Element 79 Cuts 35 Employees After Losing Gatorade Account
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).
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