• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 8, 2014

So yesterday's "poo eruption" at the Leo Burnett building (in Arc Worldwide offices) wasn't really the shit storm everyone thought it was. While art director Kasey Moore titled a video (now removed from Instagram) of the event "poo eruption," an Arc Worldwide spokesperson was reported to have said, “While we appreciate the creativity, rest assured that it’s only dust and water.” Well that's certainly good news for Arc Worldwide employees. Secretly, we were hoping for the worst!

Did you know that 10,000 marketing and advertising execs are at CES in Las Vegas this week? It's no wonder none of our emails are being returned. Everyone's checking out the latest and greatest gadgets, technologies and marketing gimmicks. The event has, much like SXSW, shifted from a geek fest to a broader, more business-focused event. Of the shift, Starcom MediaVest Group CEO Laura Desmond said, "It's become all about consumers; people are using devices and changing their behavior and it's happening at a rapid pace. Marketers see this event as the key place to see what's now and what's next and how to put consumers at the center so they can reach and market effectively." At the event, Starcom unveiled its Content@Scale initiative that promises to bring scale to content marketing.

Speaking of CES, the Ad God himself, Maurice Levy, was there hyping the fact 40% of Publicis revenue currently comes from digital and he sees that figure continuing to increase. He made Spotify very happy when he said, "We're moving money to Spotify," which is sort of like your grandfather explaining SnapChat to a five year old. But anyway he also noted that understanding consumer habits as exemplified at CES is "extremely important to help brands and advertisers connect" and that "everything has an impact on the consumer, from devices and technology" which is why he says, "we have made agreements with Twitter, Google and Facebook."

Up in Canada the champagne is flowing. Well at least inside the offices of Top Drawer Creative which just earned the distinction of becoming Canada's only advertising agency to be certified as a B Corp organization. What is a B Corp certification? It's comparable to Fair Trade Cortication for coffee or USDA Organic certification for milk. It's awarded to companies which meet certain social standards and environmental accountability. Of Top Drawer Creative's achievement, B Corp Co-Founder, Jay Cohen Gilbert said, “Top Drawer Creative is a great example of exactly why B Corps are good business. While the advertising industry may not be the first to come to mind when you think of great corporate citizens, Top Drawer’s long-standing commitment to ‘influence for social good’ shines through in their B Impact Assessment. We’re excited to count them among this ever-growing global movement of people using business as a force for good." Congrats.