Mother London Breeds a Fresh Crop of Gullibles for Next Year.

Nodding to all the estranged princesses and Nigerian CEOs that overrun your email with promises of untold fortune, Mother London decided to write its own such letter and give the entirety of the Christmas budget to the first guy to answer.

Turns out that out of hundreds of emails sent, demanding a full name and bank details, only one guy was dumb enough sufficiently compelled by the belief in Christmas miracles to respond.

So they pay him a visit. With a suitcase full of cash. Which the winner in turn decides to......

...well, you just have to watch it. This definitely wins the race for best agency holiday greeting though.* Guess the rest of you slackers can just hang out and colour until January.

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*Actually this one by kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners was kind of all right. No, not really. What's ad land's fixation with self-aware body hair?

Real-Live Mad Men, OMMA Social, and Awkward Behavior

Ric Kallaher sent over this neat picture of me recording Ed McCabe at the Real Men and Women of Madison Ave. exhibit, which was great, and which I highly recommend next time you're in NYC. (Remember: it'll be at the New York Public Library until September!)

I also got to check out OMMA Social, which was cool even if the finger food was sorta melty and lukewarm. Walking through the door I nearly slammed into my friend Josh Warner of Feed Company, who overwhelmed me with his rapid-fire greeting ("I'm so glad to see you! Married yet? Still write all day? Are you happy?") and introduced me to Rohit Bhargava, whose many interviews I've seen splayed-out all over the internets.

"You're shorter than I thought you'd be," I said.

"Well ... I'm an Indian man," he said mildly.

"It's really neat to meet a man shorter than me!" I said, banshee-like, and Josh -- ever vigilant -- saved my ass with a jovial, "Angela abuses all the men she meets."

"Does it work?" Rohit asked.

"SOMETIMES!" I shouted, unable to lower the decibels.

Rohit laughed and gave me his card: little more than a pocket-sized promotion for his new book, Personality Not Included, and an email. I thought to myself that if he ever regrets handing one to somebody (like me, for example), he never has to worry about them (me!!!) calling his cell phone at lunchtime.

Preemptive thinker.

I caught up with Josh and found Bill Green. We sat for two hours and made over-obvious facial expressions, then decided to leave for the exhibit.

On our way out I took one of the ultra-thick paper napkins from the Yale Club bathroom. It fell out of my folder and onto Bill's shoe. I looked up at his face, expecting to meet eyes with his naked condemnation, but instead he said "Aren't those GREAT?" and I said "Yeah!" and then we left.

OMMA Social shots here, Real Men and Women of Mad Ave. shots here and here (videos too!), Ric Kallaher's "zany!" Wrath of Cannes shots here, and I promise that at some point I will label all my flickr pictures.

Oh No, Oh No, We Pulled the Finger

So Leo Burnett did this objectively lame thing where it released an in-house announcement for its new company dress code. Nothing fancy, typical cog gear: collared shirts and cotton trousers for men, capris or long shorts made of dress pant material for women. Woo-flippin'-hoo.

It's a culture-of-the-industry type of story, so of course the ad bloggers covered it and in some cases tried generating debate over whether agency life merits a dress code. (An office is an office is an office, right?) 

Turns out the story was a (really, really late) April Fools. That's bureaucracy for you!

So here comes AdAge, which is, like, desperate to be in on some kind of Cool Kids inside-track, with this "Leo Burnett Totally PWNS Bloggers" story. It actually goes out of its way to quote the flyer's sauciest bits ("even you creatives!" "Dress for success!" "COTTON TROUSERS AND DRESS SHOES!"*) and then highlights a few blogs that "bought it hook, line and sinker, responding alternately with rage, consternation and even pensiveness."

Yeah, guys. LB really got us, thar. I don't know why anyone would legitimately think an agency might consider putting its beloved creatives in khaks. It's not like anybody's ever released a truly inane in-house memo and expected us all to take it seriously. Or anything.


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* Emphasis mine.

Rest Easy, Paul Tilley

I think it's dumb that people are blaming bloggers like Agency Spy and Adscam for the death of DDB's Paul Tilley.

Assuming Tilley killed himself, people don't just take their lives because their feelings get bruised a few times. It's something they mull over for months, sometimes years. And a whole constellation of personal problems factor in.

Paul Tilley had a long successful career that aspiring CDs would kill to have. And blaming his death on bloggers is stupid and irresponsible.

I didn't think Tilley's "get your shit together!" memo was all that bad, but pointing fingers at people who covered it can only hurt the industry at large. Are agency watchdogs supposed to suppress their thoughts about professional behaviour out of concern somebody's going to take things too personally? That's the worst kind of extortion, and it's not a burden anyone should be forced to carry.

You need tough skin to walk out into the world and make a mark; universal approval is a gift nobody gets. Not Carnegie, not Jesus, not Elvis, not Bob Garfield, not Tilley.

Your detractors -- of which there'll be many, the more visible you get -- can't take your will to live from you.

At Least 20 Reasons to Go Into Advertising

Can you spot them all?

A self-referential tribute to the great production work Stardust has done for brands big and small in 2007. See it in infinitely better quality on Stardust.tv.