Saatchi CD Kerry Keenan and EP Colin Pearsall to leave agency

Saatchi N.Y. Executive Producer Colin Pearsall and CD Kerry Keenan will be leaving the agency at the end of this month, Pearsall confirmed to Creativity today. When asked if their upcoming departure had anything to do with the recent J.C. Penney "Speed Dressing" controversy, Pearsall said he could not comment and referred related questions to agency PR, who did not provide response by press time. The spot, which Keenan and Pearsall had worked on, caused a commotion after winning a Bronze Lion at Cannes. J.C. Penney said at the time that the spot was not its doing and was entered in the show without its approval. Soon afterwards, Epoch Films, which had produced and submitted the ad to Cannes, withdrew the spot from competition and relinquished the Lion.

According to Pearsall, neither he nor Keenan have been working on JC Penney since February, "when we were both removed from the account," he says. More recently, the pair had worked on the agency's Crest campaign, which earned Gold at Cannes. As for his next move, Pearsall is undecided but says, "I might actually go work for Barack Obama for three months. We need a change, I have a lot of strong political feelings, so it might be a really good time to try that."