Why its cool for artists to sell out

On Monday, December 3rd, Marc Landsberg (global corporate strategist at Leo Burnett and president of Arc Worldwide) is gonna moderate a conversation about the music industry and how several phenomena (e.g. iTunes, Napster, social networks, etc.) have changed both how artists distribute their music and the role that the music industry plays in people’s lives. The conversation will center on why it’s cool for artists to sell out, Radiohead's recent online strategy and all kinds of other intriuging music-related topics. Listen here.

In on the convo is:
Jorgen Larsen, former chairman and CEO of Universal Music International and chairman of iLoop Mobile;
· GLC, a hip-hop artist with a positive message who tours with Kanye West; · Matt MacKelkan, an independent artist getting fame up and down the East Coast;
· Part-time Leo Burnett music producer Eric Sheinkop, who at 25 has already launched his own music company, Bandit Productions.

MarketSquare will be broadcast at 9 am CST (again, on Monday) or you can listen to the podcast at your leisure (http://www.webmasterradio.fm/).

HANGover? Read on...

Here's three new :15 spots for HANG, the leader in the anti-hangover beverage category in Thailand. The campaign aims to overcome the perception that only beginner drinkers, locally known as ‘weak throats’, need to use hangover cures. Instead, the creative team elevates HANG anti-hangover beverage drinkers to a ‘Nightlife Guru’ status, at the same time underlining the efficacy of the product. Not only are these ‘Gurus’ the envy of all their friends because they have the wildest, most extraordinary nights out, but more importantly they turn up to work the next morning looking strangely unaffected by the experience.

Human Trafficking Work for Salvation Army

In order to highlight the cruelty of human trafficking, Leo Burnett South Africa, in conjunction with The Salvation Army, created a campaign that has shoppers stopping in their tracks.
Capitalising on the attraction of shop-front windows in leading South African malls, children between the ages of 4 and 13 across the color spectrum were put on sale in premiere boutiques. Behind them draped a massive For Sale sign, and slotted the children into age categories. Alongside The Salvation Army logo, was the message "Human Trafficking is a serious crime. Help us stop the exploitation."

This hard-hitting campaign imprints the fact that you can’t put a price-tag on a human’s life; and urges the population to realise the harsh realities that children succumb to, when exposed to these acts.

Let me know what you think of this work - would love to hear your thoughts.

One Click Away from a Better World

Considering everyone mindlessly searches the Web for at least a few moments everyday (admit it, you do) - and I'd like to encourage you to conciously hit a very important website today.

Leo Burnett London has developed this site for the United Nations Development Fund for Women. On it, you can very easily add your name to the UNIFEM book - and, in doing so, strengthen UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's fight for violence-free lives for women.

If you need additional reasons to sign your name, the site has plenty. Visit and read some of the staggering statistics about violence against women worldwide. After signing the book, be sure to pass it along to your friends - and give them a meaningful cyber moment today, too.

Earth Hour To Take Over Oz

Another good bit of news from the past week....

WWF-Australia recently announced The Earth Hour Advertising Partnership, which is an initiative created Leo Burnett that calls on Australia's marketing and advertising community to encourage their clients to incorporate the Earth Hour brand into advertising creative and marketing programs between 1 February and 29 March 2008.

To encourage participation, Fairfax Media is awarding a trip to Cannes for the agency account director and client marketer who find the most inspirational or effective way of driving participation in Earth Hour. Likewise, Campaign Brief is awarding a trip to Cannes for the creative team that develops the best creative work for a client supporting The Earth Hour Advertising Partnership.

Interested? Download the brief from the following FTP site:
ftp://203.28.166.111
Login: earthhouradvertising
Password: partnership

We're baaaaaack and we're winning...

Well, after a nice long Thanksgiving holiday, I'm back and ready to blog away.

The first highlight in my inbox this morning was this sweet little short, which won the Grand Prize at the Philipine Ad Congress. It was created by Leo Burnett creative team JP Cuison and Mela Advincula. Using only a camera phone, they had just 21 hours to conceive and produce a one-minute film based on the theme, “The Power to Change”. Check it out - it's pretty.

LB Wins Top Honors in Print, Posters at London International

If there's one word I've typed more than any other in 2007 its "Clima" - and it doesn't look like I'll be stopping anytime soon because last night the runaway team did it again. Leo Burnett Bangkok won a record number of awards at this year’s London International Awards show, picking up nine Golds (six in Posters and three in Print) and one Silver for the highly-awarded bicycle print and poster campaign.

As a result of their strong performance coupled with our other big wins, LB wasthe top-ranked network in both the Print and Poster categories. We won a total of 32 awards, detailed here.

Lock on!

(ewww....even *I* think that was a bad joke...)

#1 in The World!

The bicycle lock campaign that took the 2007 award season by storm has rightfully assumed its perch atop the Gunn Report, released yesterday. The Clima Bicycle campaign (“Barriercycle,” “Railcycle” and “Polecycle”) created by Leo Burnett Bangkok has been recognized as the most-awarded print campaign the year by the Report.

And, of course, as a PR, I'd be remiss not to point out that LB/Milan’s Ariston “Underwater World” was just one point shy of winning the top Television spot of the year. Check out the whole release in our news section here.

LOVE ending the week on a winning note!

McD's Brings Life to Ads

In case you haven't seen the Salad Board LB/Chicago created for McDonald's, here's a cool video that shows how the board literally "came to life."