-The Art Directors Club has announced the opening of its 2014 Awards season, which includes call for entries for both the 93rd Annual ADC Awards and the Tomorrow Awards. link; link
-Karen Halstead, former associate partner/director of communications strategy at Eleven, has joined fellow San Francisco shop Mekanism as head of media.
-New York-based creative agency Cornerstone has added a handful of new staffers including Doug Smiley as account director, Winifred Chance as director of events as well as Caitlin Stevens and Chloe Slobitkin as account coordinator in the New York and Los Angeles office, respectively.
-Blockbuster is closing what’s left of its brick and mortar stores as well as its DVD-by-mail service (did anyone actually use this?) by early 2014. Well, we always preferred Hollywood Video anyways. link
-As part of its ongoing “Brilliant Machines” campaign, GE is staging an outdoor concert at Union Square in NYC on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 1-8pm that will feature, yes, the “heaviest metal” robot band called Compressorhead (teaser video from BBDO New York above). link
-According to reports, Heinz is conducting a global media review. link
-It appears that the Call of Duty: Ghosts marketing blitz was well worth it as the Activision Blizzard game topped $1 billion in global sales on its first day. link
-Montclair, NJ-based PR agency Bender Hammerling Group has rebranded as Bender Group PR. link