MADISON Avenue is grumbling about the price tag to gain entrée to Advertising Week, a series of luncheons, panels and events that aspires to be the ad industry equivalent of Fashion Week.
Several industry sources told The Post’s Holly Sanders that while they applauded the success of Advertising Week, which starts Sept. 25 and is now in its third year, there is simmering discontent about the lack of organization when it comes to funding.
Since its inception, the bulk of the financial burden has fallen on the ad agencies, with little funding from big corporate sponsors and media companies.
Several agency sources said they felt that poor planning led to a last-minute letter dated Aug. 28 from the organizers asking large agencies to “contribute” $10,000 and small agencies $5,000 to a minority scholarship fund.
The request felt more like a stick-up, sources said, since agencies that couldn’t come up with the cash wouldn’t get access to the opening night bash with hot hip-hop act Gnarls Barkley or a closing party in TriBeCa with DJs Mark Ronson and DJ Logic.
“If it were better orchestrated from the get-go, then we would buy into it and support it from the start,” said one agency source, which wound up forking over the cash. “But the whole thing has been ad-hoc.”
A spokesman for Advertising Week didn’t return a call for comment.
In addition, the scholarship fund – while seemingly well-intentioned – also had some agency sources fuming over what they perceived to be an opportunistic request.
Under threat of subpoena, nearly a dozen agencies recently agreed to set goals for increasing minorities in their ranks in order to avoid the potentially embarrassing act of testifying at public hearings scheduled during Advertising Week.
A DROP OF SUN
Celebrity chef Rachel Ray, whose new daytime television talk show launches tomorrow, now has a record deal, On The Money has learned.
Ray recently inked a deal with SonyBMG’s Epic Records after meeting Epic boss Charlie Walk with whom she instantly hit it off.
Ray, whose growing media empire includes a monthly magazine and numerous cookbooks, now will add ringtones and a CD compilation series under the Epic deal.
Ray and Epic say they will cross-promote the CDs – which will include a Kids album and a Holiday release that includes Ray’s fa vorite songs and recipes – with her cookbooks and magazines.
JAY-Z NETS
Jay-Z is lending a hand to the New Jersey Nets as the team rebrands it self in advance of its planned move across the Hudson to Brooklyn.
The team, which is slated to start playing in Brooklyn during the 2009-2010 NBA season, is launching its first television commercials in recent memory. And Jay-Z, the rap per, record label president and part owner of the Nets, is allowing the use of his “Moment of Clarity” for the spots, which will feature Vince Carter and Jason Kidd and will start running in October.
The Nets, majority owned by the developer Bruce Ratner, also plan a billboard campaign, begining with a building near Port Authority.
THE PITTS
Philippe Dauman wasted little time getting down to the business of hobnobbing with movie stars.
Dauman, the longtime personal lawyer to Viacom chief Sumner Redstone, who recently took over the company after Redstone suddenly sacked Tom Freston, recently asked to join Para mount chief Brad Grey and Brad Pitt on the corporate jet en route to the To ronto Film Festival.
“Phillipe asked if he could join, so Brad invited him,” said a source.
Word was that Dauman’s wife is a big Angelina Jolie fan and hoped to meet her – but, alas, Jolie didn’t join the group in Toronto, where Pitt was promoting his up coming film, “Babel.”