• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, March 4, 2014

Like a Charmin commercial encouraging people to Enjoy the Go, Arnold is encouraging its employees to share what they are listening to when they are in the office restroom, you know, enjoying their own go. Yes, the agency is out with Arnold UrinaryTracks, a Twitter feed and Web site that aims to bring a whole new meaning to the concept of sharing. One wonders if some algorithm could be applied to determine the "intensity" of bathroom business to, I don't know, predict the desired frequency of toilet paper restocking.

Agencies, as you go about the design and development of online properties for your clients, it might be best never to utter the word HTML publicly to consumers. Not that you necessarily would, as it's sort of a backroom technical term -- but we now have good reason to keep it in the backroom. A recent study conducted by coupon Web site VoucherCloud found 1 in10 Americans think HTML is a sexually transmitted disease. Despite 61% of respondents saying it's important to maintain a good knowledge of technology, 27% think gigabyte is an insect commonly found in South America and 42% think motherboard is the deck of a cruise ship. Be wary, B2B and B2C advertisers. Choose your buzzwords wisely.

Okay, first of all -- no idea Scarlett Johansson was pregnant. Second, no idea she was getting married. Third, no idea she was engaged to a dude named Romain Dauriac. And fourth, no idea Dauric ran a creative agency in France. Which, of course, is the only reason Scarlett Johansson would find herself in a Mediapsssst column. Unless, of course, she was oh, I don't know, marrying an ad guy and having his baby.  

Layoffs are never fun to report. Having worked on the agency side of things, I've had to lay people off and I've been laid off. Neither side is a fun side to be on, though of course, getting laid off sucks way more than handling layoffs. Yesterday, it seems, New York-based Publicis Kaplan Thaler made a few cuts. We're told the cuts were small, but we've also heard the merger with Publicis has not gone well. Not all mergers can be winners, you know. Not that we wish ill will on anyone.

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