• by Kelly Samardak , September 25, 2009

"The Egos" Ping Pong Tournament, SPiN, New York
September 24, 2009

A lot of people have asked me a lot of questions leading up to Advertising Week, during Advertising Week, and without a doubt they will be asking questions afterwards.  They usually center around what my beat is.  So, stuff like "What parties should I go to?" "Can you get me into [party name here] party?" "Can I be your +1?" "Which one was the best?" "How did this year's parties compare to last year's?" and "Did you have any idea your liver looked like this?"  Today I'll answer for you the question "What's 'The Egos' and should I go next year if they have a 2^nd Annual?"

SPiN is new.  In fact, it's so new they aren't even open yet.  The intention is to be a ping pong club.  You heard right, they're out-hipstering the hipsters.  Feh shuffleboard and dodgeball!  So 2009.  The SPiN designers are smart.  Once they open to the public, they're getting a free outdoor advertising spot for the length of their stay.   An almost floor to ceiling window opens to the 23^rd street 6 station.  A new skin clog formed every time those tin cans of transportation dropped more peds off at the station.  They triangle shaded their eyes to peer at the  confusing action inside.  Was that Judah Friedlander?  Are those people playing... ping pong?  How the frick did they get their burgers that small?!  Watching people watching people is actually more entertaining than watching the pingpongers themselves.  I also enjoyed startling them with my flash the same way I enjoy startling pigeons with a bb gun.

Let's get to the dirt, shall we? I have horrible neighbors who decided that Thursday nights are a great night to pretend the roof isn't really a roof at all, but their own fancy nightclub where their main activity is dropping bowling balls and scraping their lead weight boots all over the place.   Thus, I saw 3:30am and not for any fun reasons, so crazy is set to 11 today.  That's your grain of salt.  I walked into SPiN no problem.  No info was handed out at the door like, say, a program, but this was par for the course with this event with details appearing last minute. 

I spotted two guys at the front desk.  My assumption is: front desk = people who help.  Not so.  The young men not only didn't greet me, they also looked over me, never made eye contact and blatantly ignored me when I asked for info/help.  Rude times 90.  So I just walked in.

Rule #1 to event planners/PR types/companies doing their own PR/human beings who want to succeed: set the tone at the door.  If that tone is rocketfueled jerkstore, well, you get the picture.   I walked in to a loud voice booming over the speakers, ref girls in teeny tiny white skirt outfits (hooray more indications the old boys club owns this town!), orange balls being slapped all over the place, lots of passed food, and thankfully into the presence of normal dude and Reprise Media new dad, Anthony Iaffaldano.  He was in the middle of a conversation with Patrick Harris, director, Search Agency Sales, Microsoft Advertising.  I interrupted because I was so happy to see not only a familiar face, but a regular dude.  And Anthony, if you're reading this, you obviously need to send me the vogueing baby pic so I can append it.  Cutest baby ever.

The games began and the balls were flying and by observation and personal experience I can bet this was a really fun event for participants. As a lone ding dong weaving around without anyone in the tournament (it's agencies, not trade publications, heehaw) to emotionally and monetarily invest in, it just didn't really matter to me.  The worst part is, I had a nagging feeling all day that I should have just gone to Digital DUMBO and thumbed my nose at Advertising Week for the night.  So to answer the question posed in the first paragraph, The Egos is a ping pong tournament with the big prize awarded in the form of the Mongoose VS. Cobra award. I would absolutely recommend you sign your agency up if they do this again next year (AND get the date right, ahem, rhymes with Laygent Fixteen).  But only, and I repeat, ONLY, if your entire team/agency attending gets goofy matching costumes.  How fun would it be to play against a tiger?  

I left before anyone won, but I bet you'll eventually find out.

Bigger photos are better photos!

*added at 1:35p.m - membership info.  I'll leave the judgement up to you.