Matt Freeman leaves Tribal to go fishing

This just in to my email box: Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB, is leaving to become CEO of a company called GoFish, which, according to the email, is "a relatively new digital media company that provides brand marketers with deeply immersive advertising environments across its burgeoning network that already reaches over 20 million consumers per month in the US and 65 million worldwide." Matt says that Paul Gunning will take over as CEO. Matt's been at Tribal for ten years, which in this business in particular is a long time. Never heard of GoFish until this morning. Well, whatever. Good luck Matt, and amazing that he chose to move just weeks before the annual junket to Cannes.

Sobe Life Water makes your nipples silky

I haven't made it a secret that I'm not a big fan of the Sobe Life Water campaign that manages to rips off not just one part of pop culture, but several. Leveraging "Thriller" and the Geico campaign to create something that has nothing whatsoever to do with the product? Genius. Discovered that there are now a series of videos featuring the lizards on YouTube, including this new one, which involves two lizards and a Sobe Life Water theme park, and a discussion of whether the product makes lizards' nipples silky. Really. It also features a slight ripoff of that Geico spot where the gecko breaks into the song "Kung Fu Fighting." Fortunately, no Naomi Campbell, which is the other thing I simply detest about this campaign—after all of the harassment of hers that various people have endured, no one should be looking to give her work.

The Social Media Insider smells Herbal Essences

Too busy yesterday to link to my Social Media Insider column, which this week focuses on the concept of advertiser Facebook page as CRM database. C'mon geeks, you know you love it. You can be a passive observer and just read the thing, or join the discussion, here.

All about Yahoo, and lunch

As I haven't been traveling into the big, evil city much of late, missed yesterday's Ad Age Digital Hollywood Advertising 2.0 conference, which, strangely enough, was held in New York. But since this post is all about territory not really mattering anymore, I guess that's fitting enough. Seems Yahoo's Susan Decker told the assembled multitudes yesterday that the company is going to be selling ads on Walmart.com. Meanwhile, in a separate lunch with what I gather was a gaggle of reporters, Decker said the company is still serious about search, despite the fact that Google, well, eats Yahoo's lunch in that area. Me? I was home eating a roast beef sandwich and drinking some VitaminWater. BTW, here's the text of Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock's letter to Carl Icahn. It starts with this not-so-nicety: "We are in receipt of your letter of June 4th and take issue with its content." Have a nice day!

Kelly Awards Gallery goes live today

So, The Kelly Awards has its virtual awards show going live this morning at this site. There are also "inspiration" videos going up on The Kelly Awards channel on YouTube. Above, Wieden + Kennedy's video about the inspiration for the Nike "Rush Hour" campaign, starring Dan Wieden.

Shouldn't the MasterCard "Mr. Bill" spot be up?

I'm gonig to pose a question to you, dear readers, so you better respond, and it's another question that proves, without a doubt, that I have no life. So, yesterday, you probably read that MasterCard let it be known that its latest spot in the "Priceless" campaign features Mr. Bill, the iconic, eternally-damaged clay guy from Saturday Night Live. But the commercial isn't going to go on air, or apparently live on the priceless.com site or YouTube until Monday. Here's the question: if you're MasterCard, and you're going to go out getting all that press, shouldn't the commercial be available immediately? I think it's a missed opportunity to get it going virally when the press and blogosphere is all over it. Post your thoughts below.

Look here for an ad from Google

You may have read earlier this week that Google is advertising now, so the irony of the company that makes the online ad market what it is not being an advertiser itself is over. For what it's worth, here's an example.

Adverganza's late Monday picks, 06.02.08

Wherein at 10:23 p.m. I finally scan the Monday morning headlines, which all of you probably already have, but in case you haven't:

From Advertising Age:

--Not again! Networks get small upfront price increases.
--Guess who's not liking McDonald's Dollar Menu?
--"How to Get Your Brand on Oprah." 'Nuff said.
--Al Ries on ad slogans. Well, at least someone still cares about them.
--An obit of Coke's Chuck Fruit.
--What if Brazilians take over Bud?
--Google actually does some advertising.
--Bob Garfield gets all steamy about K-Y Yours + Mine lubricant stuff.
--Once again, I don't make Ad Age's list of "Women to Watch."

From Adweek:

--Dave Morgan becomes chairman of the Tennis Company?
--Planworks gets out the hatchet.
--C3? Meet L3.
--Interview with Hal Varian, Google's chief economist.
--Macy's YouTube version of "Road Rules."

From Brandweek:

--Mac OS share up 6.1 percent. Maybe those "Mac vs. PC" ads are actually effective.
--What me worry. Hummer launches a campaign for the H3.
--The store within a store concept grows.

From Mediapost:

—Faith Popcorn thinks "Sex and the City" is new "Depression-era feel-good movie." Just hope it doesn't cost too much gas to get to the theater.
—Burger King uses Diddy, Spike Lee to promote that it's now open until 2 a.m.
—Olay launches Color Recapture. Sounds like a camera, but, no, it's "a daily anti-aging moisturizer that provides sheer coverage."
—Seth Goldstein's regrets about Beacon.
—Did anyone notice? FedEx is losing the Kinko's name and rebranding it FedEx Office. Why does this feel like a mistake?
—Interview with Oren Frank, new worldwide chief cd at MRM Worldwide.
—NBC Universal, Nielsen, developing new media research product.

From Mediaweek:

—This just in: Taylor Nelson Sofres and GFK get the urge to merge.
—Group M does a few network and cable upfront deals.
—Turner packages together its sites into an ad network.
—Discovery's Planet Green launches tomorrow.
—Massive agrees to third-party verification of its in-game ads.
—This week's magazine facts and figures.

From The New York Post:

—It's been 123 days since Carl Icahn's last blog post.

From The New York Times:

—New Mr. Bill ad for MasterCard currently the Times' second most e-mailed business story. Old ways die hard. Sorry, the spot isn't available online yet.

From The Wall Street Journal:

—Wal-Mart lets people post free classifieds on its site. Interesting. Free.
—Who wants to show off their bottle of Febreze?

OK, gang. Sorry that took so long. Enjoy.


More to come ...

Where are the Monday morning picks?

Hi folks. I'll be getting to them much later in the day, unfortunately. Work obligations, a conference to go to in town. See, sometimes even I leave my desk.