• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, July 25, 2016

OK -- so about three days after the release of Pokemon Go, I posted something like this on Facebook: "Ok so now do I have to listen to every social media blowhard pontificate about the implications of Pokemon Go at every marketing conference for the next six months???"

To which everyone, including the social media blowhards themselves, responded: "Yes, yes you do!" So yes, like a mindless stampede of sheep, the entire world is now playing Pokemon Go and the few of us who don't play are laughing our asses off at the insanity!

Like every little trendlet that happens in our increasingly digital world, the ad world is getting in on the action too. One agency, Pittsburgh-based Gatesman + Dave, has created PokemonDave, a collection of Pokemon Go characters that can be found in ad agency office settings. 

Accordingly, the characters have taken on the stereotypical traits of ad agency caricatures like Blockor, a beer-drinking, sleep-deprived creative who attacks designers just to be a dick. There's also Schedlar, a scheduling Nazi who double- and over-books just to piss people off. But if you want to piss off Schedlar, be sure to reply to meeting requests with "tentative."

There's Newsler, the PR Pokemon who obsesses about "going viral" and a severe overuse of emojis. There's bOOO, which is said to be the hardest one to find, the Out of Office Pokemon who loves teleconferences, Go To Meeting and summer Fridays. bOOO hates Schedlar. Phistra, the bane of the IT department, is always stealing passwords and sending them Powerpoint decks.

You can check them all out here. Humorously, the agency misspelled Pokemon in the URL. Oops!