-Apple’s “Pride” video features the company’s employees and family members marching in San Francisco’s Pride Parade (video above). link

-Media companies are building in-house creative shops to offer marketers. link

-Rap Genius raises $40 million, rebrands as Genius. link

-Brands react to LeBron James‘ return to the Cavs. link

-Twitter to brands: “Come to us if you want to reach fans freely.” link

-LeBron’s “good guy” brand makeover. link

Translation, New York has a new campaign for Champs (for whom they are agency of record), entitled “Game Never Sleeps.”

The campaign celebrates the summer with a series of spots highlighting nocturnal sporting highjinks and a pool party rooftop dive. In the ridiculous 30 second-spot “One Giant Leap” a party-goer takes a rooftop leap into a pool. Only he realizes mid-jump that he left his prized kicks on. Somehow, he has the presence of mind to to quickly slip them off, unharmed, while also managing to make it into the pool. Other spots in the campaign are a bit more plausible, featuring nighttime games of basketball and football. Stay with us after the jump for “Let There Be Light” and “Nightglow,” along with credits. Read more

RAPP Tells BuzzFeed Why It Is the Coolest Place to Work

Mullen Names New Top Creative in LA

New ECD/GCD at JWT Atlanta

ECD Carl Rogers Leaves Havas

Red Lobster Names Publicis Lead Creative Agency

New President/CEO at TBWA Worldwide

FCB Does the Creative Shuffle

Pereira & O’Dell New York announced the addition of Tennille Teague as the new head of production for the agency’s New York office. Teague will oversee production for East Coast clients including Memorial Sloan Kettering, Fox Sports 1, Realtor and New Era and report to VP of Production Jeff Ferro in San Francisco.

Teague arrives at Pereira & O’Dell with over 14 years of global production experience, working with brands such as Bud Light, LG, MTV, NHL, Range Rover and Campbell’s, working with budgets ranching from $5,000 to $4 million. Prior to Pereira & O’Dell, Teague was senior content producer at Translation LLC. Before that she spent over ten years in that position at Young & Rubicam. She also “has been a contributing partner and judge with the Tribeca Film Festival, AICP, AICE and Clios award shows.”

“Tennille has tremendous production expertise and a passion for storytelling,” said Cory Berger, managing director of Pereira & O’Dell New York. “She’s a wonderful addition to the team we have in place in New York, and will be instrumental as we grow our production capabilities.”

This week brings us the latest in TDA_Boulder‘s series of shorts for client FirstBank.

The campaign, directed by the Perlorian Brothers of LA production company MJZ, highlights the always-relevant disconnect between the Amish community and the modern world in order to promote the client’s new mobile app, which allows for the remote and super-convenient paying of bills.

Here’s your protagonist reflecting on the number of expenses he may now resolve without having to visit the real world in “Manure Bill”:

The campaign will run across all broadcast networks and various summer cable summer programs (and yes, that includes Amish Mafia).

Credits and previous spots after the jump.

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Three years ago, Snapchat took social media by storm.

The thought of sending pictures and text that would “disappear” after only seconds of viewing appealed to tech addicts but raised some questions about privacy.

Even the FBI got in the mix.

However, that didn’t stop brands from looking into the possibility of Snapchat helping give them a leg up on the competition, despite its ne’er-do-well intrigue. Now, an interesting study from Business Insider proves that the ballyhoo may have been a smoke screen for the app’s true (hidden) purpose: brand equity.

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This week McCann Worldwide announced two C-level changes: Pablo Walker, formerly President of McCann Worldgroup Latin America & Caribbean, will now hold the same title for McCann Worldgroup Europe. Replacing him will be Fernando Fascioli, CEO of McCann Chile.

Walker has been with McCann for more than two decades; in citing his track record, CEO Harris Diamond writes, “As we look to Europe, the need for clients across the region to reach diverse populations economically and culturally will increase.”

DigitasLBi announced the promotion of EVP/Chief Solutions Officer Norman de Greve to President, Boston-Detroit. He succeeds Barbara Goose, who left to accept the role of CMO at Altisource, a technology and services firm.

de Greve will manage the growth of the 800-plus employee region while steering strategy for such clients as Cessna, General Motors, Lenovo and PUMA. He will report to North American CEO Tony Weisman.

Social@Ogilvy appointed Fergus Hay as General Manager for the Asia-Pacific region in Hong Kong.

Hay, who previously served as Executive Marketing Director at Ogilvy New York and Worldwide Managing Director on the SC Johnson business based in Chicago, has helped develop work for clients like British Airways, Barclays, Coca-Cola and Fanta. He also writes and produces the video series “Creativity: Weapon of Mass Disruption”, for which he interviews various industry thought leaders who are not you.

Hay will report to Hong Kong-based Global Managing Director Thomas Crampton.

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Adweek described Deutsch LA’s “MicroRave” for Pop Secret perfectly as “like a sad, seizure-inducing nightclub for corn,” in a post that also questioned whether it was the worst ad of the year.

Deutsch LA points out, defensively, “This wasn’t intended as an ad, but as a quickie video for social media meant to celebrate the EDC festival happening the weekend we launched it,” which may disqualify it from that title. The premise of the spot (or “quickie video” or whatever you want to call it) is simple: popcorn attend a “MicroRave” complete with blasting electronic music, seizure-inducing lighting, beads of butter-sweat (which doesn’t exactly make Pop Secret seem appetizing) and a trail of kernels sadly waiting to get in. As if that wasn’t enough already, there’s also a 20-minute long “Extended Party Version,” which we’ve included for anyone masochistic enough to attempt to sit through it after the jump.  Read more

mcgarrybowen teamed up with production company Bullitt Branded (a new branded content company from the Russo Brothers) to combine the re-launch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the re-launch of Pizza Hut’s “Cheesy Bites” in a new spot entitled “Sneaky Turtles.”

The 30-second cross-promotional spot keeps things pretty simple, relying on the appeal of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Said “Sneaky Turtles” break into a Pizza Hut test kitchen while no one is around and whip up a batch of “Cheesy Bites” — while making a complete mess. When the test kitchen chef returns, he’s pleased to discover the “Cheesy Bites” and eagerly digs in. The cross-promotion makes a lot of sense for Pizza Hut, given the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ well-known love of pizza, and using the re-launch of the Turtles on the big screen to re-launch a menu item is a nice touch, but we can’t help but feel like something’s missing. Stick around for credits after the jump. Read more