• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 1, 2014

On April Fools’ Day, as is always the case, there were a few interesting items sent to us from agencies. One such joke came to us from Crispin Porter + Bogusky on behalf of Fruit of the Loom. The agency created the "Undie Iron," a tiny iron designed to be worn on one finger while, yes, ironing your undies. It's USB powered and we are told it will go on sale in 2022. Check it out here. It's yet another innovation from the brand which has given us the reinvented boxer brief for men and the ladies’ cotton panty.

Another great April Fools’ Day gag came to us from RPA which created the Honda Fit Kit for those "tinkerers" who like to build everything themselves. After using the “build and price” feature to configure their Fit online, customers are offered the choice of building it themselves or taking delivery of a "Honda-assembled vehicle" at a Honda dealership. With the build-at-home option, now...ahem... in beta, customers will receive a detailed instruction manual and DVD along with a complete set of parts to assemble a 2015 Fit. With over 200,000 parts, we're guessing the assembly process will be a bit more involved than the IKEA furniture assembly process.

Oy Vey. Sadly, this is not an April Fool's joke. A&E will air an eight-episode unscripted docu-series entitled The Herbert Brothers, which will center on the lives of five siblings who start their own ad agency together. The Herbert Brothers follows five brothers in Batesville, Ind., who won a contest to create a Doritos commercial to air during the Super Bowl, and use their $1 million prize to start their own ad agency in their home town. As if The Pitch weren't bad enough, now we have to listen to a bunch of brothers and a sister bitch at each other on a weekly basis.

Change is the new normal over at FCB. Global CEO Carter Murray is in the process of completely revamping the agency with a name change, a rebrand and several key hires. His latest hire is Bryan Crawford, who will become vice chairman of the network. Crawford has been chairman and group CEO of FCB Australia and New Zealand (formerly Draftfcb) for the past eight years, an agency group that has received global recognition for its award-winning creative campaigns. Crawford joins the global management team and reports to Murray. He will retain his current role as chairman and group CEO of FCB Australia and New Zealand. 

In other agency shufflings, Gustavo Martinez, global president of JWT Worldwide, announced the appointment of Lynn Power as a managing director of JWT New York. Power will partner with Claire Capeci, who was named managing director in December 2013 to lead the agency's flagship New York office. Power was most recently with Arnold New York, where she served as president and managing partner. Both Power and Capeci will report directly to Martinez.