Juvenile...

Now sometimes we're accused of being a tad juvenile over here in Sun PR (it wasn't me that tried to stick the "HP UX, Rest In Peace" tombstone in front of HP HQ this Halloween!)...

I'm glad to see others engage in similarly witty behavior - seems O&M let their domain ogilvymather.co.uk expire last week. Viral agency Asa Bailey nabbed it and then posted this little gem in place of the usual, incredibly stimulating and illuminating, corporate Ogilvy 360 degree brand management stuff. Pepper has the full story.

As Tim pointed out to me, not the first time this has happened. One monday...

A quick aside, it was O&M that apparently created these ads for Ka - they deny doing so. The cat ad is just plain mean while the pigeon is an all time classic... scroll to the bottom of the page for links...

Ford's European operation and Ogilvy & Mather, its advertising agency, began an investigation into how a proposed ad — which both insisted had been rejected — had begun circulating on the Internet.

The car maker said the advert was conceived as part of a "viral" campaign, where short videos are released on to the Internet and redistributed by e-mail, as people find them funny. But it insisted it was not meant to be developed. As an alternative, a clip showing a comedy pigeon being thwacked by the bonnet, had been chosen.

"It was done as a proposal somewhere deep down in the bowels of the agency," Ford said. "As soon as we saw it we said absolutely not. We are appalled — this is not something we want to be associated with."

Not the first time this happened either. Nokia headed down an equally sick but amusing track with this little number. What do European ad agencies have against cats?

My point here is that a) no agency or comms team is infallible (and that we're mostly sick); b) too much great work gets lost in the bowels of an agency and c) marketing can be fun afterall...

Better go renew those domain names folks. Have a great weekend!

(btw... while you're wasting time, take a look at the latest episode of Inside Jack...)