Last week, Miami Ad School graduate and art director-for-hire Felicia Carr caused an online firestorm when she sent out a phony press release claiming that Gerry Graf’s NY creative shop, BFG900o, had hired her, making her their first MAS alum employee.
Now, whether or not you think Carr’s attention-grabbing ploy was wise or not, or whether you think she should’ve checked her facts to make sure that BFG (which continues to add to its client roster)) really hadn’t hired any MAS alums in the past (they had), you have to admit that Carr got the industry’s attention for better or worse. It also seems, judging by the following press release we just received from one “Welsworth Ellington,” Carr has inadvertently created her own fan club:
BARTON F. GRAF 9000 HIRES ITS FIRST MIAMI AD SCHOOL STUDENT AS GLOBAL CCO
AdvertisementNEW YORK (May 14, 2012) – It was enough to make Gerry say “who the fuck?” But it had to happen. Barton F. Graf 9000 has hired Ari Bazinsky, Miami Ad School Grad, as their Global CCO.
At first glance it doesn’t make any sense. He only has two-and-a-half years experience. The agency doesn’t have a Global CCO position. And BFG 9000 has never actually “heard of him.” So why would they start shopping at the overpriced plain white t-shirt factory of portfolio schools? Because Ari Bazinsky is the shit.
They first became aware of Ari when his 40k banner ad for Toyotathon appeared on their computer screens. As soon as they saw the words “click here to learn more,” BFG 9000 knew they had something special on their hands.
But it’s not just his superior writing skills that attracted them. What really impressed the agency were his forward-thinking initiatives. In fact, Ari’s first order of business is to cancel BFG’s broadband Internet service and invest in a school of high-speed carrier pigeons. It’s a ballsy move for sure, but no great reward comes without risk. Just imagine if Ben Franklin had never flown his kite. Or Kim Kardashian never made a moderately entertaining – albeit anticlimactic – sex-tape with a C-list rapper. Barton F. Graf 9000 believes Ari’s unique vision and groundbreaking ideas will bring that same level of success to their agency.
BFG 9000 is proud to welcome Ari to the family and looks forward to making their own moderately entertaining – albeit anticlimactic – sex-tape with him on-board.
We got in touch with Ellington, who turned out (surprise) to be copywriter Ari Bazinsky (pictured) from Saatchi & Saatchi (Graf’s old stomping grounds, of course). He tells us, “My goal wasn’t really to get press, it was more to have fun with Felicia Carr (who hatched her own ballsy, if not ill-conceived, plan last week)… I can’t really say that I had much in the way of expectations when I wrote this ‘press release,’ but her article made me chuckle and I thought this would be funny.” Is Carr slowly turning into her own meme? If anything, her 15 minutes of fame have been longer than about 95 percent of everyone else we’ve written about on AgencySpy. So, uh, congrats, Felicia.