• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 7, 2014

For those of you who hate the whole native advertising thing, here's yet another thing to hate. Vice Media's creative services division, Virtue, has launched Collectively, another Upworthy-style editorial site filled with idiotic editorial like The Unexpected Father-Daughter Team Making Condoms People Will Love Having Inside Them and This Child Prodigy Traded eCommerce For Orphans And Never Looked Back. But that's not the point. The whole thing is sponsored by founding partners Unilever, Coke, Marks & Spencer, BT Group and Carlsberg along with partners including McDonald's Microsoft, General Mills, Nestle, Nike, Pepsi, WPP, Philips, Johnson & Johnson and others. But the site promises it will operate with "complete editorial independence." Is that the most oxymoronic thing you have heard in your entire life? 

So...what's an ad agency supposed to do when the entire media landscape is turning into one gigantic pool of sponsored content? Throw up the hands and join the crowd, of course. Which is exactly what UK-based Next Fifteen recently did with the purchase of  US-based Story Worldwide for $6.6 million. Story is a self-described content marketing agency with 100 employees in Seattle and New York which counts among its clients Unilever and Lexus. Of the acquisition, Next Fifteen CEO Tim Dyson said , "Story is built around the notion that every brand has an authentic story to tell and one of their most impressive case studies is their work for Beech-Nut, the number two baby food brand in the US." There goes the neighborhood? Or way to stay ahead of the curve?

Havas is getting in on the Rio 2016 Olympic action. The agency's Sports & Entertainment group has been appointed by international education company Education First to manage its marketing strategy and communications surrounding a partnership it has with the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee. Education First will contribute to the recruitment and training process of volunteers, provide language training for 500,000 Brazilian students, the members of ROCOG, and athletes of Team Brazil already studying abroad with EF. Havas SE will help EF communicate their language training programs in preparation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which involves helping to train one million people. That's a big job.

So what happens when an agency trash talks an industry in which many of its clients do business? It gets canned, that's what. Denver-based ad agency Cannabrand, which as the name would suggest, handles mostly marijuanna-related clients, recently stuck its foot (oversized blunt?) in its mouth when it compared Colorado dispensaries to "underground abortion clinics" and told The New York Times it is "weeding out the stoners. Cannabrand client, Mindful -- a Colorado dispensaries -- didn't like what it heard and has canned Cannabrand. Mindful CEO Meg Sanders said: “Mindful has parted ways with Cannabrand due to recent statements they have made that clearly conflict with our company values. We understand that these comments were hurtful and insulting to the industry and to the many that have fought so hard for years in the name of patient rights and safe access. We remain committed to serving our community, patients and customers with dignity and compassion.” And there you have it. What did grandma always say? If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all .