Chocolate to the rescue

Winning a Cannes Lion is a dream for most people in the industry, but losing or not being considered can sting.

Mark Kelly, a senior creative at The Marketing Store Europe (which once again missed the shortlist) has created a project where for only $6 you can send someone a playful “Cannes-dolence” card with a chocolate lion instead. Some messages include phrases like “Sorry you won’t get to humblebrag on LinkedIn,” and “Sorry you got bumped off the award credits for the ECD’s Dog.”

The project, which was shared by the official Cannes Twitter account, was created to poke light fun at awards mania while also raising money for a serious cause. All proceeds will go to the mental health charity Mind.

“Awards season can be a difficult time for many creatives,” Kelly says. “Stress, anxiety and depression are common responses to finding you haven’t made the cut this year—particularly when your feeds are flooded with endless updates from those who have. So this project aims to cheer people up, have a bit of fun, and raise some money for mental health along the way.”

Listen up

Hearing Health Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit funder of hearing research, collaborated with Chicago creative agency Escape Pod to release its “Keep Listening” campaign focused on the message that playing music too loud on personal listening devices can permanently damage people’s hearing.The campaign consists of outdoor ads and an accompanying 30-second “Grenades” video.

At first glance, the video looks like a new tech product launch, but carries the message that listening to music on headphones at loud decibels can cause hearing damage in a matter of minutes. The goal is to wake people up, especially young people, to the fact that hearing loss from noise is irreversible—but preventable. 

Some preventative measures the campaign points out include turning down the volume on personal listening devices and wearing earplugs in loud places, like sports stadiums and fitness classes. 

MLB strikes deal with crypto partner

Major League Baseball has signed a long-term partnership with cryptocurrency exchange FTX, marking the first time that a North American pro sports league has partnered with a cryptocurrency exchange. The global partnership makes FTX the official crypto exchange brand of MLB. 

FTX Trading Limited and West Realm Shires Services are owners and operators of FTX.COM and FTX.US which collectively form FTX.

Starting with the MLB All-Star Game on July 13, all umpires will have the FTX.US logo on their sleeves during games, making FTX the league’s first umpire uniform patch partner. 

FTX will also be advertised across nationally televised MLB games, MLB.com, MLB Network, MLB.TV, and the league’s social media platforms. FTX.US has also formed an agreement with MLB Players Inc.,  a subsidiary of the MLB Players Association that manages all of the commercial activities for the organization, to have group player rights that allow FTX.US to use highlights of players in content creation.

CEO musical chairs

Some of London’s top creative agencies played a game of musical chairs this week. Omnicom’s AMV BBDO filled its CEO gap after the departure of Sarah Douglas last month by appointing Sam Hawkey, chief executive officer of Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi London. Hawkey, aged just 34, takes control at AMV after the agency lost key accounts including Asda and BT, although it’s riding high creatively with multiple awards for its Libresse work #WombPainStories, which picked up multiple Cannes Grand Prix awards this week. Saatchi moved swiftly to replace Hawkey by appointing Chris Kay, Asia Pacific CEO of 72andSunny. Kay's resume includes setting up 72andSunny’s Sydney and Singapore offices and running its L.A. office for four years, as well as roles at BMF and Fallon. He's also a former head of marketing for Manchester City football club and has written a book about how to work post-pandemic.

Ashley HomeStore chooses lead creative agency

Home furnishings retailer Ashley HomeStore appointed Kettle to be its lead creative agency, following a competitive review that started in March.

The decision was made as Ashley HomeStore is embarking on a new, full-scale evolution of its brand, according to a Code and Theory spokeswoman. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Kettle will launch a 360º integrated campaign across multiple channels, set to connect the entire Ashley HomeStore experience across all of the brand's touchpoints. The furniture retailer will look to modernize the brand's approach for connecting with current audiences and reaching a younger demographic.

Prior to this Ashley HomeStore hadn’t been actively working with a creative agency since a lot of the work was done in-house. Kettle sits within digital agency Code and Theory’s global network after being acquired in August 2020. 

Pride coloring book

To celebrate Pride month, Omnicom-owned Hearts & Sciences has teamed up with comic book illustrator Cheyne Gallarde to create a custom-made Pride Parade-themed coloring and activity book for its employees. The idea for the coloring book was inspired by the fact that cities and towns did not have an in-person Pride Parade last year, and a limited presence this year. 

The coloring book is part of Hearts’ broader “Badges of Belonging” that aims to build a sense of community in this new virtual and hybrid world by collaborating with artists during heritage months like Black History Month, Asian American Pacific Islander Month, and now Pride.

The end result is a series of beautiful original murals and compositions that are applied to wearables and home items like sweatshirts, tote bags, t-shirts, and coloring books. The murals themselves will be hung in the agency’s offices when employees later return to the office later this year.

Ebay helps you re-enter society

If your wardrobe consists exclusively of sweatpants after a year of WFH, eBay’s new website has your back as you readjust to wearing bottoms with a non-stretchy waistband. The “ReOpen Ready” site features buying guides from style and culture experts and more to get prepped for returning back to society.

"As restrictions lift coast to coast, we continue to see unprecedented trends across eBay's top categories, from people re-investing in ways to express their personal style to preparing their homes for guests again," said Charis Márquez, eBay’s VP of fashion in a statement.The “ReOpen Ready” campaign, created by Edelman, includes a video ad starring Coyote Peterson, host of Animal Planet’s “Brave the Wild” and the YouTube channel “Brave Wilderness.” In it, Peterson outfits a suburban family for a scary adventure: re-entering society.

The future is now

The COVID-19 pandemic forced technology to evolve quickly and innovate in edge computing, i.e. shifting data processing away from centralized clouds or data centers to the user’s device, the geographical edge, for faster and more secure data management. To help visualize the complexities of edge computing, Hewlett Packard Enterprise released “Greetings from the Edge” this week, a series of film ads made in collaboration with Joan to advertise its Edge-To-Cloud platform.“Greetings from the Edge” invites viewers to a technological utopia where a soothing voice narrates potential innovations in automated grocery shopping, holographic communication, and perhaps even teleportation. 

The three vibrantly animated videos will run on TV, streaming, and programmatic channels. It also played at HPE’s Discover event, which took place earlier this week. A select group of attendees received VR headsets to explore “The Edge'' themselves. The campaign also features print and digital spots for media outlets.

MDC sets new shareholder vote date for Stagwell merger 

MDC Partners has officially rescheduled to July 19 its special meeting in which shareholders will vote on the proposed merger with Stagwell Group. It had previously announced the meeting would be rescheduled from its original June 22nd date. In a statement last week MDC said: “The delay is intended to provide time for the MDC [board] Special Committee, working with its independent financial and legal advisors, to evaluate the revised offer made by Stagwell on June 12.”  

Just briefly

Following a competitive pitch, internet privacy company DuckDuckGo has selected Havas's Arnold as its creative partner for its upcoming campaign centered around people's information being "none of DuckDuckGo's business." It will be released through TV, online video, radio, and out-of-home advertising. As a privacy-focused business, the company refuses to do any microtargeting in its online advertising.

New York creative agency Six+One has picked up creative duties for energy drink brand Rowdy Energy and performance apparel company Virus International.  Both brands have hired the shop on a project basis following multi-agency reviews for the business.

Laura Dunn Cona has been appointed to the newly created role of head of growth for BBH New York reporting to BBH New York President Amani Duncan. Cona most recently served as senior VP and director of business development at FCB New York, where her team delivered seven out of eight new business wins in 2020.

Mojo Supermarket has hired production veteran Mel Senecal as its first director of integrated production. Senecal joins Mojo following a 10-year tenure at McCann where she served as VP executive producer leading all productions at M: United/McCann and overseeing productions for global markets.

Austin-based agency McGarrah Jessee has appointed Klaire Hensley for a newly created position as head of growth. Hensley comes to McJ from The Richards Group, where she held several top brand leadership and growth positions and was most recently principal of business development for the agency.

Detroit-based agency Doner has brought on Tarik Cox as senior VP, brand leader, and James Adamé as exec VP director of design. In the newly created role, Cox will work with the Johnson & Johnson account team. Adamé, who is taking over for Benjamin Bailey who left the position to work for a group of startups, will establish an innovative design center and help enhance the Detroit office’s production capabilities.

Richmond-based agency Arts & Letters has added two new senior hires for newly created positions with the additions of  Brenda Aguilar Schneider as group business director and Calleen Colburn as executive producer. Schneider joins Arts & Letters from Gallegos United where she most recently served as group account director on the Comcast business. Colburn joins the agency after most recently working at Wieden+Kennedy New York on the Delta account.

Contributing: Alexandra Jardine and Parker Herren