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Our favourite ads this week: 

The Cannes Lions Festival, which kicks off next month, has announced Honda as its Advertiser of the Year. The car company has already won numerous plaudits for a series of superb ads from Wieden & Kennedy London (remember "Cog", "Grrr" and "Choir"?). The latest broke this week, the haunting Hondamentalism. What does it mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but it looks great and fixes itself firmly in your brain.

A couple of weeks ago, we promised to bring you some more work from Argentinean creative agency Santo, who produced the current Neon Girl ad for Unilever's Lux soap. This bizarre ad, Birdman, debuted last year in support of Coca-Cola's music promotion. There's more excellent work available to view on their website. Take the time to check out the ads for Unilever's Ala and Omo detergents. 

What would we do without a new beer ad in this spot each week? This week's brew is New Zealand beer Steinlager, currently running a major promotion in the US. The idea is that one lucky American will swap places with Steinlager employee "Nick", and get his job, his apartment, his girlfriend, his family and everything else... The competition is being marketed through a series of hilarious videos, hosted by "Steinlager CEO Pete". Here's the intro film, but take the time to see the whole set at WinNicksLife.com. "Girlfriend" and "Parents" are strongly recommended. The agency responsible is Droga5, the creative boutique set up last year by former Saatchi worldwide CCO Dave Droga.

Finally, Puppets, a charming and unusual ad for P&G's Crest toothpaste, from Saatchi & Saatchi New York. The FMCG giant is steadily tuning towards subtler and more creative marketing, and this is an excellent example of the new approach.

In the news this week: Advertisers & Media

Barclays' plans to merge with ABN Amro of the Netherlands stalled after a Dutch court ruled that the agreed sale of ABN's LaSalle Bank of Chicago to Bank of America cannot proceed unless it is endorsed by the Dutch group's shareholders. That sale is a key element in Barclays' attempts to fight off a rival bid from a European consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland. The ruling prompted Bank of America to issue a lawsuit against ABN to prevent it selling the business to anyone else.

Shares of Yahoo soared at the end of last week on the back of a story in the Wall Street Journal that the online portal was in talks regarding an alliance or even merger with Microsoft. However, little hard evidence of a deal has emerged since. Meanwhile news and business information provider Reuters is being courted by its smaller rival, family-controlled Thomson Financial.

UK trade magazine Marketing has published its third annual survey of the UK's most loved and most hated brands, compiled by Joshua G2. The top five most loved were Google, Nokia, Amazon, Tesco and eBay. Most hated were Pot Noodle, McDonald's, AOL, Sunny Delight and Novon. Full results are available here.

In the news this week: Agencies

Publicis announced further details of the realignment of its recently acquired Digitas group. Secondary brand Modem Media has been merged with the Publicis Dialog marketing services network under the new name Publicis Modem. Modem Media's CEO Martin Reidy becomes global CEO of the enlarged network, whose HQ shifts to Modem's San Francisco offices. Publicis Dialog CEO Colin Hearn has left the company. Modem Media's London office will merge with Publicis Dialog London, and will retain the HP digital account, but its other clients will be transferred to a new Digitas London entity. 

Christine Walker, one of the UK media buying industry's best-known personalities, is leaving Walker Media, the agency she founded in 1997 with Phil Georgiadis. Walker had previously been a key figure in Zenith Media, and she secured the support of Maurice and Charles Saatchi to launch her own shop, which has been closely associated with M&C Saatchi ever since. Walker sold her shares to M&C in 2004 for an estimated £6m. She plans to take some time off before deciding what to do next but won't, she told Campaign, be launching a new media shop to compete with Walker Media.

Fast-growing micro-network Nitro has appointed Kathy Delaney, formerly chief creative officer of Deutsch, as executive creative director of its New York office. Grey London has appointed David Patton, former VP of communications for Sony Europe, as its new CEO. He will take up his role in September. His predecessor, Tamara Ingram, now manages the global Procter & Gamble account for Grey's parent group WPP.

Rich Silverstein, managing partner of Goodby Silverstein, is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal today. The agency has had an extraordinary few months as far as new business is concerned, picking up the consolidated Sprint Nextel as well as Hyundai Motors. But it still had time to chase other accounts, including Australia's Commonwealth Bank. After Goodby Silverstein was confirmed for Sprint, Commonwealth Bank of Australia's marketing director was concerned the agency might no longer be interested in that account. To demonstrate his commitment, Silverstein says, "we had a creative team that doesn't work on Sprint or Hyundai camp out at San Francisco International Airport in front of Qantas Airways. They had sleeping bags and pillows, and we said to the bank, in a video email, 'They are not leaving until you call us and tell us to get on a plane and start working for you.' In one video we sent to them I personally complained 'Please hire them because it's too expensive for me to feed them airport food.' It was a way to show we care and to show them that the people that would be working on that account would not be people working on Sprint and Hyundai."

Nokia has split its hotly contested global creative review into two parts. One assignment will be for core strategy and creative work; the other for global distribution and adaptation of the core work. Competing for the first are JWT, Wieden & Kennedy and Mother. JWT is also up for global distribution, against DDB and Grey/Bates Asia. In other assignments, Dell has appointed Mother's New York office to take a lead creative role on its global advertising. The computer manufacturer has also shifted most of its work in the Asia Pacific region into Euro RSCG. The latter's UK office continued a strong run, picking up the business of mobile operator Hutchison 3 and probiotic yoghurt drink Yakult. Subscribers can access the full Adbrands Account Assignments database here. 

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Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands