• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 11, 2017

You know, it's really hard to focus on anything other than United today as the situation seems to turn ever more disastrous with each passing hour. United just can't get out of its own way, making silly misstep after misstep. Over at Ad Age, the industry is piling on with their "expert opinions" on what steps United should take next. 

As if they didn't get enough from their clickbait yesterday, the media is now trying to discredit the United passenger who was hauled off the plane. Then there was the precipitous drop in their stock which, despite all the calls for boycotts on social media, is really the only thing having any serious effect on the future of United. 

All of which is to say, not much other than United is happening in the news cycle. Well, unless you don't count Spicer claiming Hitler never gassed the Jews. Anyway, what is happening on the ad agency front? Well, Anomaly Amsterdam Founding Partner and CEO Hazelle Klonhammer is heading to Australia to open a new shop with former TBWA Sydney ECD Gary McCreadie and ex-M&C Saatchi head of strategy Ross Berthinussen. 

While the past few years have seen a stampede away from external ad agencies to in-house agencies, some feel the latest Pepsi debacle might reverse that trend. Speaking to Campaign, Ogilvy & Mather CCO and Co-Chairman Tham Meng said, "Brave and audacious ideas need people to fight for them and not-so-great ideas need to be damped down. Creatives at an agency do that naturally but would, perhaps, be less inclined to do so if working directly for a company. When you join an organization, you join and absorb the culture, the way things are done and the prevailing thinking. You conform. You need cross-fertilization of thought." 

72andSunny Partner and CEO Matt Jarvis chimed in, adding that in-house work is developed in an "echo-chamber that might not be in-sync with culture." Of course, one could also argue many ad agencies appear to have an above average propensity for developing work designed exclusively for 25-35 year-old liberal metrosexual hipsters living in Williamsburg. 

Oh and Apple is suing Swatch because the Swiss company has been using the slogan "Tick Different" in recent ad campaigns. Apple claims that slogan is too close to their 90s slogan, "Think Different."