• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 6, 2014

Eric Kallman, formerly of Barton F. Graf 9000 awesomeness, is bringing his awesomeness to the awesomeness of Goodby Silvertein & Partners. Yup. Kallman is joining Goodby. Why is this awesome? Can you say "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"? Ragu's "Long Day of Childhood"? DISH? Little Caesars? Yeah, he had a hand in the development of all of those pieces of awesomeness. Of the shift, Kallman said, “I honestly can’t wait to get started. I’m originally from the Bay Area, so it will be good to be back home. But corny as it sounds, I’m also just really excited to start working with the team at GSP.” Just don't let it go to your head, Eric. We all want your awesomeness to continue.

I don't always comment on agencies winning new accounts, but when I do, it always has to do with underwear. Well, okay, not always. But this time it does. Yes, Droga5 has picked up the Jockey account without a review. Why am I excited? Can you say Droga5? Did you see what they did with Newcastle not during the Super Bowl? It's pretty much a guarantee we won't see any more dreck like that Stop Squirming crap the brand did years ago, which aimed to Tame That Booty with awkward antics such as The Bum-Muncher, Crotchcapades and The Booty Smack. Welcome, Droga5. Please avoid the bathroom humor and bring us some awesomeness! You know. Like Kallman is bringing to GSP. OK?

Shifting from awesomeness to existentialism, we have Less Than One, a video created by several San Francisco creatives which asks the question, "do soul-mates exist?" In the video, a man and a women consider the notion that in a city of 800,000 (we'll ignore the fact, for now, the couple isn't looking outside that city of 800,000), maybe -- just maybe -- ending up with the right person may indeed involve more than just luck. It's quite beautiful, really. And it will make you think about who you are with; who you have been with; who you think you should be with, and who you wish you were with. The video leads to a site on which you can calculate the likelihood you will meet your soulmate. It's little side projects like this that should cause us all to stop for a minute and appreciate the creativity that surrounds us as we make our way through our workday.

There's going to come a time in the not-too-distant future when there will be lots of "dead" social media accounts. Why? Well, because, you know, people die. One ad man, Co-Founder of the Romania-based Grapefruit ad agency, Marius Ursache, along with several entrepreneurs from MIT, have launched Eterni.me. The Web site, based on artificial intelligence algorithms, will generate a digital alter ego based on a person's digital footprint created while they were alive and well and tweeting what they ate for breakfast every day. This is awesome. In 100 years, we'll have a very Second Life-like place where the living can go talk to the dead. And not long after that, there will be more dead avatars trolling the Internet than actual living humans. Can you say digital Armageddon?

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