Well, you could see this one coming from a mile away. That and the fact that we will have to now endure #TheDress in every single advertising-related panel at every single marketing conference for the next year. Think Oreo Dunk in the Dark.  Anyway, the Johannesburg office of Ireland/Davenport created an ad for the Salvation Army using the white and gold version of #TheDress on a woman with bruises on her face and legs. The copy reads: "Why is it so hard to see black and blue." Defending the ad, which ran in Friday's Cape …

Over in Australia, an investigative audit found media agency MediaCom engaging in foul play, creating fake campaign reports for three of its clients -- Foxtel, IAG and Yum Brands -- and selling free and heavily discounted ad time back to clients at market rates. The agency has since refunded the money to clients. The investigation claims that after some of the agency's campaigns ended, employees altered original demographic targets to make it appear buys were more efficient than they actually were. Those employees -- 12 of them -- have since left the agency. …

For about a year, Havas Chicago has been using social media to recruit new interns.

Did you know that Fort Lauderdale-based Zimmerman Advertising is one of the nation's leading retail agencies? Well that's what the press release said so it must be true. And guess what else? The agency has been hired by the world's fastest-growing sports nutrition company to grow even faster! Yes, it's true! The press release said so! The agency will take on the $15 million account for BPI Sports, a sports nutrition company.  Of selecting Zimmerman to handle its business, BPI Sports Co-Founder and EVP James Grage said, "Hiring an ad agency is a key ingredient to significantly grow our business, …

Press releases. They make you yawn. These committee-written documents are stuffed with silly platitudes.

Last week I made note of Alex Bogusky launching a start-up that that would focus on doing social good and that it would be called Spiffly. The first part was right. The second part was wrong. The new entity will be called Fearless and "will help socially-minded corporations, foundations and non-profits develop 360° campaigns while providing the added value of a built-in millennial audience through Fusion's television, social and digital platforms." Fearless will be a division of Disney/ABC/Univision's cable network and digital platform Fusion and run in partnership with Bogusky, former CP+B'ers Dagny Scott and Lelsie Freeman. …

You know, if an advance alien race arrives on earth and learned all the languages in the world, they'd still never be able to understand what the hell marketing and advertising people are talking about.

Are you going to SXSW? Do you want a new job? Then, it appears, you might want to hook up with Saatchi & Saatchi, which is opening up a Dallas office and will be trolling the streets of Austin during SXSW for new hires.  The new office is for the agency's Team One unit, which focuses specifically on the Toyota and Lexus accounts. The agency's move to Texas is in reaction to Toyota moving its U.S. sales and marketing operations to Plano, Texas.  And so between barbecue and overcrowded sessions, head over to the …

As part of its sponsorship of the New York City Drone Film Festival (yeah, apparently it's a thing), MRY put out a video which envisions what life would be like in an agency if it hired several drones as employees.  The comical, tongue-in-cheek video stunt has MRY CEO Matt Britton waxing eloquently just like any other agency CEO might do when talking about whatever bleeding edge, innovative, cut-through-the-clutter stunt of the week agencies are so prone to do. Britton talks about a crop of drones that have come into the agency with some tremendous …

According to Saatch & Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin -- aka Mr. Lovemarks -- Roberts, marketing is dead.