Jon Drawbaugh has joined Mullen’s Los Angeles office as sr. VP, director of integrated production, a key role on the agency’s flagship Acura business. Drawbaugh will lead all production efforts on Mullen’s multiplatform creative content for the luxury automotive brand.
Drawbaugh comes to Mullen from FCB West where he led digital and social media production for Electronic Arts’ SimCity, a documentary short film for Kikkoman and an integrated brand campaign for Trulia.
Prior to FCB West, Drawbaugh was with Goodby Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco for seven years, where he worked in the automotive category on Chevrolet and with a number of high-profile brands, including Sprint, Hewlett-Packard, Dickies, Comcast, Cheetos, Denny’s, eBay, Starbucks and Kayak, garnering multiple international awards for creative and technical achievement.
Before his Goodby tenure, Drawbaugh worked freelance in San Francisco on projects for Microsoft, Hannspree, and Picture People. He started his advertising production career in NYC as a staff producer with MVBMS (now Havas Worldwide) on Philips Electronics, Subway, Coppertone and Partnership for a Drug Free America.
“I’ve dropped a piano on a wrestler, filmed a banana dancing on a stack of pancakes, knocked down a building with a pair of Dickies and partied with Chester Cheetah along the way,” said Drawbaugh. “I’m up for anything Mullen can throw at me and really looking forward to doing amazing work with these guys.”
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More