So Raleigh, North Carolina-based McKinney is opening an office in New York City's SoHo district at 15 Watts Street.

For the past day or so, it seems impossible to escape from a Google News alert that isn't filled with that story about popular Indian celebrity Aishwarya Rai, who appeared in an ad for Kalyan Jewellers elegantly dressed with a dark-skinned child holding an umbrella over her head. Many have called the ad racist.  An open letter from a consortium of feminist, child and human rights groups says the ad appears to "be representing aristocracy from a bygone era -- bejewelled, poised and relaxing while an obviously underage slave-child, very dark and emaciated, struggles to hold …

Is there any other industry that pokes fun at itself as much as advertising? Perhaps, but I can't think of one right now. Maybe it's because I have yet again been distracted by a witty agency self-promotion that gleefully mocks the fact that seemingly no one in Spain can properly pronounce "Ogilvy & Mather." To point out this travesty and to offer some help, the agency itself has produced a series of videos featuring a very regal English gentleman offering helpful tips on the proper pronunciation of the agency's name. Once such video instructs …

This is getting so tired. New CMO joins brand. CMO, in an effort to prove his or her worth, trashes current agency and launches review, thereby proving that whatever the previous CMO had in place sucked and the new solution is far superior.

On Wednesday at the LSA|15 Conference in Los Angeles, the Local Search Association announced the winners of its second annual Ad to Action Awards competition. LSA received 91 entries across 10 categories and the winners were revealed on the main stage at the event. The competition focused on celebrating the most innovative "local" marketing products or solutions that facilitate consumer actions such as calls, clicks, store visits, etc. The winners demonstrated the greatest potential for driving local consumer engagement and best addressed current market needs. The judging panel -- made up of 18 companies including …

Late last year, in an effort to consolidate its global media planning business with one agency, Mars yanked its account from Starcom, placed it in review and handed it to MediaCom. The agency has also recently lost Microsoft and Anheuser-Busch InBev. Now, Starcom is getting the shaft again. Soft drink giant Coca-Cola has placed its U.S. media buying and planning account into review. While MediaVest will participate in the review alongside sister Coke agencies UM, MediaCom and Carat, we all know how these things go. Hoping to placate any nervousness, a Coke spokeswoman said: …

On April 16, it was reported that three men broke into the offices of Sagmeister & Walsch at 206 West 23rd Street in New York and made off with a bunch of work. Turns out it was all a big hoax.

For, oh, at least the past 7-10 years, every prognosticator has gleefully been promising "this is the year of mobile!" to the point where it's become a joke. Now, certainly, mobile has matured and has become a viable medium for many things including advertising. But AKQA CCO Rei Inamoto isn't completely convinced. In an interview with The Drum, Inamoto said, “To an extent I think the promise of mobile in relation to marketing has been exaggerated. The biggest misconception about mobile and the biggest mistake that advertisers make about mobile is to treat it like an …

The notion (accusation?) that ad agencies take kickbacks in the form of lower ad rates, cash or free ad space in exchange for more media budget is not a new thing.

In an audit of the 1,000 posts that BuzzFeed deleted from its site, three were deleted because advertisers complained. Yes, it's true. Don't like what someone writes about you? All you have to do is bitch a little and get it removed.  In 2013, BuzzFeed published a post about an Axe body spray ad that was, it seems, not very positive. The brand's agency at the time didn't like what they read, complained and it was removed. Also is 2013, the publication chided Microsoft about its Internet Explorer browser. According to BuzzFeed Editor in Chief Ben Smith, …