Eleven has brought three women leaders into the agency fold: Kristina Jenkins as chief strategy officer, Juliette Geraghty as executive creative director, and Andrea Ogunbadejo as head of production.
Jenkins has pioneered and elevated agency strategy groups at Cashmere, Zambezi and mcgarrybowen. She has helped brands like Disney, Google, HBO, Instagram, Hulu, Taco Bell, Venmo, Reebok, Verizon and Marriott show up in the world in culturally relevant ways. Passionate about empowering people to be their unique and thriving selves in their work, Jenkins has been a guest speaker at Advertising Week, Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, The Marcus Graham Project, Miami Ad School and The One Club for Creativity.
Geraghty was discovered by a creative director at Digitas NY while emceeing an event in Brooklyn supporting her theater outreach program for homeless teens living in domestic violence shelters. Shortly after that event, she had her first associate copywriter role at Digitas. As a daughter of immigrant parents, she has always held a passion for empowering unheard voices. In the inspiring words of author Kate DiCamillo, Geraghty’s mission is to help brands amplify these voices to “make hearts large through story.” With a devotion to cultural impact, she has collaborated with kindred spirits at AT&T, Disney, Hulu, Live Nation, OPI, and WarnerMedia to move the world forward through powerful, inclusive storytelling.
British born Ogunbadejo has been beating the production drum her entire career–from a foundation in cinema at film school, to working in independent feature films, shorts and scripted TV for the BBC, Netflix, Sky, NBC and Syfy. She made the transition into advertising, landing at VaynerMedia London where she established and led the agency production department and in-house content studio, delivering global campaigns for TikTok, 7UP, UNICEF, Shell, Stella Artois and Johnson & Johnson. She is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability, leading DEI efforts for VaynerMedia London, committed to representation on and off camera, and working towards Net Zero carbon emissions on all productions.
Eleven’s beginnings are in San Francisco, but its three new leaders are further establishing a multi-city expansion and sensibility with Jenkins and Geraghty based in the Los Angeles area, and Ogunbadejo situated in New York.
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