Commentary

Selection of Boston-Based Pile & Co. For LA Clippers Agency Review Is 'Fascinatingly Moronic'

So the LA Clippers hired Boston-based agency search firm Pile & Company to find the organization a new ad agency in the wake of the Donald Sterling scandal and a $2 billion bid for the team from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. It's quite clear that the organization needs some help, but one LA industry source has a big problem with the Clippers looking outside LA for help. Our source tells us: "As a big L.A. basketball fan, I find this whole thing fascinatingly moronic! From a business perspective, you have consultants in Los Angeles who know this market intimately and would arguably be the best choices to find an agency for the Clips. But from a fan perspective, this is the ultimate carpetbagger move. I thought the Clippers would be less stupid now that Donald Sterling is gone." Clearly, that's not the case.

In Cape Town, advertising Help Wanted ads are a bit different. When you first look at this ad for a copywriter with the headline, "Mid Weight Below the Line Copywriter," you might scratch your head a bit and wonder whether or not they're trying to tell fatties and rail-thin thigh-gappers not to apply and that they only want regular-sized people to work on crap like brochures, promotions and direct mail. Not exactly an attractive sounding gig. And then the body copy of the ad goes on to read, "Is your style smart and your thinking conceptual, have you got a smoking hot body..." and you're like WTF? I can't be fat, I can't be skinny and I have to be hot? Until you realize the rest of that sentences reads: "...of work and a real passion for writing?" Still, that's a lot of mental whiplash to work through just to find out if the job is of interest and whether or not you are qualified.

Remember Bob Parsons? The former CEO of GoDaddy who was seemingly obsessed with scantily clad, big-breasted women and killing elephants? Yeah, that Bob Parsons. Now Parsons is a major financial backer of the political group Better Leaders for Arizona. That group is now running commercials in support of former GoDaddy general counsel Christine Jones, who is running for governor. Guess who's producing the ads? Scottsdale-based Martz Parsons, which as the name indicates, is owned by Bob Parsons. Can one be any more in bed with oneself than this?

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