As the new J.C Penny ads debuted more attention then usual was given to a new campaign since it was based on the philosophy preached by Kevin Roberts in his book. It’s one thing to share one’s thoughts about advertising with the world in a book, it’s another to put that philosophy into practice and hope it works.

In my humble estimation, Saatchi & Saatchi has more to loose then its clients. If the campaigns for J.C. Penny and Wendy’s don’t produce then they will cut the agency and choose a new one. A phenomenon that happens all too often in our industry.

With the latest news about Wendy’s looking to possibly sell, there is enormous pressure on the agency to produce with its first ad. Yes, the board proclaims that advertising alone won’t help right the Wendy’s ship but we all know it’s a lot easier to fault the advertising for not helping move the needle in the right direction.

That was one of the criticisms when the new J.C. Penny ads came out. While they were extremely creative, by far the best I’ve ever seen for the brand, will it motivate change? In other words will more people go to J.C. Penny to buy from them? Only time will tell.

For now, however, all eyes will be on what happens come June when the new Wendy’s spot will be shown to the franchise owners.

What will they say about Lovemarks six months from now.

Sprint is struggling to compete in one of the fiercest, competitive markets out there — wireless telecommunications. In a recent WSJ article it discussed how Sprint shares are down 30% since the Nextel acquisition and how they have lost 306,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. That’s a huge number especially when your competition is Verizon and AT&T. Gary Forsee (Sprint CEO) has been under a lot of pressure to make a positive change at the company but firing the COO and slashing the workforce by 8% hasn’t moved the needle enough.

As the WSJ article stated “even if Mr. Forsee delivers improved subscriber numbers this summer, (a task which is much harder then it sounds) a bigger task lies ahead: finding an identity for Sprint in the increasingly competitive U.S. cellphone industry.” With a statement like that I’m certain all eyes will be watching for what Goodby and company can churn up in the coming months. While this win is huge for the agency I don’t think it’s an enviable task, and it’s one that could haunt them even if they do everything right. After all if the numbers continue to go down it’s much easier to blame the advertising and fire the agency.

Good luck guys!