A recent survey from The Creative Group offers up insight for agencies looking to hire creatives and for creatives looking to get into a particular agency. You can align your job search and hiring metrics with those of the survey to see where you stand. The study found that on average, advertising and marketing executives receive 23 resumes for every open creative position. Of those 23 applicants, six will be interviewed before the role is filled. So if you're an agency and you're getting a lot more or a lot less than 23 applicants, there's clearly something wrong with your …

Lending some credence to the fact that "old people" still have a place in the world of advertising agencies, FCB Global Chief Creative Officer Jonathan Harries said: "If you can retire in this business, that's as big an achievement as anything, since very few people make it that far. Age is bad only if it implies something negative. Experience adds an element to creativity... Ours is a business where you get better as you get older..." Get it, you young whippersnappers? There's something to be said for wisdom.

Now here's a little item that might start a trend. Because, as we all know, everyone in this business copies everyone else. Not that this is the first time this was ever done. But still. To garner attention for itself, DC-based product design and development consultancy (because everyone's doing *that* right now) Intridea purchased a billboard for a week right across from Ogilvy & Mather's offices in New York. The billboard reads, simply, "Ogle this, Ogilvy" and directs the agency to a custom URL which is filled with a collection of wacky animated gifs (keep reloading the site) and the …

In a celebration of the bond between a copywriter and an art director, James H. Goldberg, a "loosely bound but tightly-held collective of advertising creatives," is out with Creative Promises, a collection of promise rings developed seemingly to cement the bond between creatives. Said to be "crafted with the finest 3D printing technology," there's Intern White, Pitch Black and Award Gold. Hey, everyone's pledging themselves to each other no matter the persuasion. Why not a solid bond between creatives?

This is, by far, the best representation of the emotional state one finds oneself in when client deadlines approach. Staffers at Greek agency Admine took it upon themselves to leverage the horror movie trailer approach to representing the horrific intensity of looming client deadlines. The trailer delivers everything you'd expect, and will very quickly bring you back to that specific moment when you were in the midst of a pressing client deadline and every piece of shit was hitting the fan. And speaking of shit, the trailer points to a Web site on which fake reviews, such as this one …

Here's an odd juxtaposition of sorts. Over in Germany, Audi ad agency Thjnk is located on the second floor of an office building in Hamburg. Interesting -- Tesla Motors is about to open a showroom in the same building. On the first floor. Right below Audi's ad agency. And just like any ad agency would do in a situation like this, Thjnk created a gigantic mesh banner atop the banner Tesla placed in the window of its first floor location. The banner reads: "It's nice when neighbors have common interests." Now that's just way to polite if you ask me. …

So by now you've all seen hundreds of those #ALSicebucketchallenge videos, right? You know the ones. People on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter promising to donate to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association while dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads and tagging three others to do the same like a chain letter in elementary school? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Well, now, just like every other meme an ad agency gets its hands on (think Harlem Shake), it's been taken to a whole new level. RPA Executive Creative DIrector Jason Sperling amped things up a bit and added …

This is awesome. And very scary! So there's a guy named Sam Bartos. Sam works as a copywriter at MRY in New York. Sam, like everyone in advertising -- actually, the world -- likes to eat. But Sam has given himself a challenge. He has decided to see if he can survive an entire month eating only the food he finds around his agency...which, as you well know, can range anywhere from full-on new business pitch gourmet to Tupperware mysteries in the back of the fridge. Sam has created a witty blog entitled Adult Food Finder on which he will …

Of the importance of staying abreast of changes in the digital space, Deutsch LA Chief Digital Officer Winston Binch says: "If you've been in the business for a while, particularly on the creative side, and are not open-minded and curious to learn new things, someone's going to take your job." That sentiment is reflective of many in the industry, some of whom are going back to school, attending workshops or taking courses to keep current. Deutsch offers what it calls D School, an annual course offered to everyone in the agency to, as Binch says, "give everyone a brush up …

Oops. The frequent and outspoken Fox News guest and Rooster Chief Creative Officer Gavin McInnes has been asked to take a leave of absence from the agency following comments he made in an article entitled "Transphobia is Perfectly Natural," which was followed by an angry backlash on Twitter. Of the leave, a Rooster representative said, "Gavin's views are his own and do not represent those of the company or its members. We are extremely disappointed with his actions and have asked that he take a leave of absence while we determine the most appropriate course of action." Here's part of …