9948: Banning Hoodies.

The comment thread for the Advertising Age story on Daniel Maree, the McCann staffer who helped kick-start the New York 1,000,000 Hoodie March for Trayvon Martin, featured a peculiar statement:

McCann Staffer,
Those of us who have children in the real world know that their schools prohibit “hoodies” as part of their dress code. Did you know that? Do you know why?

Old Ad Guy
Bloomfield Hills, MI

A quick Google search showed that some schools have indeed banned hoodies from the student dress code. However, the explanation is that kids were concealing their cell phones in the big pockets and texting each other during classes. Is there more to it than that? And why did Old Ad Guy feel the need to point it out in such cryptic fashion?

9944: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners & McCann.

Adweek reported Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and McCann have created a joint agency to handle the Chevrolet account. It’s bad enough that Omnicom manages to keep accounts under the global umbrella via Corporate Cultural Collusion, but this move shows the holding company will conspire with any White agency to seize billings. The new enterprise is called Commonwealth—which probably means that everyone with common skin color can expect to share the wealth.

Goodby and McCann Form New Agency to Handle Chevy in Global Creative Consolidation

Commonwealth is a 50/50 joint venture

By Noreen O’Leary

Agencies at two rival holding companies have become partners in a new company, Commonwealth, formed to work on Chevrolet’s global account. Omnicom’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and Interpublic’s McCann Erickson Worldwide, N.Y., have signed on to the 50/50 joint venture after a creative review to consolidate the global business for the General Motors brand.

In the review launched last autumn, GM roster shops Omnicom, Interpublic, Publicis Groupe and Cheil Worldwide put forth proposals to the auto marketer.

Chevrolet, GM’s largest brand, previously worked with 70 global agencies. The creation of the new Detroit-based Commonwealth agency follows the recent selection of Carat as GM’s agency for media planning and buying.

“These agency consolidations are expected to create about $2 billion in savings over the next five years, with a portion used to take advantage of key global marketing opportunities and strengthen the focus on our global Chevrolet brand, and a portion hitting the bottom line,” GM global cmo Joel Ewanick said in a statement.

GS&P has been since 2010 the lead creative agency on Chevrolet in the U.S.—the brand’s largest market—and is behind the “Chevy Runs Deep” strategy. McCann Worldwide has overseen the brand in many global markets including Mexico, Canada, Brazil, India, Japan, China and Latin America (Brazil and China are just behind the U.S. as Chevy’s largest markets). Commonwealth will now handle creative in most global regions except for China, India and Uzbekistan, where marketing efforts will continue to be handled by agencies that have been working on the brand in those countries.

Commonwealth will be managed by an eight-person global advisory board, with assignments handled through global hubs in Detroit, Milan, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. The agency’s board includes GS&P co-founder Jeff Goodby who is Commonwealth’s creative chairman; Linus Karlsson, McCann’s chairman, chief creative officer of N.Y. and London; Washington Olivetto, chairman at WMcCann Brazil and CCO McCann Worldgroup Latin America; and Prasoon Joshi, president, McCann Worldgroup South Asia.

9917: Boyz N Da Hoodie.

From Advertising Age…

McCann Staffer Behind Million-Hoodie March to Protest Trayvon Martin Slaying

Daniel Maree Kick-Started New York March With Social Media

By Rupal Parekh

Headlines today have been dominated by the outrage and public show of support for the family of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida high-school student who was shot and killed by a self-appointed neighborhood-watch captain, George Zimmerman.

President Barack Obama today called the killing a tragedy, saying that “if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon”, and NBA star LeBron James is calling for justice to be served.

It turns out that a young ad man, 24-year-old Daniel Maree, a digital strategist at Interpublic Group of Cos.’ McCann, was behind the organization of a march in New York City—and social-media campaign—that has garnered a lot of attention.

Raised in South Africa, Mr. Maree attended college in the U.S. and worked for the World Bank before joining McCann. His desire to raise awareness of Mr. Martin’s murder stems from personal experiences in which he felt targeted merely for walking down the street wearing a hoodie.

In a note that McCann North America President Hank Summy sent out late last night to staffers to inform them of their co-worker’s efforts, he explained Mr. Maree’s involvement:

Daniel decided to start a petition on Facebook, linked to Change.org, asking for a million signatures to encourage police action in the case. Out of that, a viral campaign grew quickly, and people around the world began uploading a picture of themselves wearing hoodies, many of them asking the question, “Do I look suspicious?”

As the campaign viralized, a group of Daniel’s friends, including Kandace Hudspeth, Director of McCann Social Central, and Daniel’s Social Central colleagues, used their free time and their skills to support Daniel, and build a campaign focused on the rally at Union Square last night. The team, experts in all areas of social—brand storytelling, content strategy and simplification, event activation, PR, creative and technology—created the Twitter hashtag #millionhoodies to spread the word, and also a gorgeous poster that was distributed online and printed for the rally as well. After Trayvon Martin’s parents announced they would come to NY and speak at the 6 p.m. rally on Union Square, media attention poured in.

Yesterday’s rally attracted a peaceful, passionate and diverse crowd estimated at about 5,000 people. After Travyon Martin’s parents and other community leaders spoke, the crowd marched from Union Square west on 14th Street, then north on Sixth Avenue, and was covered by media every step of the way.

If that isn’t enough, the Facebook petition surpassed 1 million signatures early this morning and is still growing by thousands of names every hour. In fact, ABC World News is reporting that the petition has become “The fastest growing petition in the history of the internet.”

This is an extraordinary story and a brilliant example of how one person’s idea, combined with the power of social media, and built by collaboration, can change the world. Congratulations to Daniel Maree and everyone else on the Social Central team – Kandace, Sharon Panelo, Michael Nguyen and Tiphaine Murat.