A letter was sent this month to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro asking the agency to issue a report on federal government spending habits with minority-owned publications, public relations firms, advertising agencies, and media companies.

As part of its LGBT-friendly policies Ogilvy has ten professional networks within the agency, each focusing on a particular topic area and which are charged with creating policies and procedures in support of each group.

The study was conducted in partnership with The Female Quotient Strategy and took a look at $20 billion in spending by the top 200 U.S. brands. Each of the brands spends over $100 million.

New York-based Manifest is an agency that is into things like persona development, customer journey, mental model development, digital anthropology, immersive experiences and other heady stuff like that.

Product integration platform Branded Entertainment Network has formed a partnership with the Producers Guild of America which will provide BEN Clients with brand integration opportunities in film, television and new media.

In the interest of helping you have a great time this holiday season, I share with you the news that the Ad Club of New York will host its annual holiday party this Thursday, December 1 at Arena in NYC.

Irvine-based agency Advantage Solutions has acquired Upshot, a consumer marketing agency based in Chicago. I'm told the addition of Upshot to Advantage Solutions will create a "comprehensive end-to-end brand marketing capability that enables clients to optimize brand activation and the journey to purchase." So, yeah, something totally new.

Publicis in Belgium has taken the Mannequin Challenge that has swept the internet and turned it into an ad for the Belgium League of ALS.

Stop-It, is an ingenious app designed to help anyone who finds themselves in a domestic violence situation.

The robot adds to the agency's current use of other remote tools such as video conferencing and, of course, Slack.