• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, August 6, 2014

This you may recall. Five years ago, Burger King ran an ad in Singapore which has since become known as the "blowjob ad." The ad included an image of a woman with her mouth open across from an image of the BK Super Seven Incher. It appears she is about to give the seven incher a...well, we don't really have to say, especially when the large headline read "It'll Blow Your Mind Away." This week, the woman in the ad, who claims she just found out about her image being used (without her permission) in the ad last year has gone on the offensive. She's out with a YouTube video calling Burger King to task. In the description of the video, she writes: "Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis sludge; publicly humiliating me in the process." For its part, at the time, Burger King USA said: "Burger King Corporation values and respects all of its guests. This advertisement is running to support a limited promotion in the Singapore market and is not running in the U.S. or any other markets. It was produced by a locally-based Singapore agency." The woman, who calls herself Jane Doe, is pulling no punches. She concludes the video description by saying: "I believe in sexual expression in art and the media; it's beautiful and necessary for a healthy society but IT MUST BE CONSENSUAL otherwise it's RAPE. Nice family restaurant you're running there Burger King. #boycottbk #facerape #SuckOnYourOwnSlimySevenIncher"

Jim Tobin is a nice guy. A very nice guy. Jim Tobin runs the Cary, NC-based social media agency Ignite Social Media. Jim just had to lay off half of his 110-person staff because the agency lost the Chrysler social media account to IPG Mediabrands after a review. But, like we said, Jim Tobin is a nice guy. While he'd love to be able to keep his entire staff on, the economics of things simply don't allow. But he is doing all he can to help the 50 or so people who were laid off get a new gig. He's promising to pay any employer who hires a laid off Ignite Social Media employee $5,000 if that employee has to be fired for performance or character issues within 90 days. In essence, he is financially vetting the awesomeness of his employees to other companies. Like we said, Jim Tobin in a very nice guy.

After what appears to have been a nasty battle of wills, Deutsch is moving out its now Google-owned space in New York City and into the 13th and 14th floors at one of the city’s midtown Penn Plaza buildings. It seems that once Google bought the building, it wanted everyone to move out so it could take over the entire 2.9 million square foot space. Deutsch was willing to negotiate with Google to buy out its 100,000 foot space. And then talks broke down and Deutsch changed its mind and renewed its lease with the landlord until 2018. But it seems, the tables have turned again, and Deutsch has agreed to a deal and will move to Penn Plaza. Why does it seem like life (two kids throwing sand at each other at the beach) never really changes?

As you may have heard, Apple is building an internal ad agency. And it's no secret that the brand is not getting along with its longtime agencies TBWA/Chiat/Cay and TBWA/Media Arts Lab. A couple days ago, Apple scooped up Musa Tariq, who was formerly head of social media at Nike and Burberry. Tariq now heads Apple's digital marketing. Today, David Burdon, formerly with London-based Glad -- which just closed -- has joined Apple as senior art director.

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