Leo Burnett distances itself from Buick ads

In the ad industry, there’s no shortage of desire to mock the misfortune of agencies like Leo Burnett, which is reportedly being criticized by GM’s top marketing executives for the lame new Buick campaign shown above. But AutoBlog makes a compelling case for the agency, which it says is being pilloried for ads actually created by a subcontractor that Burnett was forced to work with: “Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of marketing, allegedly instructed Burnett to hire Gary Topolewski, a former creative director at Burnett who worked with LaNeve on Cadillac’s Break Through ad campaign, and who now runs another ad agency.”