• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 11, 2013

The down and out ad man's guide to survival tip #1? If you can't make it in one world, pretend nothing happened and try to make it in another. David Lipman, whose 86-year-old New York ad agency was shuttered over financial shenanigans has been in talks with Vanity Fair Editor in Chief Graydon Carter over helping the magazine with cover design. Of his meeting with Carter, Lipman said, “I was at Vanity Fair. I had great fun. We talked concepts. It felt like being back at work again.” Of his interest in Lipman, Carter said, “I’ve regularly called on David for advice. And recently we decided to set up a regular monthly meeting to talk covers and portfolios with some of my staff.”

Crispin Porter + Bogusky says "thanks but no thanks" to Arby's which, after handing the account to CP+B in early 2012 without a review, has now decided to hold a review. Of its decision not to participate in the review, CP+B said in a statement, “We are very proud of the work that we have done with Arby’s over the past year and a half. We came into the relationship without a review and respect their new management team’s desire to hold a formal review. We truly appreciate being asked to participate in the initial review process, but at this point, are choosing not to move forward. We remain great fans of the brand and look forward to seeing them achieve great success in the future.” That is perhaps the most polite flip of the bird we've seen in years.

Well here's a first. A newly appointed CMO says...wait for it...he's not going to hold an agency review. Uwe Ellinghaus, formerly with BMW, has joined GM as head of marketing for Cadillac and he says he plans to continue working with the brand's agency, Rogue. “I have no plans for the time being to change” said Ellinghaus. “Give me some time to assess the situation, to assess my own people and the agency network. For the time being, of course, we’ll continue to work with Rogue.” Hmm. For the time being... Watch out, Rogue.

What's up with Lars Bastholm? We're all for jumping ship to advance one's career but four CCO gigs at four different agencies in just five years? Perhaps all this jumping around might be due to Bastholm's desire to be something other than a Chief Creative Officer. After having held stints at AKQA, Ogilvy and Cheil, Bastholm tweeted he'd be leaving Cheil to "start a new adventure as a novelist and freelance creative." Ah, yes, every creative's dream. To be a novelist. Or a screenwriter. Or a Hollywood director. Anything but an agency creative who has to pump out watered-down, committee-designed crap to help sell soulless CPG products which have no differentiating qualities from one another. Well it seems that "new adventure" may not have gone so well. Bastholm has placed his nose back on the grindstone once again having been tapped as global chief creative officer for Publicis Groupe's Rosetta .