It all started yesterday when a simple, yet vague tip came in saying, “Tyler Whisnand to Apple,” and the road has been long and winding since. If you don’t know the name, Whisnand spent the last six years at W+K Portland, serving as creative director on Levi’s and Nike, helping lead efforts on the “Go Forth” campaign for the former brand and spots like Tiger vs. Rory for Nike Golf from the beginning of the year. Well, we checked with W+K, which told us that Whisnand, much to our surprise, actually left the agency earlier this year to assume a creative director position at TBWA\Media Arts Lab on, what else, Apple–though you wouldn’t know it judging from the bio on his site.
Anyhow, we’ve checked in with both Apple PR and \MAL on Whisnand’s status and are awaiting some clarification. During his time at W+K, meanwhile, the senior creative also served as co-director alongside Hal Curtis of W+K’s in-house ad school/”League of Shadows,” W+K12. The W+K camp tells us, “we [were] very sad to see him go—he was definitely beloved here.” During his career, Whisnand also held creative roles at the likes of KesselsKramer, Ground Zero and Y&R NY. Hopefully we’ll get some updates on this shortly and try to sort this out. Stay tuned.