Billings discrepancy watch: Subaru

Billings figures long ago started to drive me nuts. Where to begin? Is it the fact that creative agencies don't even plan or buy media anymore? Is it that with the 15 percent commission long dead, they haven't been a very good proxy for revenue for more than a decade? Why not just start to size accounts like t-shirts—you know—XS, S, M, L XL? That's why I'm really trying to avoid posting billings figures, unless, we're talking about the money being spent in media on a specific campaign or unless it's to ridicule the whole concept. OK, with that, let's launch the billings discrepancy watch, in which I print the billings figures that other people have attributed to accounts in the news, and you get to pick which one to believe, if any. OK, for Subaru (an account shift that does include creative and media):

1) Advertising Age: $150 million.
2) Adweek: $200 million (Adweek cites a source, Nielsen Monitor-Plus).
3) The New York Times: $150 million.

Let's do lunch; then I'll fire your ass

Finally some actual news (and, no, most account shifts aren't that interesting). According to Ad Age's Jean Halliday, who is quoting a Subaru insider, the car company fired incumbent DDB over lunch today in Manhattan without a review. Now that's classy. Anyway, even if none of the official mouthpieces are commenting, this unexpected shift has the ring of truth to it. The story says that Subaru CMO Tim Mahoney, who came back last May after seven years at Porsche, wants to work again with Carmichael Lynch, which, conveniently, is just winding down its relationship with Porsche. To that extent, this story appears almost quaint. It involves no social networking, viral videos or DVRs, just good ol' cronyism. Just like advertising used to be.