SOUTHERN RETRENCHED AT Y&R
Less than six months after taking the role in November last year, and through no fault of his own, Y&R Wellington creative director Jeremy Southern has been retrenched due to the loss of the large Noel Leeming account out of the Auckland office. He will be leaving the agency shortly, as will several Y&R staffers in both Auckland and Wellington.
The loss of Southern will be a blow for Y&R Wellington, as he was starting to make a real difference to the previously lacklustre creative product in the short time he was there, with two finalists at the upcoming Axis Awards (‘Steak sandwiches by the Sea’ in Outdoor and ‘Bonded by Beer’ in the Viral Video category).
Southern, a former Y&R Adelaide creative, filled the vacuum left after the elevation of former CD Chrissie Lahood to the MD position. (The latter will once again take on the CD role, as well as continue as MD).
Southern was at Y&R Adelaide until just before its closure a few years back (after the loss of Mitsubishi) and before joining Y&R Wellington, was at Clemenger BBDO, Sydney, following the Mitsubishi business into the agency.
14 Comments
To save Jeremy the embarrassment of having to correct this posting, he had nothing to do with either Steak Sandwiches (different team) or Bonded by Beer (before his reign). He did ‘retrench’ the team that did Bonded by Beer though. Trying times for Y&R Wellington. I’ve heard of 4 staff that have been furloughed or are leaving of their own volition – and of 1 client that is psising off too.
Would have kept him and moved him to Auckland. He’s a good creative, done some huge stuff.Also this guy didn’t lose Noel’s- someone else did (who still has his job).Say no more.
A MD/CD of a lacklustre multinational? I’ve never ever heard of an agency where that job description has worked. Sounds like a disaster to me.
Jeremy i would see this as a great chance to get out of a dead (wood) agency. You have been handed a gift boy. Y and R will not be around 2 years from now.Lets face it catmur has seen the light he is off.They have struggled to win new buisness.So what have they won? Stuff all.Burger king ads are rubbish with apes running around in circles from the girls on horses. The spark monster to the pigs (could win an axis if entered i reakon)They couldn’t even hold Noel’s.Shame Shame Shame…. who gave this bunch the agency of the year?Colenso should have won it.
Although I agree with part of the above comment that the blogger wrote I have to remind him that Y&R’s creative product is directly tied to the client. After a previous CD lost all of Y&R’s clients a few years ago, Y&R embarked on a strategy of ‘the client is always right’. In fact a better maxim might be, ‘the suit is always right’ and the creatives are just the hands for the suit or the client. This is great for holding clients but not so pukka for the creatives involved. Or the end product. I really bat for the creatives at Y&R because anything half decent you see from Y&R is actually the equivalent of winning a Gold Axis from Colenso. PS/. I heard about the girls on horses script from a guy who used to work there. He was saying it was a really funny script. It was no surprise that when it finally appeared on TV it was completely different, and a dire ad to put it politely.
Yep 2.15 nailed it for me. They going no where fast. Why hire a talented person like Southern and then let him go?What Y and R have said to whole industry is screw creative product, who needs it.Your clients will think different, all they want is great ideas and at the moment you don’t have those people to give them that. As the blogger above said, girls on horses is not an idea it’s old school rubbish. Great, pussy to sell burgers. How desperate.
Pussy to sell burgers? Brilliant. They’re BURGERS.
You had me at pussy burgers.
I contend that 10:10, 2:15 and 10:40 are the same person, agreeing with them self too. Check the writing style.6:45 is Jeremy.
Every cloud has a silver lining … if Jeremy can get another gig fast, he won’t even need to mention Y&R on his CV and no-one will forget his little toe-dip into the muddy waters of retail.
6:45 isn’t Jeremy but he probably would’ve written something similar.
Catmur is off? To where?
Catmur is hanging out in Melbourne. not Auckland because they don’t do brand work, just ads with stupid pigs in them. Who came with that pig shit anyway?
Melbourne. Either that or he just went there for lunch (see the picture on the legendery lunch on the CB blog)