AMC's The Pitch Returns to Further Embarrass Ad Biz

While we are loathe to even mention the fact AMC's The Pitch will be back for a second season of foolishness, we also know that your desire for schadenfruede outweighs your desire to take the higher moral ground.

And so, tune in August 15 at 10pm to watch 16 agencies duke it out for the likes of 1-800-Flowers, Fuller Brush Company (still in business???), Gibson Guitar and, yes, College Hunks Hauling Junk.

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Maurice Levy Wants Your Cannes Lions Vote

Following the Cannes Lions announcement the organization would live stream one sessions per day, it didn't take long for agencies to begin begging for votes so that their session would be the chosen one to stream.

Publicis Groupe head honcho Maurice Levy will be sitting down with Heineken CEO and Chairman of the Board Jean-Francois Van Boxmeer (damn, does that sound pretentious!) to discuss, well, beer and other fun stuff. The pair will be joined by Heineken Global CMO Alexis Nasard.

Today, we received am email urging us to VOTE NOW for the panel. If you are so inclined, you can do that here.

Baby Loves Stanton Optical Commercial

So from time to time we get sucked into YouTube, forget why we went there in the first place and stumble upon odd content like this 2011 commercial for Stanton Optical. Actually, it's not really a commercial at all. Rather, it's a video of a baby watching a Stanton Optical commercial.

We all know there are commercials out there that people love and while babies can be easily amused by just about anything, it's still funny to see a baby get worked up simply from watching a pretty basic commercial yet a commercial CEO Daniel Stanton dubs "unconventional" and the eyeglass store's secret to success.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming now.

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Is Product Development the Holy Grail of Agency Survival?

For the past several years or so, it's become fashionable for advertising agencies to dedicate a portion of their time to product development. Some do it for clients. Others do it all on their own. The poster child in this space is Nike FuelBand, a fitness product co-created with the brand's advertising agency RG/A. It was, and is, a runaway success.

Other agencies have dabbled with product creation. Crispin Porter + Bogusky developed a line of premium rum, Papa's Pilar. Deutsch LA, which has a program dedicated to entrepreneurial pursuits, created a floral delivery service, Bouqs, and an independent film entitled Between Us. Boston-based MMB launched a line of environmentally friendly children's clothing that donated proceeds to animal shelter charities. And Anomaly worked with outside consultant The Kind Group to create a line of skin-care products, Eos, currently being sold at Target.

All well and good - but why would an agency dedicate resources usually reserved for serving client business to product development?

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Fake Energy Drink Promotes Ibiza Nightclub Party

When you first begin watching this promotional video for Matinee, an epic party held at famed Ibiza nightclub Amnesia, you aren't really quite sure what's happening. At first, it appears you are watching a video game promo. Then it appears you are watching an ad for the energy drink, Ibizious. Then, when the scene zooms out and you realize everything you have just seen occurred inside the shorts of some hot chick, you just toss your hands up and go along for the ride.

Once you're outside the hot chick's pants, the whole things becomes an epic ode to the 90's complete with Thriller's zombie dancers, guys in muscle shirts, girls in high waisted shorts, all fueled by pulse pounding electronica.

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