Hasta La Creative!

Publicis Kaplan Thaler launched this perplexing online spot for baby formula brand Similac, entitled “The Mother ‘Hood.”

“The Mother ‘Hood” plays up the overused people acting like they’re in a rap video schtick, imagining all sorts of animosity between breastfeeding moms, formula moms, stay-at-home moms, working moms, dads, etc. (but then we’re not parents so maybe we’re just in the dark on this one?). At the end, these feuding groups band together for a common goal, and realize they’re not so different after all. The message, presumably, is that people shouldn’t be judgmental of parents who use formula — which seems like an awfully defensive way to advertise a product.

Planning to dress up in fake ebola hazmat gear for Halloween? That’s awfully douchey, don’t you think?

Nonprofit humanitarian group Doctors of the World has an idea, though. Why not join the “More Than a Costume” campaign and help pay for real protective equipment used by medical professionals battling ebola in West Africa?

“Health workers needs a new hazmat suit for each of their rotations, and estimates indicate that over 1 million suits will be needed in the next six weeks,” says the organization.

For $1 you can donate a glove, and $5 buys a mask. You can donate a hazmat suit for $250, and throw in a helmet for $500. (Or text EBOLA to 501501 to donate $10. C’mon, you’ll spend more than that on Halloween candy.)

The initiative was developed with Publicis Kaplan Thaler, which is running pro-bono print and digital ads this week in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and elsewhere. “Here it’s a costume. There it saves lives,” says one headline.

Props for leveraging the ebola costume craze in such life-affirming fashion. They’ve created a program that lets people contribute to the greater good, even those who plan to clomp around in bogus boots and breathe through phony filters on Halloween.

See the full ad below.

While we have yet to receive confirmation from any agency contacts, a steady stream of tips about some big (allegedly) pending changes at New York-based Publicis Kaplan Thaler has found its way to our inbox.

Here are the claims laid out in the tips we received, which started trickling in back in April after the agency laid off “less than 2 percent” of its staff:

• The agency’s three offices will consolidate into the location at 1675 Broadway
• A majority of the agency’s staff will move to that office by 2015 and the shift will be complete by 2016
• The resulting shop will drop the K and the T to go by the name “Publicis Worldwide New York”

Hints are not so specific on the staffing front. We hear mention of “potential departures” at the executive level, and more than one tipster claims that Publicis Worldwide International Creative Director Erik Vervroegen now “has his name on an office door.”

Again, we have not received an official response from anyone at PKT – but we were told to expect announcements this week or next.

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