Atlanta-based agency Fitzco has created a line of merchandise for conservatives who are pro-vaccine to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations. The pro bono campaign, which went live this week on social media, aims to rebrand COVID-19 as an enemy of America—and get conservatives on board with vaccination—by using a narrative that is “palatable for this audience,” according to a statement by the agency.

The website of the lifestyle brand showcases T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers and other merchandise—bearing phrases such as “Delta Meet the Alpha” and “Hell Yeah I Bare Arms.”

This campaign is a response to Republicans being less likely to be vaccinated compared to members of other political parties. Some 58% of Republicans in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released this year say they have been vaccinated compared to 90% of Democrats and 68% of independents. The study also found 67% of those that “won’t consider vaccination” are Republican.

"Lately, it’s felt like all of the political discussions around masks and vaccines and mandates have put other people in the crosshairs—instead of the virus, Stephen Lintner, ACD and copywriter for Fitzco said. "Our goal was to help Americans rally against a common enemy. In looking at the data, we saw that many of those who are hesitant about the vaccine are believers in the power of patriotism. So, we set out to remind people that being pro-America doesn’t mean you have to be anti-vax.”

Fitzco partnered with Printful, a print-on-demand service, for printing and fulfillment of its brand merchandise purchases. Fitzco’s internal team is working with several partners on social strategy, influencer outreach and PR kits.

Funds raised by the campaign will go to Crush COVID–SOS, an initiative from the Atlanta-based CDC Foundation to help combat the Delta variant by deploying resources for staffing, oxygen and shots. 

Bringing back the bacon

The chicken sandwich war notwithstanding, Church’s Chicken's newest campaign focuses less on the sandwich and more on a town that existed 100 years ago. 

Church's Chicken partnered with Atlanta-based Wunderman Thompson agency to celebrate the launch of its Texas-cut, bacon chicken sandwich, but not in the usual way. Instead of fighting over the top spot in the sandwich war, the campaign wants to restore the town of Bacon, a former Texas community.

“This isn’t about more battles in the chicken sandwich war, this is about bacon and Texas. And Bacon, Texas,” said Jared Kozel, executive creative director at Wunderman Thompson Atlanta. “We wanted to stay true to the Church’s brand and focus on the roots of the flavors behind their new limited-time offering.”

Bacon, Texas, lost its location on the map some 100 years ago when the local post office closed. Now, Church’s is determined to get it back on the map and launched a nationwide petition to reinstate the town. 

The campaign started with a Church’s Chicken truck visiting the former town and then San Antonio, where the fast-food chain was founded, to distribute its new Texas Cut Bacon Chicken Sandwich and launch a petition. The sandwich is available only between Oct. 28 and Dec. 26 at participating restaurants.

Michael Roth retires

Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of IPG who was succeeded by Philippe Krakowsky in January, announced his retirement this week after serving a year as executive chairman. Roth had led the holding company, which owns agencies including McCann, FCB, Golin, R\GA, MullenLowe, Martin, UM, and Weber Shandwick for 15 years.

​​“My time as chairman and CEO of IPG has been a tremendous privilege,” Roth said in a statement. “I am most proud of the work we have done to help shine a light on equity and inclusion, as well as being a values- and purpose-driven enterprise. Operationally, we have evolved to meet the needs of an industry that is not only creative but also increasingly about digital and data. Philippe has been key to the efforts to move the company forward on all these fronts, working with me and the board to build a contemporary organization that delivers high-value services for marketers. Our clients, people and shareholders are in very good hands going forward.”

Roth will officially step down on December. 31 and will be replaced by David Thomas, who was named non-executive chair of the board effective January 1.

“Michael’s leadership has always demonstrated that doing the right thing for our people and the communities in which we operate is good for our business,” Krakowsky said in a statement. “For the industry at large, he was the first to clearly articulate the importance of making diversity and inclusion business priorities. He also set an agenda for IPG that was fully client-centric, as we looked to bring collaborative, cross-agency teams together under our Open Architecture model. Michael has brought an insightful, calm and focused approach to problem-solving for a range of complex business challenges. On behalf of all our people, I want to thank Michael for two decades of thoughtful, measured and principled leadership.”

Absolutely crushed it

Candy Crush fans flocked to a tournament of all tournaments to show off their candy-crushing skills.

Global creative agency Thinkingbox partnered with Absolute Live Productions to produce the first-ever U.S. Candy Crush All-Stars tournament game-show style final for King—staging the show on a custom-designed extended reality (XR) virtual set.

Millions of Candy Crush Saga players across the U.S. joined the 7-week in-game tournament, and played a total of 665 million levels of Candy Crush Saga, making more than 13 billion moves and crushing more than 100 billion candies. The top 10 players then competed in four playoff-style elimination rounds. The winner won the title of America’s first Candy Crush All-Star and a year’s supply of Candy Crush Gold Bars. 

“Candy Crush Saga is such a beloved and visually rich game, we immediately knew this show would be perfect for an extended reality approach,” said Rania Hattar, managing director at Thinkingbox.

The final event went live on the Candy Crush Saga YouTube channel on Nov. 12. The event was made possible due to XR technology, which involved a green screen stage, advanced Mo-Sys camera tracking and programmed lighting to immerse the host in the visually realistic stage environment. 

‘Like a mother’ 

Ragú has teamed with Digitas to create a national campaign everyone can relate to. The Chicago-based agency debuted “Cook Like a Mother” this week, featuring two 15-second-long videos meant to empower everyone to feel confident in the kitchen.  

Examples from the videos include a group of firefighters asking "who's cooking today?" Someone responds by saying, “Rodriguez.” One of the hungry firefighters then says  "Oh, Rodriguez? You know he's in there cooking like a mother." The clip ends showing the firefighter cooking an Italian dinner, while others gather around the table.

“We wanted to have a little fun with our brand relaunch campaign, while also reminding consumers that, with a jar of Ragú, everyone can feel empowered to make a quick, easy and delicious meal,” said Megan Frank, senior VP of marketing at Mizkan America, Inc., the maker of Ragú. 

The second video shows a bunch of older women playing bridge around the dining table when a grandmother ends the card game earlier to head to her granddaughter's house. "Chrissy cooks?" her friend asks. The grandma responds with, "She cooks like a mother." 

The agency’s goal is to target Millennial & Gen X audiences across TV, print, OLA/OLV, paid social (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest Snapchat), paid media partnerships, retail/FSI support, influencer and paid search.

Holiday togetherness 

Teleflora is doing more than just keeping bouquets fresh this holiday season; it’s also keeping families together. 

Wonderful Agency in Los Angeles and Teleflora's newest campaign, “Nana,” is meant to show the true meaning of loving someone out loud, whether through a bouquet of flowers or a simple hug. The campaign is meant to bring people together during a special time of year. 

Teleflora is also reuniting 21 families through a social media contest in which winners will receive roundtrip airfare this holiday season.  

“Nana” is an extension of Teleflora’s “Love Out Loud” brand that launched during Christmas 2017. In the latest campaign, a young girl receives a bouquet of flowers from her Nana who isn’t able to make it home for the holidays. While upset, the little girl carries the bouquet with her everywhere—to play dress up, have a tea party and dance around a fort. 

On Christmas, the girl takes the flowers upstairs where she says goodnight to her Nana. The video ends with Nana making a surprise appearance, saying goodnight to her granddaughter and they embrace in a hug. 

“Many families were separated for the holidays last year, so it was important to us to acknowledge that and help make up for lost time by bringing people together through our campaign and social contest,” said Margaret Keene, chief creative officer. “Teleflora’s new campaign spotlights how family traditions and being together for the holidays are what matter most.” 

Unbeatable Disney

Have you signed up for the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle yet? Well, Preacher and Disney+ have teamed up to sway non-subscribers. 

When it comes to perfection, what better way to describe it than a coach explaining what makes the perfect team? That’s what viewers will hear in the latest “Unbeatable” commercial. The one-minute-long video is a powerhouse of the most well-known Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ stars, characters and athletes. 

The work was created in partnership with Austin creative agency Preacher and uses a mix of footage from sports moments, TV shows, and films. It shows how the Disney Bundle provides fans with entertaining stories in all formats.

“We began referring to the Disney Bundle as streaming’s greatest team almost instantly, and this spot was our chance to bring that idea to life–a coach, cut from the Knute Rockne cloth, philosophizing about the special mix of personalities any great roster needs,” said Kellyn Blount & Greg Hunter, executive creative directors at Preacher. 

Argonaut shuffles leadership

Argonaut has brought on two new key leaders and promoted two others. Ana Dixon is being elevated from chief finance officer to the dual role of CFO and chief operating officer, and Katie Miller from chief marketing officer to an expanded role as chief brand officer. Alex Monger, formerly of BBH New York head of account management, to take on the newly-created role of managing director, head of client vision and experience, and Hillary Fink, formerly a communications strategy director at Droga5, joins as the agency’s connections planning director.

As part of these new hires Argonaut co-founder Hunter Hindman, will be officially adding on the title of CEO and remain as chief creative officer. Hindman has effectively been leading the agency since 2019 when then CEO Robert Riccardi and co-founder and chief strategy officer Max Heilbron departed from the agency. Dixon will take over the full COO duties, which she previously shared with Hindman.

The agency has been experiencing growth as of late. In the past four months, Argonaut has won two new clients, The Zebra and an unnamed CPG brand, and hired 40 new people, according to a statement by the agency.

Google’s Essence

Google is working exclusively with Essence, a part of WPP, as its digital media agency of record after the search giant made changes to its roster of agency partners. 

Google dropped Omnicom, which had handled about 20% of its marketing.

Essence has always been Google’s go-to agency to manage close to $2 billion in ad spending a year. “Like all marketers, we regularly evaluate assignments across our agency partners,” a Google spokesperson said in an email to Ad Age. “Omnicom has been a strong partner for us over many years and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them across other services.”

Google’s agency shakeup comes on the heels of Facebook—now named Meta—choosing Publicis Groupe’s Spark Foundry as its media agency. Google’s move also came as a surprise to Omnicom, according to people familiar with the situation. Google did not announce it was reviewing its agency partners, or have a months-long pitch for the business. Google was trying to streamline things and said, “we need to consolidate,” according to one ad agency exec, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Still, it does raise a “what if” question for Omnicom. Had the company known Google was ready to give all its business to Essence, Omnicom could have participated in the pitch for Facebook’s business. One of the reasons Omnicom stayed out of the fray was because of conflicts that could arise by representing Google and Facebook brands.

Just briefly

McGarrah Jessee has been tapped by retail brand Orvis as its lead agency. The agency will be tasked with elevating the brand’s awareness moving forward. 

“We are overjoyed to be joining up with Orvis,” said Britton Upham, CEO of McGarrah Jessee. “So very many of us have had a crush on the brand as customers. Getting the chance to step inside is a special treat, especially when greeted by truly thoughtful people who demonstrate great care for every decision. Beyond that, while many are aware of Orvis’ commitment to conservation efforts, few know about their people-first initiatives focusing on lowering barriers to entry for women and people of color within the outdoor community. “

Wongdoody has hired Eugene S. Robinson to the newly created position of assistant VP of marketing content. Robinson joins from the now-infamous  OZY Media where he served as  Editor-at-Large and spent almost a decade overseeing the ideation and development of content. 

“Creativity is the core of what we do, and Eugene has been creating great content that people want to consume for years, as a journalist, a writer, a TV and film personality, and a musician. We tell our clients that they need an outside perspective to drive innovation, Skyler Mattson, president of Wongdoody said in a statement. That’s why we hired a journalist and artist to take our global marketing to the next level.”

Robinson will be based out of the agency’s Los Angeles office.

The independent agency-led BLAC Internship program is expanding its upcoming program for 2022 and is seeking interested independent agency partners to join the initiative. For 2022, BLAC, expects to grow to more than 20 agencies and over 60 interns. The 12-week program includes a first-week immersion into the advertising industry where interns all come together virtually. It includes workshops, industry speakers and interactive programs. The internship also provides an opportunity for the interns to work on real assignments for P&G. 

Alignment Healthcare has tapped Doner as its agency of record following a competitive review. The California-based insurance business will be led out of Doner’s Los Angeles office. The L.A. office will ​​manage creative duties including a brand relaunch. Doner has already led research and helped refine the brand’s in-market campaigns, including a series of TV spots that debuted in tandem with the Medicare annual enrollment period. The first creative campaign born out of this partnership will feature digital advertising, social, regional TV, direct mail, and out-of-home advertising.

The&Partnership has brought on Grey vet Tony Lederer as its chief strategy officer. Lederer is replacing Colm Murphy who recently joined Bloomberg Media as its global head of strategy. 

Contributing: Garrett Sloane