Needless to say, when Dan in our London office put me on to this move by Andes beer in Argentina, I was feeling it. An idea that’s obviously limited in its real-world experience reach, but has gained a massive reach through the content created around it. Red Bull-style. Enjoy responsibly.

Any other interesting examples for me?

One of the last things I worked on back at Wieden was ESPN’s marketing for the very quickly approaching World Cup. One of the most interesting things we did with them (and a South African artist collective) is put together 33 murals that told the stories of each participating team (and another for the tourney). You can check them all out here on Facebook or on Flickr. But, of course, this is the most important one:

Finally, here’s the “anthem” TV spot (Bono and all) for the entire event:

P.S. I’d like to promise more activity over here, but with game-watching and my new job, I can’t be sure. Thanks for keeping me around.

Anyway, a conversation about creating something (an ad, event, application, etc.) that makes “a brand statement” – gets people talking and shows them a company’s values, personality and/or mission – led me to think about some of the work that’s broken through and resonated with me over the last half year or so. You guys and dolls in advertising have probably seen most, if not all, of these but figured I’d post them for the other nine visitors who aren’t scouring award show winner lists. Plus, I truly believe it’s important for everyone in our industry to talk about the work we see out in the marketplace – whether “creative” is in your title or not.

The idea that sparked this post originally is closest to the Coke example in that it’s a stunt that documented made for some pretty interesting video. What I love is how Heineken thought about their audience and decided to use the people who have the most influence over their soccer fan consumers to reach them.

Also in the sports world (my world) are Gatorade’s Replay, Nike’s Chalkbot and Puma’s Hardchorus. Definitely check these out – they’re really fun.

Given my history working with The Islands Of The Bahamas’ tourism board, I can’t deny last year’s big winner on awards show circuit. Here’s its case study video:

Other award winning ideas brought to life that I admire are BK’s Whopper Sacrifice, Axe’s 100 Girls and our Old Spice Swaggerize Me.

Lastly, two very different uses of film (hundreds of very short clips to show off a limited-run of shoes and one long tale about whiskey) have caught my eye and sucked me in. They are New Balance’s 574 Cilps and Johnnie Walker’s “The Man Who Walked Around The World:

P.S. Kevin, there’s your credit list.
P.P.S. W+K London just released an extended version of Impossible Dream for Honda.

It’s a great primer for those just starting in the discipline and reminder for the rest of us to act not just as problem solvers but also change agents.

I, like many planners, having been keeping track of and keeping my clients up-to-date on the content online that’s spreading across many people for a while now. It started years ago as a way to shift the conversation away from “We want the next Tea Partay” to “what’s right for us and our audience and what would they want to pass along” by providing examples with various levels of taste, humor, shock, etc. Plus, because the majority of “viral successes” come from individuals, it was helpful to start looking more closely at what companies were doing.

Read full article here

Fast forward to present. Thankfully we don’t get too many briefs with “viral” as a deliverable anymore. But for those who do, there’s been some great thinking about the problems with the term/request done by Faris, Bud, Paul and Ivan. However, I still do collect examples of (mostly) brands’ attempts to produce (mostly) video content to be passed around…and rack up that coveted 1 million YouTube views.

Since I had all these links in my delicious or email, I figured I’d put them all in one place and share them with you – just in case it’s useful in any way. Without further ado, the 2009 “viral” year in review:

Q1 kicked off with Mini has some fun with the “Is it fake?” theme of many viral videos. Geico feeds off the equity of the Numa Numa Guy to create a hit video (though other videos leveraging memes that they put on their YouTube channel “itsthegecko” had significantly less views). Nike had Taylor Momsen (from Gossip Girl) do some parkour to avoid the paparazzi. Ray Ban “Never Hide Films” (behind the catching sunglasses video which has over 4 million views) came back in early January with another video, which did not get quite the same response. Cadbury, on the other hand, came back strong (after the drum-playing gorilla) with “Eyebrow Dance” and got a lot of views.

Then, there were the commercials, which were heavily spread online like McDonald’s Fillet o’ Fish commercial, which has a techno song remix as well. Though, Pharrell trying to get the Mickey D’s in Paris airport gained more traction. Then, there were ones that just didn’t stir up the controversy they had hoped to, such as Domino’s CEO going hard at Subway.

After his death at the end of June, it was no surprise that Michael Jackson was all over the Internet. Millions of views for everything from this old Pepsi commercial to this Twitter mashup to the tribute by Philippines detention center inmates, who are more famous for their original Thriller performance.

Back to brands, Samsung put out this LED sheep thing which got tons of views. Then followed up with more crazy stuff at a trade show. I know it’s a TV campaign, but the geeks went gaga for this Intel work. And sticking with tech, peeps have been all about Xbox’s Project Natal and its first official look. T-Mobile is back (in the UK) with a follow-up to their train station dance, getting a crowd together to sing “Hey Jude”.

There’s what Nike did for Free And what FC Barcelona’s coach put together with Catalonian TV before playing Manchester United in the Champions’ League Final, which was inspired by this.

Remember the EA Sports response to Tiger Woods superfan and YouTube user? They tried to build off it (but less successfully) with this before the Open. And I think Gilette’s still sour that Philips had such a hit with their body groomer (“Shave Everywhere”) work a few year’s back and came out with this “manscaping” tip video. But that’s probably better than the Comfort Wipe infomercial out there and Burger King “Square Butts” (Sponge Bob + Sir Mix-a-lot) commercial, both of which have been racking up views online.

Of course you’ve seen “I’m on a Boat” by Lonely Island, but even better is this a Capella version. Plus, on the subject of singing (or lip-syncing in this case), here’s a kid who produces and broadcasts his talent from the Apple Store.

There’s the Kanye interrupting Obama mash-up and likely the most viral video as of the year (parodied on NBC’s The Office): “JK Wedding Dance“.

Nike, EA and RayBan returned with Skateboarding and Ice Cube, FIFA 2010 and a SxSW video respectively.

Discovery Channel launches a bunch of mini-clips for Shark Week. Disneyland brings us a magical (come on, don’t be a hater) proposal. Evian helps you feel young…with roller-skating babies. And MSI gives us “Guy catches laptop with his butt.”

United Airlines gets firsthand experience in the power of the customer and a PR nightmare when they broke a dude’s guitar. The Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody. There’s a Christmas Light Hero and a Gap commercial tribute.

Over the holidays, we had the option to stay warm by the fire or with your Weezer Snuggie. But, as NYC Health advises, stay away from the soda (WARNING: KINDA GROSS). And if we ventured out, we could have brought some money for the Salvation Army and ImprovEverywhere. While brands were not pumping out as much online video content as in past quarters, there was this nice set of videos for Google Chrome.

And there you have it. Say goodbye to 2009 (again)..and (now) to “viral.”

As you can see, Charles and I have an uphill battle going into the game. But he’s a lucky dude and there are 9 ways to win. For those wanting to play along, here are the deets:

$20/box / 1st quarter – $150 / Half-time – $300 / 3rd quarter – $150 / Final – $1100
Additionally, the “four touchers” of the final score box will get $50 each and reverse score wins $100.

So start your own tomorrow at work or with your party on Sunday. Or just root for me.

Sometimes when you win, you really lose and sometimes when you lose, you really win and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic globule, from which one extracts what one needs.

Here’s a case where I lost and really lost. (Though I did extract a blog post from it.) The rules: standing jump (high and long) over the couch. (How the new Mad Men and Women get down. Literally.) My one and only attempt was somewhere in the middle of the event. You can see the rest, including a few successes, here.

CouchJump V from Keiji Ando on Vimeo.

- Keiji creating art and upping the inspiration and fun with his “GRRRanimals of WKNY” mural:

The truth of the matter is that there are somewhere around 160 people in our office, and there are somewhere around 100 creatures on the stairwell. What that means is that many of the animals are really amalgams of several different people, groups of people, and so forth. Yes, it’s true that some of the creatures are more direct reference to specific individuals, but for the most part the animals are mixes. Literally months of thought have gone into the careful analysis of the bestial representations of various people in the office, and I think in short its best to consider the value of an animal in a more eastern way—that is to say, its all good, even if you’re a pig or a rat. Also frankly, if you think about it, you’re probaby not a dragon, or a liger or like a griffon or something.

Stairwell V2 from Keiji Ando on Vimeo.

- Nick completing his “100 Bands in 100 Days” project and inviting us all to his final show:

The fact that I can find live music in downtown Hartford, CT on a random Monday night amazes me. How I can still see Les Paul, the 93-year old man who invented the solid body electric guitar, every Monday night, have him flick me off for a picture and meet him afterwards amazes me. The fact that I can be asked on stage to perform with a band that’s been together for over 20 years, to a sold out crowd in NYC amazes me. And the fact that I can see 100 consecutive days of live music and still love music amazes me.

- Phil taking pictures of WKNYers in a project (that didn’t start as a project at all) called Rooftop at Seven:

Well I shot Sara and then Heather and those went well so I was like fuck it. LET’S GO.

Three very different projects that transform employees to people (or co-workers to friends) and make me feel more connected to the place and people around here. Not human resource sanctioned or agency funded necessarily (except for Keiji’s paint I think) but permitted (if not encouraged) and extremely valuable.

But given it’s a snowy Friday morning, I figured I’d give you a couple cozy videos. Plus, I wanted to ask (in an accusatory way): How have none of my “friends” told me that these exist? Natalie and Rashida. Come on. Sure, there’s funnier stuff on the site but seriously. My favorite of the three:

As for one of the best series of videos on FoD, Zach G. is back with his third installment of “Between Two Ferns.” This time with John Hamm. So you know, it gets a little inappropriate at times but the “Websites” part is classic.

Advertising. While holiday parties are being canceled, scaled back, etc., it reminds me of all the other holiday parties I’ve been to in my 6 years in the biz. Every year some of the geezers (original MadMen) of the industry and even some of the old guys (30-40 year-old’s, that is) talk about parties past. The wild times without worries or inhibitions. The excess. The skinny dipping. The drugs.

No. I don’t want the drugs. But we didn’t get our good ‘ole days or our dot-com boom. People my age came in at the bust, enjoyed a few normal years, and now have to deal with this crazy recession.

So. Realize this: We don’t want to hear about your stinkin’ glory day holiday events. And realize what we’re thinking on the other days when you tell us to pay our dues: “Why? We’re already paying for the mess you’ve made.”

What we’d actually prefer to do is roll up our sleeves and get to solving the problem. What we don’t want to do is roll up our sleeves and do the bullshit work while you get to “take a stab” at solving it.

You taught us this top-down model. AAE to AD eventually. A good idea can come from anywhere in the creative department. You value our understanding of “the digital life” enough to hear our explanation of how we use social networks but not enough to put us in the room with the potential client, to whom you’re selling that understanding.

And not just in the ad industry. You taught my Banking friends that it’s normal to work 90 hours a week, be unhealthy but filthy rich. You taught the Asset Managers to manage relationships, you’ll take care of the investments. You taught my friends in Fashion to sell on shows, showrooms, and parties. You taught those working for Magazines and Newspapers to worry about content, not the medium/delivery mechanism. You taught new Teachers to stick to the curriculum and focus on preparing students for standardized tests if they want tenure. That this is just the way it is; that we should just deal with it. We fell in line and look what happened.

You taught us to respect our elders. We say, “Earn it.”

It’s time for new ways.

[This rant was inspired by this fantastic post by Charles Frith, a responsible "old" guy in advertising (which there are many others including Gen Gifted on right sidebar), who used the word "party" in the title of his post. My title inspired by this.]

Here’s an interesting idea that seemed worth a post rather than just a delicious bookmark. Seth Godin is offering an alternative to Business School – spend 6 months in his office. It’s an “apprenticeship/not-internship/graduate school/charm school track-changing opportunity.” Yes, apprenticeship slash grad school…and not the other way around. And yes, that Zoolander reference probably wouldn’t fly in an application to his program or any of the prestigious universities from which he may steal talent. More probable than getting the MBA-seeking to reconsider, he’s created something motivating for the entrepreneurial path-changer. The idea is great, the timing is even better, and the price is best—it’s free. If I hadn’t found something real and if I wasn’t so into keeping it real here at W+K NY, I’d definitely give it some serious consideration.

UPDATE: My buddy, who is likely headed to a top ranked business school next Fall, passed on this site to get prospective B-schoolers take on Other Seth’s offer. Also, note to planners, the Business Week Business School forums are usually filled with great opinions, emotion, and insight. Last note, my friend did not want a “shout-out” on the blog because he’s “trying to stay as much under the radar online as possible until this whole silly business school process is over…interviews and such.” Now there’s a new, FREE perspective for us bloggers.

I was just alerted to Clay’s latest post via Twitter. He sets expectations upfront that it’s introspective, focused on the job of a strategist in the world of communications, and a bit long. I will do the same. This is my initial reaction, also focused on the role of an account planner (another term for strategist), and I have no idea how long it’s going to be.

As I started reading, I found his honesty refreshing and many of themes he touches on relatable—at least to another 27-year-old in the advertising industry. Though I’d imagine much of what he’s offered will be less than foreign to older strategists and anyone looking for professional satisfaction. Anyway, somewhere around his third paragraph, I realized I was going to comment—most likely, “good stuff, brother.” But then when he started tackling his second question—Can strategy be fulfilling?—I started taking notes. (Yes, buddy freehand first – just like your pops taught you.)

I was compelled to write…

You may be surprised (if you haven’t been already) how many people don’t know what to do next, what to do now. Yes, that goes for job searching. However, I’m going talk about marketers. They just aren’t sure what to do for their “brand.” (This is the last time I use the “b” word in this post.) They don’t know what to do say about their companies, its products and/or services. They don’t know how they should be saying it or where. Often, they don’t have know who they should be talking with. A few steps back, they don’t have a clear sense why they want to “communicate” in the first place.

We are problem solvers. And sometimes the most important work we do is helping people (our clients) define the real problem they want to address.

We are storytellers with discipline. And though we don’t create the ads, we can blend strategy and creativity in weaving together a story that’s rooted in a deep understanding of people (our client’s current and/or potential customers) and how we can actually offer value to them.

We, as Denzil Meyers put it, help people find the best way to move forward.

Without us there would be less differentiation, interestingness, and effectiveness. There would probably be less respect for the people many of our clients and co-workers still call “consumers” as if they are waiting around ready to hear about the company’s latest and greatest. Even if now they’re not only sitting on their couches in front of a TV but also at their desks in front of computers, online.

They still need someone to explain the social aspect of communications. Because many have only been broadcasting out for their entire lives as marketers. That worked. It’s all they had to do. They understand the two-way nature of conversations in theory but not necessarily how to practice it. With regards to the respect you brought up and I just mentioned, they are respectful individuals but don’t always practice respectful communications. This respect has to manifest itself online as well as in communications meant for traditional media.

Take the recent Motrin headache. (Yeah, I know hundredth person to go there.) Do you think it matters that it was an online video rather than a TV commercial? Hells no. It’s a piece of communications that showed a lack of understanding of the people they wanted to talk to—moms. To be fair, it’s possible they we’re looking to talk with, or engage, these moms in dialogue. But I’m quite sure this is not the “we get you” takeaway they were hoping for. In short, some moms found the ad to be disrespectful. Yet now they have a community that’s bigger than their yoga class, brunch group, or (insert modern mommy stereotype here), more easily connected, and has a stage to respond. (They weren’t going to buy a TV spot in the past and a strongly worded letter probably would not have made the splash a group of bloggers and Tweeters and YouTubers did.)

Marketers need to understand the expectations of their companies, not just for speed of apology. I feel like it’s more important than ever that they have someone helping them dig down to their essence, truly get to know the people they want to sell to and support, find their voice, and keep them honest while not losing their specialness in communicating with others.

As strategists/planners, this is our job. And while I don’t find it fulfilling every day, on the whole, it’s pretty damn sweet.

Ironically (?) not having written anything on planning in a while has had me feeling less fulfilled. So thank you for putting something out there that made me think and type out more than a half-assed comment.

Also, just so you know, I already consider you a “thinker-doer.” In fact, I have that as a label in G-Mail for convos I have with you, Mike (who you shout-out), Noah, Eric, Chet, Johanna, Amit, Kevin, Leland, Adrian, Paul, and a few others. No joke. I agree I will only be adding more planners and ex-planners to that folder.

And one more thing…Brands! Ah, that felt good.

What a good guy!

But truth is, most of my time has been spent trying to get you people (especially the sports fans among ya) to feel a deeper, stronger connection to ESPN. I do this primarily, as many of you know, by developing interesting strategies for their variety of properties. These ideas serve as platforms for our creative work.

That’s what we call what you call “ads” here at W+K, the “work.” I wanted to use this post not only to make an excuse about being super busy with work but also to show you the most recent work I have been a part of bringing to life (in my own small way).

When most sports fans think of ESPN’s advertising, they think “those SportsCenter commercials.” And that’s a good thing because most of them ‘em. I do too (even if they don’t require a “planner” and brief). When we set out to announce the start of SportsCenter going live in the morning, however, some strategic thinking was essential. Planning’s role (my role) was as much about tonal approach as it was about message. The news itself was not wildly important news to sports fans nor would it have a huge impact on the show, so we had to be honest, transparent even, and make the campaign the news/entertainment. The tagline (as it often does) encapsulated our strategy “More work for us. More better for you.” You seen it (and my handwriting) here already.

In addition, I am particularly jazzed (yeah, I said it) about latest work we did right after the Olympics. Our clients smartly wanted to be proactive about making a statement that celebrated this global event (which of course ran on NBC, not ESPN). We framed the challenge to figure out a way to be true to our personality without being self-serving. We turned the work around within a week and the response to our ad in the Sunday New York Times has been great.

Also very recently, we launched our campaign for Monday Night Football on ESPN. The idea is simple, Monday Night Football helps you get through Monday. Was this a planning breakthrough? Hells no. But it’s the truth, and in my career as a planner, I’ve found some of the campaigns I’m most proud of working on have started with identifying a clear truth like Mondays suck or You need a vacation (Bahamavention). Back to the MNF campaign, I’m really happy with how it turned out…and only partly because MC Hammer is in one TV spot. (Whose beeper keep beepin’ and beepin’!?) Check out Creativity’s nice write-up.

Other than that, I’ve been working to get our office’s blog in full swing, updating my Tumblr, and of course wishing I was responsible for the brief that led to this work.

First, our Portland office created a new site for Old Spice Pro-Strength Antiperspirant. It allows you to get your TV Medical Doctor certification. Here’s mine:

You may have seen the commercials which feature Neil Patrick Harris. They’re pretty good too but couldn’t hold the stethoscope of (NPH as) Dr. Horrible. Greg March put me onto it with these two posts. Give it a watch:

And finally, Leland recently posted an interview of Stephen Colbert with the guy who wrote OBD (Obsessive Branding Disorder)…brought to you by Dr. Pepper. Check it out:

The man is Steve Braband. He is the face, body, voice, feet and everything else but the mind (not entirely at least) of our new campaign for ESPN’s SportsCenter. A quick history: ESPN came to us wanting to know how to communicate the news that SportsCenter is going live from 9AM-3PM weekdays. We worked with them to create a brief and most importantly figure out the right personality, attitude and tone to bring to this simple message. Our creative team’s idea wowed everyone. It was literally a personality…Steve.

They wanted to find and follow an ESPN employee just about 24/7 for two weeks leading up to SportsCenter going live and broadcast this employee live on ESPN during commercial breaks. It (IMHO) is less commercials or ads than it is content. This is quite possibly the work I’m most proud of being a part of (in crafting strategy more than copyhandwriting, believe it or not!) Here’s one of my favorites so far from Day 2 of following Steve. Gotta love the running clock he has to keep with him at all times. Sports version of Flava Flav!

So where does my talent come in? Come on – don’t tell me you missed it! Go back and peep that card at the end of the video. “More work for us. More better for you.” Yeah, more work for me, writing that and everything on the site, Steveislive.com, (going live tomorrow – sneak peek for my readers) and banners driving to it. And that tagline, “Live” and “9AM-3PM” is shown at the close of each spot we do!

Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m about to get a hyperbaric chamber to keep this hand in tact. Next up, making my sunglasses famous like the Aussie Spicoli’s.

So what did I do when I got here? Nothing at first, except absorb and understand the culture of this office. I identified a couple of opportunities to better our internal collaboration and our external brand. I set objectives, I drew on past experiences, and I started experimenting with solutions. Along the way, I certainly faced some challenges…and I know I’d be a fool to believe it’s smooth sailing from here.

So what am I actually talking about? The creation of Wieden+Kennedy New York’s blog.

I guess the idea was considered way back when I was a prospective employee, working out at Fallon Minneapolis and ready to move back to my home, NYC. The agencies on my radar were the ones people were talking about. They were the ones getting written up. They were part of the conversation, and thus, my consideration set. Wieden was always a favorite agency…too bad they were in Portland.

Yet it wasn’t until shortly after I arrived that John Jay came through our office on his “we’re AdWeek’s Global Agency of the Year” tour that I totally believed in the importance of developing our office’s unique culture and voice. The benefits that could be gained from sharing within our walls, across our network, within the industry and international creative community far outweighed the risks. I really believe this. And I have already seen how much more involved people become once someone takes the very little time to teach them (about the platform or a post).

So, I got people smarter than me to help create it. I enlisted people more interesting than me to populate it with content.

Now doesn’t come the statement, “This is not an agency blog!” Of course, it is. Are we going to be different that some of the others? I sure hope so. And that’s not a comment on agency blogs stinking – there are some fantastic ones that serve as inspiration to me at the very least. We obviously hope to be different because there’s no need for the same content to be regurgitated.

On a related note, while it is an agency blog, it is not a planning blog. Nothing against them. I still read a bunch and enjoy each! But as of now, I’m the only person with that title with a login. We have a design, media director, copywriter, cultural curator (yes, sick title), search director and project manager all set up with logins (though not all have posted). And yes, past experience has shown the heavy lifting will likely be done by me and a couple of others.

So what do we hope to bring to the blogosphere? A window into the world of Wieden+Kennedy New York and New York culture through the lens of our people. So you won’t get someone like me who’s still listening to FutureSex/LoveSounds hollering about the underground music scene. You’ll get a music-junkie. You won’t have me and my Johnston & Murphy zip-up boots poppin’ off about the latest kicks. You’ll get a sneaker-head. And so on. Plus, you’ll get way less alliteration and rhyming!)

This blog is supposed to interesting. It is supposed to be fun. It is only supposed to be self-serving in that we benefit the same way that any blogger does – from engaging in the conversation, learning by doing and learning from others. Hopefully you’ll find it entertaining and every once in a while inspiring. As you’ll see from the archives, we’ve been working on being interesting and honing our collective voice since February – and we’re still a work in progress. (Yes, always in beta – but I’m sick of that phrase.)

So that’s all for now. Come visit and say hi. But don’t leave me…I couldn’t bear it.

Anyway, Heather LeFevre conducted and finished putting together the results of the fourth annual Account Planning Survey into a sweet PowerPoint, which she then made available to all on SlideShare. With just under 800 completed surveys (up from 466 a year ago – congrats, Heather!) and questions ranging from salary to experience to blogging to schooling and even negotiating, it provides a global (US-centric though just to manage expectations) and detailed snapshot of the planning world.

This included the answers to one question I couldn’t help but notice…and be proud of:

To be clear, I was in the stay “where I am” majority (just in case my boss or head of HR is reading this and is thinking of an upgrade – it would not be an upgrade of an ingrate). I know why I’m a fan of this place but would still love to know what the outsiders think led to this lead.

To the point. In the now half-year I’ve been working at W+K NY, I’ve met some amazing people (cue violins) and some of those people have blogs. Sure, amazing people does not always mean amazing blogs, but these two are top-notch on and off line. Thus, I’d highly recommend anyone interested in the Internet/Digital Life/Social Media check out:

The Gist of March: Greg March is media guru here with an uncommon understanding of the digital space. I use “uncommon” purposefully as he recently offered some insight into McCain and Obama’s friend situations on Facebook and Myspace. One of my favorite posts of his has to be What Wu-Tang Taught Me About Social Marketing.

Geeky is a way of life: Melissa Sconyers is a search guru here and digital native, passionate and expert. I, of course, have to give her some love for her term-coining abilities based on her Befoogled post (Befoogled = “Not having time to Google somebody before you meet them in real life.”) I was hooked from the first post that I ever read of hers about the work-life balance giving way to the work-life blend (cite: Adrian Ho).

So they’re both worth reading and meeting.

P.S. I am now realizing there’s very little chance that “Wieden” is a double entendre given it’s not a verb in the English dictionary. Racecar. That’s better. Palindromes usually do the trick.

P.P.S. Given I hit up the Tumblr party last night I thought I’d also give a shout-out to three things friends put me onto this morning. I “reblogged” cool things from Chet, Katie and Amit this morning.

But—and you knew that was coming—sometimes I just can’t help myself. (Yes, the holiday sweater party was a prime example.) And—once again, no suspense created—today is one of those times. Because yesterday was Founder’s Day and 1. Some video footage is already on YouTube so I’m less scared about being fired; 2. This was the most unwork company function of which I’ve even been a part; and 3. It was so outrageous, yet so authentic to W+K NY.

As our offices across the globe celebrated the 26th birthday of Wieden + Kennedy, our New York office also turned 13. By the subject of this post, you know what that means. It was time to have our Bar Mitzvah (B’nai probably)…well, time to go out to Charisma Ballroom in Queens and have a Bar Mitzvah party. The theme…Ninjas. And that’s really all I have to say about that. (Still think some things should be left to the people inside these walls.) Except maybe that Coke and Pepsi was played, so the following picture makes some sense.

So forgive me for not doing much today other than recounting the day and night (which you’ve now gotten a glimpse into) with coworkers, looking at pictures, eating, and learning the words to Jay-Z’s verse in Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” (which I butchered at the after Bar Mitzvah bar). Okay, one more picture that must have been taken right after I shouted “the best fur – Chinchilla” into the mic and thought I was going to exit on a high note…only to realize I was just half-way through…

Oh yeah, and the other reason this is titled so broadly yet pointedly is that I just found out that an article I was asked to write (theme – post-Birthright experience) for Contact (a quarterly journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish life) was just published. Check it out by clicking on and downloading the PDF of Winter 2008. (Pages 13-14)

That’s all for now. Shalom. Ying-yang. Hov!

Anyone who has been to the blog (vs. RSS) in the past week may have noticed a little poll I’ve got going on the sidebar asking which is worse Sunday nights or Monday mornings. It may surprise some of you that after 13 votes, Sunday nights has take a slight lead. I’m going to stay objective at this point, but I definitely have an opinion – as I’m sure most of you do too, so come vote at the very least.

Better yet, I have just set up a quick-and-clean blog called: Why Do Mondays Suck?

Go there to vote as well as give your perspective about what makes Monday so wack. You’ll have a chance to win a $50 Starbucks card (which I know will probably only last you addicts through Tuesday afternoon.)