The 10 Weirdest Ad Stories of the Month

Happy Thanksgiving! BNET Advertising will be retiring for the long weekend, so it’s time to bring you the 10 weirdest ad stories of November. Enjoy.

1. Cameraman in Agency Sex Tape Scandal Fired; Performers Not
   Two agency execs have sex in their office and are secretly videotaped doing it by a voyeur with a cellphone. The video goes viral on the web, big time. What is the agency’s response? To fire the cameraman. The fornicators still work at the agency.
2. GroupM’s Irwin Gotlieb Crowned ‘King of All Advertising’
   In what must be one of the most unctious press releases of all time — even for the ad biz — Radio Ink magazine named Irwin Gotlieb “king of all media”. Why? Because he controls a $60 billion buying budget. More quotes from the suck-up statement: “Gotlieb is the king of the advertising business worldwide because of his powerful insights and ability to predict future trends. Gotlieb is the most sought-after speaker in the advertising business, and one rarely seen. Never before has a radio-industry event presented an advertising executive at this level. More than any advertising person on earth, Gotlieb knows what advertising trends can expect, and he has some powerful messages to share about what traditional media must do to survive.” Whatever.
3. Mob Hounds Saatchi Employee From His Job
   Wang Fei of Saatchi & Saatchi in Beijing had an affair. His wife blogged about it. And thousands of Chinese internet jerks dug up dirt on him — his bank account number, ID, and other information, appeared online — to punish him. The phenomenon is known as a “human flesh search engine.” Nice.
4. Domino’s, Jim Beam Accused of Marketing Booze to Kids in Australia
   The venerable bourbon brewer has a barbecue sauce involved in a copromotion with Domino’s 8-Meat pizza. The sauce contains no alcohol. But the Australian Drug Foundation wants it banned anyway.
5. FTC Repeals the Cigarette Ad Rules That Time Forgot
   The FTC announced that it has rescinded rules from 1966 that allow tobacco companies to talk about tar and nicotine yields from FTC-approved testing. The testing doesn’t work, and never did, the FTC said. Side note: I’m a former smoker and I’ve never seen an ad with a claim about the “Cambridge Filter Method.”
6. Indoor Tanning Association Tells Lies About Cancer
   The National Advertising Division cited Sarah Palin boosters the Indoor Tanning Association for claiming falsehoods about skin cancer in its ads. The ITA ran an ad titled ‘Tanning Causes Melanoma: Hype.’ But the NAD said there’s no substantiation for “claims that the link between sunbathing and skin cancer is ‘hype,’ or ‘hypothetical’ or the claim that there is a lack of ‘compelling scientific evidence’ linking sun tanning to the development of melanoma.”
7. Lintas Media Chief Meets IPG Chief, Sees the Light
   A blog purporting to be that of Lynn de Souza, CEO of the Lintas Media Group in Bombay, claims that she flew to San Francisco, met the Chairman/CEO of IPG, Michael Roth, for breakfast, followed by a meeting and dinner with 25 agency heads from around the world, and then had a religious experience involving St. Francis of Assisi.
8. Donny Deutsch’s CNBC Show Scratching the Bottom of the Barrell
   “Cat Scratch Fever” rocker Ted Nugent was a guest on Donny Deutsch’s mostly unwatched CNBC talk show recently. Is this really the best he can do in the middle of the greatest economic crisis of our time? It’s a business channel, for god’s sake.
9. TBWA Hosted Racist Web Site
   TBWA in Spain put up a web site titled “Burst Hamilton’s Tyre” that became filled with racist abuse against black racing car driver Lewis Hamilton. Threats included, “Kill yourself in your car,” and “I hope you run over your dad in the first pitstop, Hamilton.”
10. BBH Starts New Line of Chili, Fire Alarms
    Having succeeded in the agency business, Bartle Bogle Hegarty has decided that it alone can break the rules of successful corporate strategy by diversifying into the client business. They’ve chosen a meatless chili and personal attack alarms as the two categories where their expertise is most needed because, obviously, those two categories are so underserved by so few competitors. Or something.