TheSpunker - by Ben Popken. Published by Gattaca, Inc.

Insert Pithy Title Re: Advertising Vaudeville Here

Mikal Riech does improv. He's the CD for Mad Injection, a "hot dose of creative injection" spinoff of Mad Dogs & Englishmen. Every Wednesday at 10pm he performs in the "Harsh" improv troupe. Past and present students from portfolio shop Adhouse ("New York's smallest and arguably hippest ad school," says Advertising Age) where he teaches are invited to attend and mingle as well. Is it any good? The Spunker will have to attend and tell you what to think. (Thanks to Bill).

Inside the Mini Pitch is a Caramel Pony

Inside the convoluted fun land of the MINI pitch, Business Week reports that the four finalist agencies were subjected to a Double Dare gauntlet of deeds to determine their quick thinking and reflexes. In addition to making name tags on the spot and answering grueling questions like, "If Arnold Schwarzenegger runs for President, who should be his running mate?" the competing agencies, "were sent out into nasty rainy weather to drive MINI Coopers and go on a kind of scavenger hunt for ideas and props to be used for a scrapbook. The book would tell a MINI story that the agencies and the client would all review over cocktails. Butler Shine's scrapbook centered on a story about a mannequin the team named Darlene, which it snitched from a local electronics store. Darlene and team motored in a MINI to a pumpkin patch, but the caper ended up, for real, with the team being grilled at the local police station." Sounds both 1) better than the usual staid agency review boards and 2) queer. MINI's CEO is said to have given the account to Butler because, "[h]e especially liked its work for Converse sneakers, including a campaign in which Converse enthusiasts, rather than hired hands, created short Internet films, which also ran on TV." Converse has been swinging more and more mainstream and will only continue to amp up efforts towards gaining market share while sacrificing brand identity. Likewise, McDowell task for Butler is to take the culty MINI and blow it up even bigger while maintaining its idiosyncratic "je ne sais what the fuck" -- in essence, to make MINI the Altoids of compact cars. We'll be watching to see whether Butler can keep MINI advertising innovative or whether the work ends up all "creativey." via.

Postal Service Left out in Cold by Apple Ad Ripoff

They're not geniuses. Apple/TBWA messed up again. The blatant ripoff of the Postal Service's video was unauthorized and the band was completely unaware and did not receive compensation. Adrants points us to Adpulp pointing to a statement by band member Ben Gibbard on the Postal Service's website: "It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent." This isn't just indie bitching. The band and the label had to pay for the video. They spent months concepting and producting i, only to have it co-opted by a major corporation. As revealed by the many comments on this issue, some people assumed that it was the result of some backend cross-promo deal between the Postal Service and Apple, an assumption potentially damaging to the Postal Service's rep.  Any way you slice it, it's underhanded. Any way you slice it, it's created brand confusion, as Adreak notes, "More than 100 people have reviewed the video on iTunes, but a number of them seem to be confusing the ad and the video, leading one exasperated visitor to write: “Reading some of these reviews wants to make me punch myself in the face. ‘Making computers’??? Where in this video do they make ONE single computer? … Most of you need to stop writing reviews and start blogs instead.” No statement has been forthcoming from Apple or TBWA. We demand answers. Though, perhaps the answer is that TBWA is just a big piarate ship. An Adpulp commentor notes, "...Chiat has always been masters at hacking the obscure. Remember the Taco Bell Chihuahua law suit? Or "The Stuff of Life" campaign for Kmart? (Actually you wouldn't remember that because it was ripped straight out of a student portfolio and when the school threatened to sue Chiat, Chiat threatened to blackball every student graduating from that school)." Bad ass pirate ship or ship of fools? The market will decide.

It's my Lucky Day

It's Friday the 13th, I got 4 hours of sleep, my hair's standing up a bit in the back, that guy was staring at me on the subway because my headphones were too loud (what, doesn't everyone like electro-disco-punk at 8:30 in the morning?) and there's a printing smudge on the bottom of my best piece. Sounds like a good day for me to walk into Ogilvy and show them my copywriting portfolio. So at noon EST, write the word "salubrious" five times, rub your temples, and whisper, "I believe in magic, fucking magic, all the time."

So that's how they get all their press...

Adpulp: "John Keehler of Random Culture says let's give credit where credit is due. He points out, rightly, that Campfire and The Barbarian Group, played huge roles in the development of Audi's "Art of the Heist" campaign and BK's Subservient Chicken campaign, respectively. Yet, McKinney and Crispin Porter seem to get all the accolades. Can't we all just drive our Audis to Burger King and bask in the glory?"
Contagious: "Is the advertising industry like a giant Russian doll, with networks being held up by regional offices, regional offices being held up by boutique rich media hotshops, and boutique rich media hotshops being held up by individual geniuses?"
Debate continues at Soflow.

What We Learned, Revealed!

Here are 40 pages from the WK12 book (the quasi-secret Wieden + Kennedy tome with quasi-secret instructions on applying for its hands-on internship program). A current student writes, "All along there has been an electronic copy of over 100 spreads hidden on our website.  This was done in case of applicants on the tip of the Aleutians or some other far-flung location.  As we get closer to the deadline we would like to reveal the existence of this electronic copy to everyone.  Within it (and not within your .pdf) are the application instructions.  It can be found by going to the www.wk12.com website and instead of entering your email address when asked, entering the word "book"."

The Fenske is in the House!

After 10 years of living in a van down by the river, Mark Fenske has come indoors. The 51-year old ad vet will return to Wieden + Kennedy with Coke's iconic campaign as his first assignment. "I said yes to Dan [Wieden] on the basis of his asking," said Fenske from his office at VCU Adcenter in Richmond, Va., where he's been teaching since 2000. "He asked me what I'd been doing, and I told him I've been working freelance gigs; it's just that no one can sell what I write. He looked at me and said, 'I can.' " [via, via]  Hopefully Mark will update the Coke's image more than his blog.

CP+B Seeks Rocky Mountain High

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is opening a new shop in Boulder Colorado in July.  Adweek, "However, Porter said the outpost is not intended to service a particular existing or new client, but to offer agency staffers a lower-cost alternative to its Miami headquarters. " (read: agency playpen) I don't know what Miami prices are , but Boulder ain't cheap. Nearly the entire town economy is geared towards draining the college student's pockets of their weed money. "Porter said the plans for July include 30-40 employees, mostly creative staffers, relocating to Boulder." This is fantastic as I moved from Denver a little over a year ago because there was nothing going on there... Ahck, I still would've moved, NYC kicks Boulder's ass. To really get into the local flavor, CP+B should launch the new office with a bitchin' frat party. Adweek via Adpulp.

Mortier Brigade Site Up

Mortierbrigade, who gave us the Humo condom ads, has a new site up with tons of their ingenious and diabolical work. Check it out, like this surrealist ad for online gaming. via.

Donnie Deutsch's Fortress of Solitude

According to the impeccably fact-checked Copyranter, this is a photo of Donnie "The Other Don" Deutsch's corporate bathroom. As you can clearly see, there are many toilet paper rolls. Necessary for industrial strength pants shitting and client hemorrhage. Those performance fleeces were easier on the way down...