• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 23, 2014

That move Cadillac made to New York's SoHo neighborhood in an apparent bid to leave behind the archaic decay and soullessness of Detroit in favor of SoHo's apparent hip factor? It's been slapped down and labelled too little, too late by Team Detroit Chief Creative Director Toby Barlow, who told Metromedia: "Maybe Cadillac needs to find its soul somewhere else. It’s been searching for it for 20 years." Ouch! But, you know, he's right. Cadillac lost it's cool a long, long time ago. And a new location isn't going to help.

I wish I could find an old video from around 1998 in which the founders of Razorfish attempted to explain what it was they did to some out of touch TV reporter. Hilarious stuff. Anyway, Razorfish is in the news this week. The company's CEO, Pete Stein will be leaving the agency at the end of the year. And while no one's talking, it's pretty clear it's a result of a recent Publicis Groupe reorganization which installed Rosetta CEO Tom Adamski as global CEO of the newly formed Razorfish Global, a combination of Razorfish and Rosetta. No one wants a new boss after they've been top dog. Apparently Publicis tried to get Stein to stay but he appears to be having none of it.

You'd all agree there are far too many award events in the advertising business, wouldn't you? Wait, what? You wouldn't, you self-important, self-centered, spotlight-hogging prima donnas? Well then there's now the perfect award for you. Let me introduce you to the Slashies. As the name suggests, the award honors those who, according to this video, offer up "the most tenuous contributions to an ad campaign." You know who you are. And so do the Slashies, which will give you an award if you are the Stapler guy, the Presentation Hijacker, the Muffin Eater, the Script Yoinker, the Pizza Orderer or even the Crew Tinder Technician. You think you've got what it takes to snag a Slashie? 

Well, the lack of women creatives in England seems to be just as rampant a problem as it is here in the States. Apparently Saatchi & Saatchi London couldn't find one woman for seven positions it recently filled. Not one. So the agency is pimping some kind of all male review touting the new hires. Formerly with Whybin/TBWA, James Ross-Edwards joins as copywriter. Former WCRS creative team Ben Robinson and Mike Whiteside join as, yes, a creative team. TBWA Barcelona copywriter Victor Moron has joined as copywriter. West College Graduates Matt Butterfield and Ben Mills will join as junior creatives. And Adam Chiappe has joined as creative director. High fives all around, boys.

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