The 10 Weirdest Ad Stories of the Month
We’re a little late, but here are the 10 weirdest stories from the ad business in March. Enjoy!
- BBH polls staff on taking a pay cut
400 employees to vote on whether to take nine days’ unpaid leave this year, equivalent to a 3.5 per cent pay cut. BBH froze pay across the agency in January, budgeting for a 10 per cent fall in revenues this year. Agency also not going to Cannes. - Brits ban Saatchi & Saatchi Olay ad
Claim that it’s a scientific fact that cream can reduce wrinkles turns out to be misleading, UK authorities rule. - Lamar bans ads promoting atheism in Canada
“It’s our decision,” says Steve Copeland, head of Eastern Canadian Operations for Lamar. Bus riders in London, Ontario won’t get to see the ads — which say “There’s probably no God” — unlike their counterparts in Toronto. - TBWA creates campaign entirely out of worthless Zimbabwean dollars
Trying to draw attention to the crooked Mugabe regime. - BBDO spends $250,000 on award show entries
“Awards matter,” says CEO Andrew Robertson. “We are in them to win them.” 
Fox Business News spells Miles Nadal’s name wrong
MDC Partners CEO was presented as “Miles Nadel” in a recent press opp. Hey, you can’t win ‘em all, right?- Peter Arnell is assassinated by Newsweek
The person pulling the trigger? Orange-addict Arnell himself, naturally. - ShamWow pitchman Vince Shlomi has worst week ever
Arrest for punching a hooker revealed; followed by wacky Scientology lawsuit over the Slap Chop. - Quiznos’ gay sandwich ad: “Put It in Me”
Oven begs for footlong tube of meat to be inserted. - Old ads for AIG have infuriating new meanings:
Company’s pre-crash focus was “butterflies,” as this video shows.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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