R&R Partners, the shop that created “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas,” has lured Chuck Monn to town as its chief creative officer. Monn is best known for his long tenure at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, last serving there as executive creative director.
Monn, who had most recently been freelancing, spent 15-plus years at Media Arts Lab where he led the the development of Apple’s iconic “Shot on iPhone” platform, as well as worked closely on “Mac vs. PC” and dozens of other groundbreaking campaigns for the leading brand.
Throughout his career, Monn has won over 100 international awards including Cannes Lions, Cannes Grand Prix, D&AD, One Show Gold Pencils, Effie Awards, Webby, and even nominations for the commercial primetime Emmy.
This will be Monn’s first time in the top leadership role, where he’ll bring a creative-first approach to the next era of R&R’s creative efforts.
Monn’s arrival caps 18 months of under-the-radar staffing moves that include the addition of more than a dozen senior-level hires across the account, strategy, production and talent teams. The most notable include:
- Matt Matzen, chief marketing officer (formerly EVP, Deutsch LA)
- David Panzarasa, head of talent (formerly TBWA\Chiat\Day)
- Kat Urban, head of integrated production (formerly TBWA\Chiat\Day)
- Richard Oldfield, head of strategy (formerly R/GA, TBWA/Media Arts Lab)
Monn’s new-look creative department will work hand-in-hand with R&R Partners’ unique mix of offerings, which includes everything from its full-service creative agency to government affairs, crisis communications, and other practices, including House of V, a digital innovation firm specializing in AR/VR experiences. It’s this unique mix of talent that allows R&R to create work that pushes far beyond what the average agency can produce.
“Creativity has always been a part of what we do at R&R, but for most of our history our involvement in some of the industry’s most iconic work has flown under the radar,” said Michon Martin, president of R&R Partners. “As we move into our second half-century, we’re excited to welcome Chuck and other new team members, who we believe will help us create bold, exciting work that gets people’s attention. We’re built to do something unique: take on challenges/monumental tasks that transcend marketing at a time when our industry needs to learn how to solve business problems in non-traditional ways. This new creative firepower is going to help our talented, multi-faceted team to do just that.”
Monn said, “After years working on some of the biggest ad campaigns in the world, the opportunity to work with an independent agency that’s hungry to leverage creativity to solve business problems in unconventional ways was something I absolutely jumped at. R&R has all these different minds that come together to solve problems in a unique way, and I can’t wait to work with the team to do things that push the boundaries of what people expect.”
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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