Seen and noted

This week's guest judge is Shon Rathbone, EVP, Executive Creative Director of Publicis Mid America (Dallas). Since taking the reigns in 2006, he has recruited new talent and helped land like new accounts Terminix, Sylvan, Sauza tequila and the New Orleans Hornets. The office’s other major brands include BMW, Powerbar, Juicy Juice, Curves and Denny’s.
Before joining Publicis, Shon worked for Carmichael Lynch, Hal Riney, Leo Burnett, FCB and was a partner at Chicago creative boutique RMD. As a writer, his work has won awards and driven sales for brands like Gatorade, Rollerblade, Schwinn, Polaris, Illinois Tourism, Coors Light, and Mack truck.
During the dot com boom of the late 90s, he helped pioneer the fusion of interactive and traditional disciplines as co-creative director of FCB’s digital practice. Shon is still a huge believer in “cross-discipline creativity” and has brought that approach to his work at Publicis, where he has combined people with advertising, design and interactive backgrounds into one seamless creative team.
Shon has been married to wife Lisa for 11 years. They have two great kids, Cade and Caitlyn, and two Ridgebacks, Jasper and Angus.

BEST TV
Some spots you admire as a nice piece of work. Other spots simply hit you as a human being. There are good examples of each in this week's batch of TV. My favorite is the Tentacle spot. It's hard to be creepy in a profound way but this spot pulls that off. The whole semi-phallic tentacle thing is uniquely disturbing and is a smart device for communicating how victims are haunted throughout their lives. The abuse is always there, under the surface. A smart way to handle a difficult subject. On the other end of the spectrum there's the Carlton Skytroop extravaganza. It's another ridiculously bigger-than-life beer thing with a production budget that's larger than the GNP of Australia (yes, I'm jealous). So I started out wanting badly to hate it, but I can't. Funny is funny and this spot is just plain enjoyable to watch. Especially like the "Wouldn't make me buy it" line from the old guy at the end.

BEST PRINT
What's with Saatchi and all the stain ads? First Tide's Grand Prix winner from NY, now this Arielcampaign from Mumbai. While I wouldn't bet on this Ariel campaign winning the Grand Prix, it's a very good ad and the best of the lot here today. The insight of a stain telling a story is simple and smart. It's handled in a way that has visual intrigue and leaves a bit to the imagination. All good things. Picking a runner up gets a little tougher. Both the Toiletpiece and the Girl Next Door are contenders. Toilet is a classic visual solution. Got it. Girl Next Door manages to advertise porn in a way that is, dare I say, insightful. Funny line and the precious design adds to the smart ass factor.

BEST OUTDOOR
Outdoor. Hmm. This category is a little thinner than the other two. I'll give the win to Out of Reach They're not breaking new territory but it delivers the message in a smart, simple way. It works. We'll give the runner up slot to Spacefor sparing us a shot of some pitiful looking animal. I like the core idea more than the writing. But at least they're trying to do something a little different with it and with the outdoor space they're working in.