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Our favourite ads this week: 

Omnicom's new creative boutique Cutwater is responsible for this super-stylish ad for Ray-Ban sunglasses, currently running in European cinemas. Definitely restores Ray-Ban's cool reputation. 

It's not often we feature work by UK agency Clemmow Hornby Inge in Ads of the Week. They may well be one of the most admired agencies in London, but that's mostly for their excellent account-handling (and the apparent ease with which they wangled £30m out of Martin Sorrell last week) rather than their creative output. However this new ad for Big Yellow Storage (never expected to showing an ad for them here, either) is superb, and features some truly amazing stop-motion animation. 

Great animation of another sort here in the new ad for Smirnoff, which celebrates the brand's impressive heritage. JWT were responsible, in partnership with AKQA. 

I know we ran an ad for Toohey's last week, but I couldn't resist this other spot for Toohey's Extra Dry, also from Saatchi's Sydney. So that's what my tongue gets up to every night... 

In the news this week: Advertisers & Media

This week's news was dominated less by mergers and acquisitions, than by resignations. Ken Kutaragi, the founder of Sony's computer entertainment division and widely credited as the figure behind the original success of Playstation, resigned as divisional chairman, although he will retain an advisory role. Although the console was the undoubted champion of the sector for a decade, its latest incarnation lags well behind rivals, especially the revitalised Nintendo. Much of the blame has been levelled at the decision to include Sony's Blu-Ray DVD technology in the new PS3. This created long delays in development as well as a much higher unit cost, and so far has proved far less attractive to consumers than the Nintendo Wii's cheaper and more user-friendly handheld controller. Full-year losses from Sony's computer entertainment division, to be announced next month, could be as high as $2bn, twice the original forecast, and will overshadow a much-needed improvement in the group's other subsidiaries.

Colgate-Palmolive's long-serving chairman-CEO Reuben Mark will retire as CEO in July, although he will remain chairman until the end of 2008. Other resignations included Sanjiv Ahuja, chief executive of Orange, and Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of engineering group Siemens, still struggling to extricate itself from multiple corporate scandals. Esther Lee, worldwide chief creative officer for Coca-Cola, is also leaving, and will instead cross the line to join ad agency Euro RSCG as North American CEO and president of global brands.

The most saddest resignation of the week was undoubtedly that of BP's executive chairman Lord Browne, whose career came to an undignified end when he was forced to admit that he had lied to a London court earlier this year in an attempt to prevent a UK scandal rag from printing scurrilous details about his sex life. 

Even if corporate musical chairs grabbed the headlines, there were plenty of deals underway in the background. PepsiCo's recently appointed female CEO Indra Nooyi said she was actively considering several billion dollars worth of potential acquisitions. An obvious target would be Cadbury Schweppes' US soft drinks division (although there could be regulatory difficulties). Pepsi has in the past also attempted to acquire French group Danone. Last time, that deal was blocked by French premier Jacques Chirac, but a new attempt might be launched following the election of Chirac's successor later this month. Meanwhile brewer Carlsberg also signalled that it was considering large-scale acquisitions, by altering its corporate charter to allow for the issue of additional shares which could be used to fund a deal. It has long been considered a potential merger partner for UK group Scottish & Newcastle, which could soon be seeking a white knight against a hostile bid from Diageo and SABMiller (see last week's Update). Carlsberg and S&N are already joint owners of Baltic Beverages Holdings, the biggest brewery group in Russia.

Meanwhile Telefonica strengthened its position with the purchase of an indirect 10% shareholding in Telecom Italia for E2.3bn. The Spanish group will be the biggest individual shareholder in a new holding company, which will in turn control a 24% stake in the Italian telecoms giant. However, to appease the Italian government's concerns over a foreign takeover of one its biggest companies, Telefonica's stake is counter-balanced by a group of Italian investors who will between them be able to out-vote the Spaniard. 

News Corporation made an unsolicited offer to acquire Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for $5bn. That bid was rejected by the controlling Bancroft family. News is likely to table a higher offer, and other bidders may also emerge.

UK fashion retailer Top Shop launched its new range of clothes "designed by" supermodel Kate Moss this week, to a rapturous reception from shoppers in the chain's flagship London store. Demand was so intense that customers were restricted to no more than five items each. The press were less kind, however, describing the clothes as cheap-looking and even "cruddy". Financially, however, the launch is expected to be a triumph, especially for Moss herself, who is rumoured to have earned £3m from the exercise. Next week, the singer Lily Allen will introduce her own custom range from rival retailer New Look.

In the news this week: Agencies

There were a number of resignations in Adland as well. McCann Erickson announced two senior departures. Worldwide creative director Jonathan Cranin left the company this week and will not be replaced. Instead, the group will maintain a committee of regional ECDs, the McCann WorldGroup Global Creative Collective. Also Rupert Howell will step down as regional director of McCann EMEA in June, to be replaced as chairman by Giuseppe Usuelli, current head of McCann Italia. Brett Gosper, currently president of McCann USA, will succeed Howell as chairman of the UK & Ireland, and president, EMEA.

Over at Fallon's Minneapolis HQ, Todd Riddle was named as the agency's third executive creative director in three years, replacing Kerry Feuerman, and his predecessor Paul Silburn, each of whom held that job for a year or less. Fallon has been struggling with a series of account losses since 2004. This week, flagship account Citibank transferred its global business into sister agency Publicis. That loss followed the departure of United Airlines at the beginning of the year, as well as a failure last month to win the pitch for Volvo. Ironically, while Fallon HQ wrestles with poor performance, its London office is sitting at the top of the UK new business league, as a result of a string of wins. 

Agency.com CEO David Eastman has resigned that role less than a year after he was appointed to take a new position in London, managing Agency.com's international expansion. He was replaced as CEO on an interim basis by founder Chan Suh. 

Following Google's purchase of interactive ad-serving firm DoubleClick, Yahoo responded by snapping up advertising exchange Right Media, in which it already had a minority holding. WPP is said to be in detailed negotiations to acquire 24/7 Real Media. Meanwhile talks between WCRS holding company Engine and the traditional UK media buyer BLM are said to have ended.

MindShare pulled out of Johnson & Johnson's $3.3bn worldwide media review. That leaves Interpublic's Initiative and Universal McCann networks in competition with Omnicom's OMD for the global business. Carat was reported to have joined the contest to pitch for the European portion of the account. In other news, WPP's United micro-network captured the global account to launch the 2008 Olympics. It will be handled out of Spanish outpost Sra Rushmore. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

As always, if you haven't already done so, please confirm your subscription to the free Adbrands Weekly Update by clicking here or on the link at the foot of this email. Thank you for your assistance! 


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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