garfinkel spent the last three years as Co-Chairman, Chief Creative Officer at Havas Worldwide. Moving from Havas to Draftfcb is like divorcing Kim Kardashian to hook up with Khloé—or dumping Rue McClanahan in favor of Bea Arthur. The spurned Havas boasts, “We were the first global agency to fully integrate our traditional and digital agencies, and the first to appoint a digital leader as our CEO,” yet still shows Garfinkel among the bigwigs on its website. So much for Havas Global CEO David Jones’ blathering about being nimble and agile. Anyway, the addition of Garfinkel helps Draftfcb propel itself back into the 20th century. In 6.5 seconds or less.

Lee Garfinkel Takes N.Y. CEO Role at Draftfcb

Leaves Havas Worldwide after almost 3 years

By Andrew McMains

Lee Garfinkel is leaving Havas Worldwide after nearly three years to run the New York office of Draftfcb as its new CEO.

At Havas Worldwide, Garfinkel was chief creative officer of global brands and chairman of New York. Since the summer, however, the shop has installed new leaders in New York, with global co-president Andrew Benett assuming the role of CEO in June and Darren Moran becoming New York chief creative officer in August. As a result of the moves, Garfinkel’s role has shrunk.

Draftfcb, meanwhile, has made a series of top executive hires recently under new global CEO Carter Murray. In September, Murray hired Nigel Jones as worldwide chief strategy officer and Chris Shumaker as North American chief marketing officer. Now, he’s adding veteran leadership to a key office.

“Some of the best agency leaders have come from creative backgrounds and I believe that Lee, with his strong creative reputation, is absolutely the right CEO for our New York office,” said Murray, who added that he has “high ambitions” for New York.

Top accounts in the office, which employs about 175 staffers, include Fisher-Price, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment and Amtrak.

Garfinkel, who before Havas was chairman and chief creative officer at DDB in New York, characterized his new job as “something much more entrepreneurial than what I have been doing recently and it’s something that I have been looking to want to do for a while. I really wanted to be more hands-on and be involved in all facets of the business.”

Garfinkel added that there are “really not a lot of creative people running offices of major agencies. And I think that’s to the detriment of the industry right now. I mean, why shouldn’t the people that actually create the work and know how to do that be running the agency? I see it as a great opportunity.”

When he arrives in January, Garfinkel will become the top executive in New York and join a management team that includes chief creative officer Javier Campopiano and chief strategy officer Sara Bamber. Draftfcb Healthcare, with more than 700 staffers, is not part of his remit and remains under the leadership of CEO Dana Maiman and chief creative officer Rich Levy.

As a result of the hire, Debra Coughlin, the agency’s global chief marketing officer and New York general manager, will shed her New York role, according to Murray. Coughlin helped lead the office after Maiman relinquished the position of New York president of the ad agency in January.

11574: Very Black Coffee.

ALDI in Australia expresses with stereotypes. G’day, muthafucker.

From Ads of the World.

11573: Why Ad Interviews Blow.

Digiday published How to Not Blow it at Your Ad Agency Interview, featuring alleged industry leaders sharing their pet peeves about bad interviewees. There are a few disturbing things about the piece. First, the comments sound like Interviewing 101, indicating that the interviewers are pretty standard in their hiring practices. Second, the respondents didn’t present any details regarding recruiting; that is, they seemed to think that interviewees should do all the work and know everything about prospective agencies, but agencies don’t have to sell themselves or appeal to candidates in any way, shape or form. Third, all the respondents were White—which is apparently the number one requirement for landing a job in advertising.

11572: All That Jazeera.

If Al Jazeera America is struggling to gain credibility and trust, why advertise for editorial talent on AgencySpy?

11571: Delayed WTF 28—Dumb Depot.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

Wanted to provide further commentary on The Home Depot’s social media fiasco involving a tweet deemed racist.

Within hours of the mishap, the retailer tweeted a condemnation of the original message and announced, “We terminated agency and individual who posted it.”

Wow. Imagine if every advertiser were so brilliantly decisive and brutally unforgiving. In the overwhelming majority of cases where culturally clueless communications have been published, the client takes the heat while the agency gets off scot-free—and remains gainfully employed. Interestingly enough, The Home Depot partners with The Richards Group, the shop that hatched talking vaginas with stereotypical voices. Why, the White agency even won the Latino portion of the account from The Vidal Partnership with an in-house multicultural unit that would likely feel challenged in a faceoff with TVP’s janitorial maintenance crew.

In short, The Home Depot screwed a top minority agency and handed its business to the segregated silo of a White agency—yet now has the audacity to feel outraged over a clumsy tweet. Perfect.

11570: Overreaction Of The Week.

Is anyone else not too sure about the Movember styles that include Gringo, Jihad Jack and Fu Manchu?

11569: Vote For A Veteran Adman Now.

This Veterans Day, let’s salute veteran adman Harry Webber.

No, Webber hasn’t represented his country through military service—and he’d never imitate Tom Cruise by comparing his career actions to those of a soldier in Afghanistan. Rather, the following tribute merely seeks to recognize his tour of duty in the advertising field. Plus, offer a unique way for all of us to honor his victories.

Webber’s creative breakthroughs are nothing short of historic. “A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste” has raised over $1 billion for the UNCF. “I Am Stuck On Band-Aid Brand” remains the longest-running campaign ever. In a business dominated by White men, Webber’s achievements routinely rival and exceed the best efforts of the majority.

Webber spoke out on the dearth of diversity when others remained silent, earning an expulsion from the industry.

Webber presented the 4As with a strategic plan to launch the first minority training program on Madison Avenue, effectively recruiting countless people of color into the ranks.

Webber literally wrote the book on market segmentation, orchestrated a truce between rival gangs in Los Angeles and masterminded the Obama Super Pac.

While most professionals boasting such an impressive résumé would enjoy praise and reverence, Webber has not received his just due. It’s time to change that.

For the past five years, Webber’s company—Smart Communications—has been reinventing advertising. The culmination of the experiments is called NeoAdvertising (click to learn more). Webber is ready to unleash it on the world. To succeed, he needs your help.

The Chase Mission Main Street Grants Program will fund Webber’s initiative, provided he can show he has public support. To be considered, he must convince 250 people to vote for him. This is where you come in.

Go here now at the Chase Mission Main Street Grants site and cast your vote. It’s that easy. You must connect via your Facebook account. But don’t worry, your information will not be stored, shared or abused—it’s only to verify legitimate voters and prevent fraud. Hurry, voting ends November 15.

Harry Webber is a veteran adman who deserves your support. Take a moment to show it now.

11568: Food Stamps & Foodish Stuff.

Advertising Age reported the federal budget includes a $5 billion cut in food-stamp benefits, which could adversely affect packaged-goods marketers and retailers. The story was illustrated with a photo of Oscar Mayer Lunchables. Um, Lunchables qualify as food?

11567: Faking Blackness.

From News.com.au…

Politician wins election by pretending to be black

By News.com.au

A white candidate who tricked voters into believing he was black to win a local election is unapologetic about his deception.

“Every time a politician talks, he’s out there deceiving voters,” Dave Wilson, a conservative white Republican who ran for office in Houston, Texas, told K Houston.

Wilson, whose tactics were labeled “disgusting” by opponents, sent out fliers to his overwhelmingly black Democrat constituency strongly implying he was black.

The fliers had photos of smiling African-Americans and were captioned “Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson.”

One of the fliers referred to an endorsement from Ron Wilson, a name local voters were likely to associate with a former Houston state representative who is also black. In fact the endorsement came from Wilson’s cousin who lives in Iowa and shares the politician’s name.

The tactic worked and Wilson won the election to the Houston Community College System board.

Bruce Austin, the longtime Democrat incumbent pushed out by Wilson, said: “I don’t think it’s good for both democracy and the whole concept of fair play. But that was not his intent, apparently.”

11566: Monocultural Motor Oil.

This Valvoline commercial comes off like Dodge RAM or Chevy Silverado with its White exclusivity. Haven’t the responsible creatives ever seen the car culture presented in the Fast & Furious franchise? The tagline reads: 140 Years Under The Hood. Is Valvoline referring to Klan hoods?