Element 79 Cuts 35 Employees After Losing Gatorade Account

Watch Gatorade's "Ball Girl" Spot

Element 79, Chicago, President & CEO Brian Williams yesterday said that the company is letting go of 35 employees, about 15% of its staff, "in the wake of the loss of the huge Gatorade account," according to Lewis Lazare of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Williams said that the layoffs "came across all departments and at all levels, up to and including" Senior VP. Williams said that the agency is "pushing ahead full throttle on new business, but admitted there aren't a lot of major accounts in review at the moment" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 6/11).

A FOND FAREWELL: AD AGE's Bob Garfield reviews Gatorade's newest spot titled "Ball Girl," the last from Element 79, and writes under the header, "Element 79's Swan Song For Gatorade Is Pure Gold." The spot is set at a Triple-A PCL Tacoma Rainiers-Fresno Grizzlies game, and when a foul ball is struck into the leftfield corner, the ball girl "climbs up the wall in two bounds ... and spins for a leaping catch." Garfield writes the commercial, under the tagline "Never underestimate the power of superior hydration," is an "amazing fabrication of an amazing play." Gatorade's "whole pitch is to overestimate the power of situationally superior hydration, but in this context the puffery comes with the charming wink" (AD AGE, 6/9 issue).