The Denver Egotist says "We've just redesigned our blog to turn it into a platform that can be launched in any city around the world for the purpose of reporting on creative happenings in local markets." and with that they launched the Egotist network where you could step up and open the creative blog hub of your city. "Very few existing sites promote their local creative scene. Given our experience with Denver and the conversations we're currently having with other cities, this is something that's clearly in high demand wherever you live."

Behold the gorilla robots of the adpocalypse - the end is nigh!

Just as 5.1 is becoming the standard surround mix for broadcast, Pirate NYC has signed a superstar in the medium. Grammy-nominated expert commercial audio post mixer Gary Tole is one of the top 5.1 engineers in the United States and has earned a reputation for consistently delivering mixes that are superior both technically and creatively. With more than two decades of experience, he is one of the few mixers who combine true audio post expertise and artistry to make his projects perpetual sonic stand-outs.

"I've been around so many world-class clients and studios that I know excellence when I see it, and Pirate is sound producing at a level as good as anyone in the industry," stated Tole. "I'm eager to join the crew and help Pirate as they continue to grow in the U.S."

The Beancast is up; Episode 87: Text For Haiti has Bill Green ( @mtlb ), Joseph Jaffe ( @jaffejuice ), Dave Wilkie ( @jetpacks ) and I talking about everything from Elephants replacing Tiger Woods to the Google Chinagate. It was my first time speaking with Jaffe, despite us running into each other countless times over the years on the web, very nice to "meet you" . ;)

But first, we spoke about Haiti and the Red Cross text message campaign that brought in so many millions of dollars. Joseph Jaffe is auctioning off a keynote by him, where the proceeds go straight to Haiti in full - check out more at a keynote for a cause.

Then we talked about those tweethearts featured in Vanity Fair. That photo of the lovely ladies wearing nothing but trenchcoats and heels set the whole article up wrong in so many ways. Will they flash us next?

Either way, @wilw is my twetheart. Mine I tell you! You can't have him. Oh, that's right, yes you can, all you have to do is follow him, brace yourself for laughs.

Edit: Oh, and if you stumbled over here from the Beancast and have been living under a rock last week, the Coke Happiness Machine is here, and the Coke's Happiness machine vs Nequicks talking vending machine is under that link.

Catherine Heath has been named Chief Strategy Officer for Modernista!, it was announced today by Matthew Charlton, Worldwide President of Modernista! She begins work on January 15.

The hire follows recent senior management changes at Modernista, which include Charlton being named president, and the moves of Clift Jones to Chief Operating Officer, Chris Wallrapp to Chief Marketing Officer, and Matt Howell to Chief Technology Officer. Co-founders Lance Jensen and Gary Koepke remain Executive Creative Directors.

You should read James P. Othmer's article on Adage When I Knew Advertising Had Completely Changed. If you haven't already, check out his book Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet (excerpt).

Here's what happened: In 20 years I went from earnest, wide-eyed junior copywriter to big agency golden boy to disillusioned, bitter, corporate burnout, then, briefly, back to golden boy, then to capable veteran and finally back to corporate burnout, but this time without the bitterness or disillusionment. Because really, there is no reason for a rational adult to be disillusioned with advertising. With medicine, or art, or the Peace Corps, maybe. But saying you're disillusioned with advertising is like saying you're disillusioned with politics or the porn industry.
What did we expect, fulfillment?

Swedish musician Love Harnell launched a project in mid-December that is now looking to become a marketing smash hit for 2010.

The project is called Lovejingles.com - the world's first online jingles concept. On the website www.lovejingles.com Love offers to write and perform customized video jingles for brands and individuals - but he only offers 365 jingles, one for each day of the year. The cost for the January 1st 2010 jingle is only 1 USD and the cost then increase by one dollar a day throughout the year.

Adverve is yet-another-ad/marketing-podcast, but instead of talking about what happened last week, the hosts Bill Green of Makethelogobigger and Angela Natividad of Live and Uncensored have dug deep into 'isms'. They started with racism in advertising with Hadji Williams who has a few horror examples to share. People saying no to hispanic agencies that create better work? What? I'm honestly shocked.

This years last episode was about sexism. You can download here, or subscribe via iTunes. I was the special guest, and my post show wrap-up is here for cliff notes on what I wanted to say regarding sexist advertising.

Just for a refresher, this is what that Method Shiny suds ad looked like.

GM's bean counter culture kills again, SAAB is dead - On Friday, General Motors announced it was closing down the Swedish automaker and adding the Saab name to the growing list of dead brands, instead of a moment of silence us at Adland want to remember SAAB in all it's air fighter 900 Turbo Tony Scott glory of this eighties ad. R.I.P.

Grey Amsterdam has strengthened its digital capabilities this week with the appointment of two Swedes, Tim Sajdak and Oscar Asmoarp, as Digital Directors.

Grey Amsterdam has a strong digital offering and produces digital work for 80% of their clients. They are upfront with clients about not doing digital work for the sake of it, but as part of an integrated approach, when it’s the right communications solution.

Sajdak and Asmoarp will not be heading up a separate department. Instead, they will be infiltrating their digital talent within Grey Amsterdam’s existing creative process.

Managing Director, Hazelle Klønhammer, says:

Need to increase your creative web presence? Got an awesome portfolio somewhere that nobody is linking to? Want your name to rank higher in search engines? That last part is trickier.

We can fix that. I've tried Radostar out. The only thing I've uploaded so far is my cosmonaut mural, my painting of Yuri Gagarin that can already be seen on my website, just to test out the features of the site. It was easy to do, but what's more I saw that Radostar reigned the search engine results on "cosmonaut", "dabitch" and my full name immediately after upload. In short, if you want to be found this is not a bad idea.

Another neat trick to teach the search engines that you're cool is simply to upload your ads here as well. Adgrunts like the Perlorian brothers are fifth hit on google, while David Edwards is fighting his way up the search results by dispensing new ads on a regular basis. Your profile page can lead people to your linkedin page, your Radostar page/ portfolio page or wherever else people may find more information about you. (Don't forget you can embed your films uploaded here in your portfolio pages elsewhere)

If you don't have a portfolio at all, I've already mentioned the easy to use Carbonmade, and I still think that its a nice easy way to get some work up on the web (without knowing a lick of html). Takes all of ten minutes to set up a portfolio without breaking a sweat. Go on. Start building your online creative rep.

Google and Twitter have turned red on AIDS day. With a simple tweak, all AIDS tweets are font color red, and Google's homepage flashes "today is world AIDS day" (provided you hit google.com). The irony of "world aids day" only being shown on the .com is not lost on me.

Twitter's homepage (when you are not logged in) is red and says "1 Dec is World Aids day. Help turn Twitter (Red). Follow @JoinRED to find out how." The Hashtags #aids and #red will turn your tweets red - and so far (fingers crossed) I haven't seen spammers take these tags over yet. Maybe they have a heart after all? You'll see on @Joinred's background that Nikefootball.com/RED is the signee - however when I hit that URL I get a regular Nike page.

Facebook has also turned red - encouraging users to change their avatar to red ones.
This, coupled with the contagious earworm hit song from Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive are both ideas that play on 'contagious', which in my humble opinion is exactly the way to go with AIDS campaigns. We concluded already in the early nineties that scare tactics do not work.
I've had a similar idea, not contagious but a lottery, showing just how easy it could be you which I finally managed to pull off on a bunch of popular websites back in 2004. I would have died and gone to heaven if someone as big as Google had joined in on that idea. The full story of this ancient idea can be found in my old portfolio, I have been dragging this idea along since I was in school wanting to make it happen just because I find the topic rather important. That's why I still get really exited when I see good AIDS campaign ideas executed. I'll tweet red as much as I can (when it's relevant) today just to join in.

Advertising is immersed with the notion of infusing creativity and dynamism into a successful and connecting marketing idea.

In an industry where creativity is key, and convention is thrown out of the window on the very first day, ‘normal’ just doesn’t cut it.

As a result I thought it was time to utilise that creativity and ability, to come up with a connecting and relevant idea: www.adlandshouldhireme.com

A great opportunity for young advertising students and professionals to land paid internships at the ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London and New York.

BBH is developing an advertising campaign around ila DUSK, a new personal safety alarm for women. For the global product launch they are looking for a 30-60 second promotional film, ad campaign style photographs and a design artwork for the ila DUSK personal alarm covers and skins.

BBH and the directors of ila DUSK themselves will choose winners from the Talenthouse community. In every vertical there is also a budget of $6,500 and every person who participates is entitled to a share according to how popular their creation is among the Talenthouse community.

More details can be found here:
Photography: http://talenthouse.me/244
Designer: http://talenthouse.me/245
Video: http://talenthouse.me/246

REDMOND, WA – McNett Corporation, the country’s leading manufacturer of care & repair products for the adventure sports category, has awarded its advertising/design account to Redmond-based Hammerquist & Nebeker. The decision was made following a competitive review of several top West coast firms. The review was conducted by Hitch, a Bellingham based search consultant. David Wiggs, president of Hitch was quick to point out “When it came down to the final decision, H&N’s deep category understanding won the day. H&N was a match, culturally, with McNett and combined with their outdoor expertise, the partnership was a great fit.”

"Yes, Walter did the show from his bed, Åsk did it reclining on some strange Swedish bed-chair-thing and the rest of were just envious..." says Bob Knorpp about last nights beancast. I hopped into the empty chair at the very last minute as @bmorrissey got delayed on a train in Jersey after running a marathon in only 3:09. Me and Walter Pike ( @WalterPike ) were night owls and thus reclining comfortably and propping laptops on our bellies while David Vogeleer ( @missinglink ), Creative Technologist, The Martin Agency informed us that he was just plain old sitting at a desk. Ana Andjelic ( @andjelicaaa ) had just appeared in Adage with the piece "Why Digital Agencies Aren't Ready to Lead" so we dove straight in the deep end and started the show with talking about that.

Episode Seventy-Eight: Live From Walter's Bed and you can download the show here or subscribe via itunes.

Looks like the rumors are true, Cliff Freeman and partners is no more.

Adweek reports

The mystery surrounding the ongoing status of Cliff Freeman and Partners deepened as sources said CFP staffers in New York have been packing up boxes and selling equipment and chief financial officer Gail Hoffman Frusciante is leaving the shop today. She did not return calls.
The 22-year-old agency's namesake founder did not respond to Adweek inquiries.

OOoh, lookie here. Victor and Spoils just sent us a press release six hours after I posted this. It's pretty late here, so I'm going to go ahead and share it in full with you.

---
John Winsor, Claudia Batten and Evan Fry today announced the launch of a new advertising agency, Victors & Spoils, the world’s first creative ad agency built on crowdsourcing principles. Crowdsourcing is the act of digitally delegating a task to a crowd of people or community that passionately participates in developing a solution. The new agency will provide businesses with creative solutions to their marketing, advertising and product-design problems, by engaging their customers as well as a creative department made up of the world’s most talented people. Perceived crowdsourcing flaws will be addressed through world-class creative direction delivered through the use of the reputation-ranked Victors & Spoils crowd. Winsor will serve as Victors & Spoils’ Chief Executive Officer, Batten assumes the role of Chief Operating Officer and Fry comes on as Chief Creative Officer, effective immediately.

Victors & Spoils represents a fresh agency model that offers brands an alternative to ad agencies and current crowdsourcing platforms by offering the strategic direction, engagement and relationship management that brands rely upon their agencies to provide, as well as delivering the engagement, return on investment and results that marketers seek from crowdsourced solutions.

The Denver Egotist commentators are snarking NEW BOULDER AGENCY, VICTORS & SPOILS, WILL SPECIALIZE IN (GASP) CROWDSOURCING after having read the New York Times article on the CP+B breakaway Victor & Spoils. Welcome To Victors & Spoils. Let’s Change An Industry. "Calling all creatives. At least the ones with spirit."

One comment on TDE smirks: looks like they crowdsourced their website. I’ll give them 1 year to ride the latest little trend, before falling apart and resurfacing elsewhere in separate pieces.

A crowdsourced agency. How will this work in an industry where the inventory goes down the elevator every night? Will it work?

Time flies when you punching that god damned monkey, it feels like it was just yesterday we said Happy birthday on the banner ads tenth birthday and showed off the horrendous AT&T banner ad that ran in Hotwired at the time.

Adgrunt ottowt shared some info on that ad in the tenth anniversary thread.

For the record: the "Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE?" ad was created for Modem Media/AT&T by TANGENT Design/Communications of Westport, CT.
Principal Creators:
Copy Writer: Joe McCambley, Creative Director, Modem Media
Graphic Design: Craig Kanarick, Associate, TANGENT Design (pre-razorfish)
Executive Producer & Art Director: Otto Timmons, VP, TANGENT Design
Contributors:
Brent Hood, CEO, TANGENT Design
Research Intern, Tangent Design (I will have to track his name down)
The Client, AT&T (a great guy and ditto on tracking the name down)
Although we had the most popular ad on Hotwired (according to Brian and Matt...) there were at least five or six other banner ads that launched at the same time and they too should get credit for being "first". I can remember Club Med, AT&T, ZIMA. Last but not least, O'Reilly's Global Network Navigator, GNN, started accepting paid advertising at the same time (one banner ad on the home page, as I recall).

For the 15th AdAGe has joined in to celebrate and they dug up screenshots of Hotwired and Frank D'Angelo reminisces about the digital advertising revolution he witnessed firsthand.

Four of our then-clients placed ad banners as part of that first campaign, MCI, Volvo, Club Med and 1-800-Collect. (The other two advertisers were AT&T and Zima.) Keep in mind, this was 1994; the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, was less than a year old (soon to be replaced by Netscape Explorer), and Web access? Purely dial-up, 24.4kps if you were lucky, meaning these ads took a while to load. The online U.S. population? Two million, if that.
These "original six" were the first brands to take a leap of faith and place advertising in the unchartered "cyberspace" territory. But several didn't know they were taking it until after the fact. Corporate America was still largely unfamiliar with the graphical web, so we didn't even try to sell the concept. We decided to commit agency media and development dollars to place client banner ads on HotWired without clients' prior consent or knowledge. The way he saw it was if they liked it, they would be happy to pay us and if not, that was OK too; but at least the agency would get a running start at exploring this new exciting medium that was on course to change all of our (professional) lives.

Spot Otto in the adage comments as well. :)