Time is running out for that long-haired, Fabio-looking guy who became a star of sorts for drawing on a whiteboard in a series of UPS ads.
A spokesman for Sandy Springs based UPS confirmed Tuesday that the company’s new advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, New York will develop a new campaign, and “that means change.”
Over a two-year run, the ads -- and Andy Azula, the raven-tressed whiteboard doodler -- became a cultural phenomenon, as well as the object of scores of YouTube spoofs.
Azula wasn’t an actor, but rather the creative director on UPS’s “What Can Brown Do For You” campaign by the Richmond, Va.-based The Martin Agency, which has handled the shipping giant’s reported $200 million account since 2001.
Azula “was the only one who could talk and draw at the same time” after hundreds of actors were auditioned, said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman. Azula joined the Screen Actors Guild so he could work in front of the camera.
UPS said it is changing agencies because it wants one with global offices, and Martin only has U.S. operations. Meantime, the whiteboard ads will keep running for “the next several months,” said Black.
He said if some people consider Azula the “face” of UPS, that was never the company’s intention. He is just a pitchman for its “capabilities,” Black said.
Spoofs of the campaign, including one by archrival FedEx, had no bearing on the switch, said Black.
“We thought the whiteboard campaign was fabulous,” he said. “And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?”
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