It's sort of like sending chickens to China to be processed and then back to America to be eaten.

Recently, DDB Istanbul was in search of an art director. As is always the case with an open creative position, the agency was slammed with portfolios. But one portfolio stood out and was far and away above all others. Like a shipwrecked person on an island (after all, that's kind of like what joblessness is like), Canhür Aktuglu did the message in a bottle thing placing his cover letter inside a bottle and embedding a USB stick containing his portfolio in the bottle's cork.  Check out several images of his creation here.

Ron Foth Jr., an ad agency creative director and commercial film director for his namesake agency, shot a dramatic photo series featuring schoolchildren at a remote village in Kenya. The photo series has been selected for inclusion in the recent Communication Arts 2015 Photography Annual. Out of 4,421 entries in the competition, Foth’s work was one of just 157 chosen by a jury of industry types. It's his first time submitting photos and being chosen for the award. The African School photographs were created for a campaign launching Heart of Africa, a new exhibit at the Columbus …

So we all know that an agency tracing desk is a place where agencies centralize their programmatic buying, right?

Barton F. Graf 9000 has brought in a new creative team, Michael Hagos and Sam Dolphin, who have joined the agency as art director and copywriter. Hagos and Dolphin will report directly to Executive Creative Directors Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal. Hagos and Dolphin have been working together off and on since the pair were in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University and became a team while helping to launch the New York office of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners. Together, they have worked on Comcast, New York Post, Street Easy, and Rock the Vote. …

Do you work in advertising? Are you tired all time? Do you wish you could get more sleep? Do you stare at your mobile phone before you go to bed? If you said yes to any of those and particularly the last one, TBWA's Dan Paris has a solution for you. The agency has developed JustTheBell, a wooden box that aims to rid your bedroom of your mobile phone so you can get good night's sleep. JustThe Bell comes with an app that you can use to set an alarm. You then leave your phone outside your …

If you aren't overwhelmed by the number of ad industry awards already screaming for your attention, be prepared for more noise.

Well, this sure doesn't instill a high degree of confidence in the design capabilities of this particular ad agency.

So on the one hand, new MillersCoors CMO David Kroll says, "I am a big believer in building long-standing partnerships with agencies. You are seeing a lot of annual shifts right now by some of our key competitors, which I fundamentally believe is unhealthy to building meaningful brands." On the other hand, he says, "I think we have been just a bit too scattered across our messaging over the past several years," adding: "In any given year we have shifted campaigns three, four, five times. And I think over time that really starts eroding the meaning …

To celebrate the launch of its new in-agency cafe, Zucafe, Toronto-based Zulu Alpha Kile developed a line of coffee mugs imprinted with quirky statements about daily agency life. Each mug is designed like a measuring cup but rather than actual measurements, the cups are adorned with statements that align with typical agency functions like creative and account management. For example, the creative cup, which reads, "A cup in the life of a creative," begins with "brainstorm with partner," proceeds with "ummm... er... what about... nah..." and ends with "make a new pot, it's going to be …