• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 25, 2013

Oh scandal! UK agency Possible has been summarily dismissed by UK taxi firm ADT over the usage of racy imagery to promote the company's services to young women. The ad in question -- which has been pulled -- appeared on the ADT Facebook page yesterday and shows two women in a dorm room. One seemingly drunk woman is laying on the floor with her jeans around her ankles. The other is crouched over her. The focus is on the first woman's crotch and the ad's tagline reads, "Be safe. Don't overdo it...ADT it!" A cause group, The Everyday Sexism Project entered the fray calling on students to boycott the company. In a fairly idiotic move, the person running ADT's Twitter account wrote, "It's called humor…now get back to your daytime tv, you miserable pc brigade." The brand has since apologized and dismissed the person who sent the tweet.
   Of course this is yet another situation in which a brand places the blame for its own failures on the advertising agency and uses it as a scapegoat. A little digging reveals the this is the norm for the brand which has used racy imagery in the past including a mid-September Facebook ad which depicted a women cupping her breasts with the headline, "That got your attention. Now remember our digits." Another shows a large-breasted women in a tight dress sitting in a car that is about to drive over a set of speed bumps. The ad carries the headline, "Loving speed bumps."

Looks like McDonald's will be hiring a new ad agency. How do we know this? Because McDonald's USA CMO Neil Golden has decided to take early retirement in 2014. The company, which has seen several management changes since Don Thompson became CEO, isn't saying who will fill Golden's shoes but whoever it may be will surely want to put their stamp on the brand. Watch out DDB and Leo Burnett. Your time schilling this particular brand of fast food may come to an end sooner than you'd like.

While DDB and Leo Burnett may be shedding tears soon, Doner Detroit is in the midst of an agency-wide chest bump after having been awarded the Stanley Steemer account, a brand that, according to Nielsen, spends $40 million in (non-internet) measured media. The agency won the business just four weeks after reaching out to Stanley Steemer which had already winnowed its list of considered agencies down to finalists. Horizon will continue to handle the media side of the business.

Over in Columbus, OH agency Resource is beefing things up with the addition of former Cramer-Kresselt spokeswoman Kristin Fletcher who will take on the role of VP of communications and will work out of the agency's Chicago office, a 15-person outpost the agency wants to grow into the hub of operations for the agency's media planning and buying group. 

Southwest Media Group, a media and marketing services agency in the Southwest, has acquired digital agency YELLOW7 Interactive to expand client services with added capabilities. SMG’s acquisition of YELLOW7 Interactive will extend the agency's reach with digital to handle more of a client’s online footprint, from strategy, design and development to deployment, reporting and analysis, and optimization.