The Golden Ducks to Honor Oddity in Advertising

Oh it's about time. Well, apparently it was three years ago when The Golden Ducks were launched. The Golden Ducks honor the weird, the strange, the head scratchers in advertising. The ads that make you go, "Huh?"

This year, the event has been expanded to included more categories such as the Decoy, The Duckling, The Quack and others. Here's the full list of awards which will be bestowed upon the creators of such ads that are, well, less than good.

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James Bond Meets Spy Versus Spy For Kansas City ADDY's

Barkley and production house Liquid 9 have welcomed back the ADDYs to Kansas city by killing off the OMNI Awards Spy versus Spy-style. Poor OMNI meets a bloody death at the hands of ADDY who uses the usual Spy versus Spy tactics to do so.

Hey, this is advertising. We'll beat our competition to a bloody pulp every chance we get!

Creativity, Culture, Social Media Focus of Upcoming PSFK Conference

Because we always think it's a great idea for creative people in the industry to get together and share thoughts, we figured we'd tell you about an upcoming PSFK conference which will be held March 27 at the Art Directors Club in New York. PSFK hopes to instill creatives with inspiration and new creative ideas.

At the event New York chef (yes, a chef) Eric Briones will talk about how he finds inspiration to improve his menu and overall brand. Also covered will be "a review of social media and the creative opportunities that it presents; an exploration of New York culture; an insight into how collaborative co-working is fueling a diverse range of businesses including NASA and Etsy.com; and a session to deliberate solutions for the problems faced by three charities that the Art Directors Club sponsors."

Get all the conference details here.

Diversity Recruiting Program Travels to Chicago

Our partnership with Business Development Institute's Diversity conference series will host Advertising and Marketing Experienced Hire Diversity Recruiting Program, otherwise known as AdEx Chicago during the week of March 10 -14 at the Chicago Regent Business Centers.

The goal of the event will be to confidentially match job seekers with hiring companies. This follows the successful initial outing last year in New York during Advertising Week 2007.

For more information, check out the website here.

Adrants' Diversity in Advertising Efforts Enter Year Two

We're in year two of our association with the Business Development Institutes's Diversity in Advertising efforts and want to let you know about two upcoming events. On February 12, we will host the Second Annual Advertising and Marketing Industry Job Fair at the Academy of Art Institute in San Francisco. On February 27, we will host the Second Annual Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference at New York University.

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IZEA Generates Icky PR for SXSW

We love ourselves some SXSW. Expect us there, cameras at the ready, this year.

But this morning when we checked our email we caught a subject line that read, "The TACK: Ted Wants You at SXSW."

The TACK is PayPer-- er, IZEA's online newsletter. Ted is the company's CEO. He gets off on undisclosed paid posts and is always fighting with people about the viability of his business model.

Then we opened the email and saw this. Love pygmies!

And for, like, eight minutes, we were turned-off by the idea of going anywhere, much less SXSW at Ted's behest.

Pac Man Hacked Into Hack Man For One Show

Hey, kids. Before Guitar Hero. Before Playstation, xBox and Wii. Before, well, everything, there was this game called Pac Man. It was pretty simple. All you had to do was make sure you at up all the bad guys before the bad guys ate you. That was eons ago but la comunidad has unearthed the game and given it a spin turning it into a promotion for the One Show.

Called Hack Man, the game's characters include Confused Planner, "Yes Sir" Account Director, Scared Client and Client's Wife. Hey, wait a minute. Where's the Client's Husband? This ain't Mad Men, remember.

Hopefully, the game isn't insinuating the entire advertising industry is made up of a bunch of hacks. Hmm. Anyway, give it a go.

Tribal DDB Worldwide Scores Global Agency Network of the Year

Advertising Age just named Tribal DDB Worldwide (the Quintippio guys!) Global Agency Network of the Year. This is the first time a digital shop's won over traditional houses.

Congrats, you crazy digital sauce-sipping kids you. As for everyone else? Well, Andy Berndt comes to mind.

Denver Wants Ego, Effie Calls Green, Absolut Does Vaginas

- The Denver Egoist, which covers the Colorado ad scene, is in search of an additional writer and is holding an essay contest. Check it out here.

- It seems American Idol judge Paula Abdul along with Madonna may perform during the Super Bowl. No one at FOX is confirming or denying anything and it's unclear when (and even if) either of them will make an appearance.

- Maybe because it's now OK to make movies about girls who have teeth in their vaginas, it's OK to develop an ad that looks just like the body part.

- The Green Effie Awards has announced its call for entries which will be due February 15. The Green Effies honor eco-marketing campaigns. Info here.

Arnold Deflates Egos With One Show Annual Design

Now here's an award show annual we love. Bluntly pointing out the fact you're either good enough to have won an award and be in the book or you suck and you're not, Arnold crafted an interactive annual of sorts for this year's One Show Annual. Along with the book, will come stickers you can affix to the front and spine of the book listing the pages you and your work are on or, if you aren't so lucky, a sticker that reads simply, "Not In." Oh the cruelty of it all! But hey, you know some of us need our inflated egos smashed every once in a while, right?