Nike nixes CP+B!!!

As you always hear the hot and juicy stuff here (news, that is, not hot and juicy sex shit from Wisey and Jane) One of my many talented spies around the world informs me that the "frat boys" at CP+B just lost their piece of Nike. (It wasn't there that long, was it?) Seems that the folks at Beaverton were none too happy with the CP+B Boulder outpost. Maybe the dudes spent too much time boarding and biking and not enough time doing Weiden quality work. On the other hand they may have decided to do really fucking funny dude shit with the two zombies... Burt and Orville. Or maybe the mad German scientist from VW. Or putting Nikes on the King and the Chicken... Who knows what you can come up with when you wear your baseball cap backwards, high five everyone in the rec room and blow lite beer out of your fucking nostrils while setting fire to your farts. Fucking awesome dude. Anyway... It's over... You heard it here first!!!

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CP+B's New Biz guy hits the road!

Comments

[Adam Kmiec]

George,

How long until we here:

1. The parting was mutual
2. We really decided that Nike wasn't right for us
3. We have Microsoft

How long till they lose Microsoft? What's the over/under?

[veedub]

>>>A Wieden spokeswoman could not be immediately reached. A report of the split first surfaced on George Parker's blog Adscam/The Horror>>>

nice one george! you know they choked as they typed them words.

[voice of reason]

GP-
I think CP&B does have its head up its ass but they are not dumb jocks. More like pretentious ad whores. Big difference. though same outcome.
VOR

[Joyce King Thomas]

This, more than anything, demonstrates how one personnel change in a client can fuck many a thing up (talking about the running biz leaving WK in the first place). Remember when Goodby had some of Nike? At the end of the day, Nike and WK need each other.

[kypar]

Bogusky is on the cover of this month's FastCompany and his quote about Nike was
"I think everyone wants to see the work get better than it is."

By the way, George, I'm going to need me construction cone back by Monday - and washed!

[Joe Mo]

Hype can sell a shoe but can't make it comfortable. Neither can it make an agency good. CPB needs to try and build a real company instead of just burning through people. WK, nice job.

[Marvin Clonkey]

I'm not sure why you're all cheering. Wieden Portland had assed out on their Nike work for far too long. And has anything changed over there? Not really.

CPB is the smarter agency, but they are hot and cold. Very cold lately.

That 72 and Sunny Next Level football spot is the only thing I've seen in a while that's close to the kind of emotion that built the brand.

[the lower depths]

i guess that's why we're all cheering... WK had consistently done better smarter work than CPB and we're hoping that will continue with the return of Nike to their shop.

CPB has been cold for a long time now, not sure about the "smarter" thing... Man Laws? ANYTHING from the amex OPEN win but an argumentative relationship with the client? ANYTHING from the Microsoft win but more of the same?

the Sunny is spot might be "close" but that's it, and that's not what CPB does.

[popgoestheweasel]

So, farewell then, Nike and CPB. 13 months on and only one TV spot, and not a very good one either.

Rather than looking at ad shops as ad whores,
let us look at things from the other end of the telescope and see ad shops for what they truly are: product pimps. A great product is a great product. But when a shop makes more of its
own flesh than it makes of the flesh of its client's product, whoops, the only thing that's going down on anyone is the client's brand, and not in a good way.

W&K has been the Nike shop of choice for as long as it has for a very simple simple reason: the work W&K does is all about the brand, not the shop. In the same way that out on the street, the game is all about the gal and what she promises. The game is NOT about the volume of her "manager's" suit or how shiny his watch is.

Sometimes, out on the street, too much flash and "hey dude, give me five bro!" attitude can get you killed. Although advertising is a great way to earn a living, it isn't all about joy, fun, and let's rock the world with our wacky ideas: it's about business. Other people's business and how that business and its products are perceived. This is a rule you break at your peril.

Get it right and you're golden. Screw it up and no matter what your Pedigree is, you're dog meat. I like the work that CPB does. They're a great shop. But here, the mix between them and Nike was wrong from the beginning.

On the inside, I get the sense that an annual spend by Nike of $184 million is going to be enough of an incentive for Nike's top management to insist on some form of change in their brand management and marketing department. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at THAT meeting. Time for my morning beer! Cheers.

[Blinx]

CP+B has officially jumped the shark.

[George Parker]

Pop...
Well said... Obviously written before the morning beer... I write better after the morning "Pick-me-up!" Different strokes etc... Hadn't heard from you for a while, thought the debt collecters had caught up with you. Time for my 2nd PMU...
Cheers/George

[popgoestheweasel]

George, Your're too kind as usual. I've been away on a mission: I have a few old scores to settle. The balance is evening out, and, for the first time in many years, in my favour. Soon, the debt collectors will be paid off and I'll be living a little higher on the hog. Keep up the great work. Here's mud in yer pipe.

[Bryan]

@JoeMo

That 72 and Sunny spot was Wieden Amsterdam's idea, worked on for almost a year, and handed to 72 in January...they essentially took WK's mood video and produced it. Check out 72 and Sunny's mimes on Broadway ad for Bugaboo to see some of their recent work without WK's help...it actually made me hate strollers.
http://www.bugaboo.com/us/us/bee/bee_film

[King Joyce Thomas]

This is
a perfect demonstration of the open marriage concept
brought to a relationship between an advertiser and an agency.
Short-term dalliances being better than
periodic gang bangs or monogamous monotony.
The notion of Silver anniversaries fades as even the 90-day contract seems too long in the face of the current buffoonery known as Chief Marketing Officers. The key question seems to be: does the CMO last longer than the agency?

[me]

bryan has an interesting insight about the nike football commercial not really being 72 and sunny's work. the guys there being ex wk people and having done some interesting work in their own rights would make this tough to believe but it would be another argument for only wk being the kind of place able to pull off what we consider good nike work.

anyway, the 'take it to the next level' commercials have impacted like a fucking bomb in london, where I currently am. they introduced them on the eve of the champions league quarter final and from the way people yapped away about it I almost thought the old times where people might get excited about that new nike commercial and wanted to see it might be coming back.

who knows if it's a one-off that I happen to like. thing is that cpb had a chance to produce great work and didn't. they deserved to lose the business.

someone once told me it depends heavily on which group at nike you have to deal with, that some are as lame as frito-lay managers. anyone want to comment on that?

[Joyce King Thomas]

Pop—great comments.
me—you're absolutely right. this spot is becoming an out and out phenomena over in blighty and europe.
Marvin—WK has assed out on Nike??? Did you see that storming spot Michael Mann did for them recently, to name just one? (Full disclosure: I'm an WKer). WK: 1. The rest of us: 0.

[Thomas King Joyce]

The UK is a third world country? No?
Who cares about the latest Weetabix campaign? Although the fact that something inedible sells is testament to the triumph of account planning.

[the lower depths]

sort of like McCanns work for Ana Maria cakes? kind of like Twinkies without all the good stuff inside...

[Marvin Clonkey]

The Michael Mann spots were fine, but they weren't Magnet or What If. I'm just saying that I for one am not cheering, because I feel that too much of the WK Portland magic has disappeared.

[Bryan]

@marvin

You say WK Portland has lost some magic, but what about CPBs complete failure? Perhaps Nike has some share of the blame? I agree with "Me" that Nike can start looking a little like Frito Lay when they start sleeping around trying to get some thrills and calling it "diversifying".

[Adam A Zand]

Maybe they were a little worried that boy genius and "Jesus-like" Alex was in Fast Company this month. Really the Jesus and halo comments are in this article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html proving the cult of CP+B is alive and brewing the sweet stuff in vats!

Maybe the creatives at Crispin Alex and Alex should spend more time on converting customers and less on the press junkets to fawning media like Fast Company - and previously Businessweek (note my semi-hilarious post and weasel comments for anonymous CP+Bers at Tech PR Gems blog: http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2006/05/crispin-porter-bogusky-cover-article.html

Maybe I'll do another one and link to you ;)