CCO Taylor quits Energy BBDO for ‘personal reasons’

Mark Taylor

ENERGY BBDO’S MARK TAYLOR’S abrupt departure as chief creative officer was announced by president/CEO Tonise Paul at an office meeting Friday, who cited his leaving for unexplained “personal reasons.”

No ECD has been promoted to replace Taylor, rather, the ECDs who worked under him will assume his responsibilities in running the creative department.

Taylor joined Energy BBDO 15 months ago to supervise work on all agency accounts, including Bud Light that moved to BBDO’s New York office last month.  He had joined Energy BBDO from his third go-around around at Crispin Porter s+ Bogusky in Boulder, Colorado.     

Taylor replaced Dan Fietsam, who left Energy BBDO in February 2014 after he and his creative department was unsuccessful in creating a successful Super Bowl campaign for Bud Light.  Fietsam joined FCB Chicago as an ECD last July.

DOGS AND ANIMAL SPECIALIST Mark Schimmel was tapped by a New York PR firm to direct a PSA for the Majority Project, to counteract negative stereotypes of “pit bull” dog owners and portray them as everyday people, the norm and not the exception.

In the 30-second spot, actor Jon Bernthal (“The Walking Dead”), seated with his young daughter and dog, asks owners of “pit bulls,” which come in many variations of the breed, to send a picture of them and their dogs to support the TheMajorityProject.com.

The Majority Project is a photo collection created by the Animal Farm Foundation, sponsor of the PSA.   

THE HEALTH MINDED AGENCY EXECS who attended Animated Storyboards’ early morning workIN session last Wednesday at the Soul Cycle spinning class were: Jessica Murray and Sarah Tomick, McgarryBowen; Rufus Burns, ASB/WorkIN; Carolina Velez, McgarryBowen; Lyssa Peloquin, Energy BBDO; Antoinette Rodriguez, McgarryBowen and Kate Kelley, Energy BBDO, not pictured,

You are invited to attend the next class, Wednesday, July 22 by signing up here. Shoes, towels and water are provided along with showers, facial and body wash, shampoo and towels. 

COMPOSER/PRODUCER PAUL DAVID WILSON, for years one of advertising’s most popular commercial composers, who has courageously combatted aphasia, the after effect of a stroke he suffered in 1999, plans to start writing a book about his experiences in September.

His cowriter/editor will be Nicole Murray, Stage 18 communications director, who is a longtie college friend of Wilson’s daughter. 

Murray earlier edited and proofread Wilson’s heart-wrenching article, “Lost and Found ,” published as a 2011 article in “Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation.”

The book will be titled “Lost and Found.” Starting the project in September, Wilson estimates it will take im one to three years to write.  No publisher as yet.

With 3 million US aphasia cases a year, Wilson’s first person experiences are sure to resonsate with a large audience.

He can be reached at pauldavidwilson@comcast.net.

THE CHICAGO AD FEDERATION is urging industry professionals to contact lawmakers at NoAdTaxIllinois.com and tell them they oppose the proposed tax on advertising.  It would be devastating to the state of Illinois by putting thousands of jobs at risk and further slowing our struggling economy.  It may be the most important thing you do today.

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