TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles has announced two creative promotions on the Gatorade account, a brand that has been with the agency since 2008. Renato Fernandez, who was promoted to worldwide creative director last year, has been named executive creative director on the business, and associate creative director Doug Menezes has been promoted to the role of creative director.
Fernandez will partner with fellow ECDs Linda Knight and Matt Heath to help guide TBWAChiatDay LA’s creative department and product under newly minted chief creative officer Brent Anderson.
Remarking on the promotions Anderson said: “Renato Fernandez is an almost unparalleled benchmark of leadership and drive. For the last 5 years, I’ve toiled alongside Renato as he relentlessly guides, protects and mentors work that truly matters, and work that defines the soul of our brands.”
Anderson continued, “Doug Menezes has emerged over the past two years as leader of both concept and craft. His unique upbringing within the industry and recent work on Gatorade makes him a natural choice to help lead Gatorade and continue to involve the brand deeply in culture.”
Fernandez has been with TBWAChiatDay LA since 2011, when he relocated with his family from Brazil. As associate creative director, he played a major role in the pitch-winning team that brought the adidias World Cup campaign assignment to TBWA. In 2014, Fernandez assumed creative leadership of the agency’s Gatorade US business and, in 2015, took over all global projects as worldwide creative director. He is credited with awarding-winning work that includes Gatorade’s now legendary farewell films for retiring athletes Derek Jeter (“Made in New York”), Abby Wombach (“Forget Me”) and Peyton Manning (“Dear Peyton”), and the brand’s latest global push–“Don’t Go Down”–featuring world-renowned footballer Lionel Messi.
Fernandez began his advertising career in 1994 in his hometown of Curitiba, Brazil and later joined Almap/BBDO, where he worked on top-tier brands including Volkswagen, Gatorade and Havaianas. Throughout his career, his work has been recognized at several international creative festivals and award shows, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clios, Clio Sports, and the One Show.
Menezes came to TBWAChiatDay in 2013 as a digital design director, transitioning to an associate creative director shortly thereafter to work on both Gatorade and Nixon accounts. His credits include work for Gatorade’s 50th anniversary campaign, as well as its latest Olympic-themed film, “Never Lose the Love.” Prior to TBWA, he worked as associate design director with Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, and also spent time working in digital design for Xishe and Wunderman in Dubai, UAE. Like Fernandez, Menezes is a native of Brazil, and cut his teeth as an art director working in several shops across Brasilia. He is a graduate of the Miami Ad School and Universidad de Brasilia.
The creative promotions are in addition to the promotion of long-time agency strategist Scott MacMaster, who was named executive planning director on the Gatorade business earlier this month.
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 — and those many "Babadook" memes — 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 — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — 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