• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 1, 2014

Have you heard about the Cover Oregon kerfuffle? Apparently an ad created by Wieden+Kennedy satellite, North, was parodied by John Oliver on HBO, who took jabs at the apparent failure of the state's health insurance exchange which cost upwards of $200 million and doesn't really work. Oliver took issue with one particular ad North created that features folk singers portraying the fact everything is wonderful in Oregon and he created a parody featuring Lisa Loeb that basically labels everyone in Oregon a bunch of "fucking idiots." It's actually quite hilarious -- but North Chief Creative Officer Mark Ray is not amused and has penned a scathing blog post entitled "Yes, John Oliver, We Are Stupid Fucking Idiots" in which he pulls no punches in his lambasting of Oliver for not understanding the whole picture. And for, well, clearly hurting his feelings a bit. 

After just nine months on the job, Arnold New York President Corey Mitchell is leaving the building. Clearly something was amiss. Something didn't gel. Somebody pissed someone off. Or Mitchell fell on his face. Of course, no one is saying such things. At least publicly. Only the official spokesperson speak is being served up: "This decision was reached mutually. Corey made many terrific contributions to the agency both in new business and with current clients. We appreciate his work and leadership." For his part, Mitchell said: “It’s been important to me to manage my exit proactively, minimizing impact on clients and our staff. I’m happy to be leaving on a high note and wish Arnold and our clients the very best. We agreed to this earlier in the year. I’ll remain through May managing a transition and will announce a new position over the summer." Hmm. And so he was thinking of leaving, what, like 6 months after he arrived? Not good.

Well this is interesting. New York based agency Robert Snow Marketing is -- seemingly to prove its worth -- making, in their own words, a bold move. So what's the bold move? They're offering to write a "complimentary 500-word white paper [which they value at over $1,500] for qualified technology companies upon request." Now, depending upon the scope of said 500 words, $1,500 might be a good deal. If it's a technical piece that requires a lot of research, then yes, it sounds about right. But 500 words is not a lot of words and can, for some, be whipped out in under an hour. So as they say at the outset of any marketing project, make sure you both agree on scope.

WPP continues to grow its stable of digital agencies with the recent acquisition of Toronto-based Twist Image. In business for 14 years, the agency has 100 employees and handles Walmart, TD Bank and the Montreal Canadiens. Twist Image President Mitch Joel is stoked because he will have access to WPP's data assets and partnerships with Google, Facebook, Twitter and others.

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