Apple SVP Worldwide Product Marketing tackles the tough issues with his ad agency
San Francisco, CA — Emails presented by Samsung in court recently revealed that Apple thought of dumping its longtime ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day.
Digging deeper, Scoopertino has uncovered a trove of emails that puts it all in context. Surprisingly, the bad blood has little to do with advertising and more to do with saturated fat.
It all started in this October 2013 email from Chiat mucky-muck James Vincent to Apple’s marketing leader Phil Schiller:
“honestly we’re disappointed in the quality of refreshments served at marketing meetings of late. how do you expect great TV ads to emerge when we’re forced to eat mini-oreos instead of full size?” complained Vincent.
(Insiders report that Vincent reverts to lower case emailing when he feels a client is unworthy of the extra effort required to hit the Shift key.)
Schiller fired back: “I’m shocked by this response. You’re supposed to be bringing the food as part of your standard sucking-up policy, not us. I just brought those Oreos to be nice.”
Chiat preps the Apple boardroom prior to Phil’s arrival
Incensed, Vincent replied: “this is much bigger than oreos phil. we do bring snacks. and last week you finished the ding-dongs before i even had ONE. and what happened to the skittles? care to explain that??”
Phil counter-attacks: “You really want to go there pal? You got it. How many times have I asked for bean dip with the Doritos? How often do we run out of M&Ms before I even kill the first ad? Why do you keep bringing Yoo-Hoo when nobody here drinks it? You need to seriously rethink your snacking policies.”
This is the point at which Schiller sent the note to CEO Tim Cook that Samsung revealed in court: “We aren’t getting what we need from Chiat, and haven’t been for some time.”
The word on the street is that other agencies, smelling blood, have approached Apple with their willingness to bring a higher quality snack to the table. Orville Redenbacher’s agency Saatchi & Saatchi seems to have the inside track, having offered to guarantee freshness with an in-meeting popcorn popper.
Asked for comment, Apple PR said “We don’t comment on the status of our relationship with misguided, ungrateful people whose days are numbered.”
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