Google Now Has The 8th Largest Lobbying Budget In Washington [THE BRIEF]

Google has ramped up its lobbying efforts to become the eighth biggest spender in Washington. It is moving its Washington office closer to Capitol Hill, and spends $18.2 million on lobbying, more than Northrop Grumman, Ad Age reports.

The Toronto agency John St., which previously struck gold with the hilarious 'Catvertising' video, has now made an excellent parody of the advertising industry's seemingly endless parade of 'prankvertising' videos, in which a brand pranks a group of people before revealing it was all a joke. In the new video, John St. imagines scenarios in which brands go totally overboard with 'exFEARiential advertising' by stealing people's babies and pretending to rob them before telling them they're just joshing:

Just months after being sold to Berkshire Hathaway, OG condiments purveyor H.J. Heinz is conducting a global media agency review, MediaPost reports.

Wieden+Kennedy co-executive creative directors Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichental, who oversaw Wieden's campaigns for ESPN, are leaving the agency.

TV discovery tech company i.TV purchased Get Glue, the social TV service that allows users to check in while watching various television shows.

Spirits maker Pernod Ricard awarded global digital and social media duties for its luxury whiskey brand Chivas Regal to the agency AnalogFolk.

In honor of Twitter's initial public offering today, Ad Age takes a fun look at the first tweets of several major brands like ESPN, Nike, and Warner Brothers.

Speaking of the Twitter IPO, our super-talented tech team has wall-to-wall coverage today.

Nielsen announced that its president of global client services Mitch Barns, who has worked at the company for 16 years, will succeed David Calhoun as CEO of the company in 2014.

L'oreal USA has moved its digital planning and buying business from Moxie Interactive to fellow Publicis Groupe shop DigitasLBI.