Weight Watchers departs McCann, Gallie quits Fallon UK, Burnett photo competition for breast cancer charity
***More not-so-good news for McCann in the US as it’s losing Weight Watchers, worth $150m, to Wieden+Kennedy.
McCann New York boss Chris McDonald, recently escaped from the vale of tears that’s McCann London, announced the move today.
Weight Watchers’ US president is Lesya Lysyj (left), who was previously CMO of Heineken USA. Heineken is a W+K fan. Weight Watchers, which charges for diet programmes, is struggling against a tidal wave of free internet offers. A challenge then for W+K but the agency seems to be getting back on its game after a period when it became too seriously ‘Americana’ for its own good.
***Fallon UK boss Gail Gallie, a former client of the agency when she was at the BBC, is leaving after three and a half years. Fallon is a pale shadow of what it, briefly, became in the UK following its Sony ‘Balls’ and Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ triumphs. Another item on the rather crowded agenda of Saatchi & Saatchi boss Robert Senior (Saatchi now oversees Fallon UK).
***Pleased to see that my friend George Parker’s inimitable Adscam is back on air, after a techno glitch. Today might be Good Friday for quite a lot of the world but for George every Friday is Kate Moss day. First things first…
*** Leo Burnett London is launching the Renaissance Photography Prize to raise money for breast cancer charity The Lavender Trust at Breast Cancer Care. TLT supports younger women suffering from breast cancer. Anyone can enter their pictures, with all fees going to the charity, and the competition is being supported by famous photographers including Rankin, Martin Parr, Uli Webber and Robert Wilson.
Top notch photography is becoming a bit of a lost art these days. Here’s Uli Webber’s rather wonderful ‘The Wall.’
***Mad Men series seven has just commenced and here’s the admen’s adman Roger Sterling at his finest (from a previous series).
Get that man to McCann, pronto!