Deutsch North America CEO Mike Sheldon announced the hiring of Madonna Deverson as EVP, brand intelligence—a new role for the agency. As part of Sheldon’s initiative to align bicoastal agency resources, Deverson will co-report to the LA and NY chief strategy officers and will be primarily based out of Deutsch’s LA office. Deverson joins Deutsch from Ogilvy & Mather, where she worked since 2011, and was most recently sr. partner/executive director, head of intelligence group.
In her new role, Deverson will work across all brands on the agency’s roster to simplify complex data and transform it into insights that provide a new foundation for client’s marketing strategies. In addition to working with the planning and strategy departments, new business, and client teams, Deverson will be involved in the development of intellectual property and thought leadership.
“Information is everywhere and just like a journalist, we need to absorb facts and ideas from many sources in order to tell compelling and culturally relevant stories,” said Deverson.
At Ogilvy, where she began as North American director of information & intelligence, she managed a team of consumer and market analysts, researchers and advertising experts. Prior agency experience includes time with Leo Burnett Group in the UK as head of information, and also at D’Arcy and WCRS. Additionally, she honed her research skills and storytelling capabilities from 2007-2011 while at Fox News and The New York Times.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More