Corey Bartha, director of integrated production at Publicis Seattle, will be assuming the same role effective January 22 at Wonderful Agency, The Wonderful Company’s in-house, full-service advertising and marketing agency. Bartha follows recent hire Amber Justis, who stepped into the new position of executive creative director at Wonderful Agency last month. Both will report to agency chief creative officer Darren Moran. Bartha will oversee all content production, including video, print, social, activation, and experiential, while Justis will help manage and direct the creative work across all Wonderful products, including Wonderful Pistachios and Wonderful Halos. An award-winning producer who has worked at shops like Ground Zero, Ogilvy and CP+B, Bartha has also held various top production positions at Wieden + Kennedy, including the head of integrated production roles in both the U.S. and Amsterdam. He moved in-house in 2014 to head up all production at Quiksilver before joining Publicis in his current role in 2015. Bartha’s noted commercials and activations range from big Super Bowl Spots like Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” and T-Mobile’s “Drake,” to hilarious culture-driving work like the Old Spice Isaiah Mustafa spots and the Dodge Durango Ron Burgundy films, to category-shattering brand launches like Dodge Dart’s “How to Change Cars Forever” and Virgin Cola’s arrival in the U.S. Justis meanwhile is an Emmy nominated creative director with over 19 years of experience on famous global campaigns. She created the “Evolution of Barbie” work while at BBDO San Francisco, which introduced a new line of dolls of varying body types and skin tones to the world. The campaign garnered numerous industry accolades and snagged a Time Magazine cover story declaring “Barbie was back.” Prior to joining BBDO, Justis held creative roles with Facebook, AKQA, Mekanism, Eleven, FCB, Ogilvy, Huge and Cliff Freeman, earning numerous awards including Cannes Lions, Clios, One Show and D&AD for clients like American Express, Cotton, Motorola, MTV, Trojan, Bravo, and Kodak.
Since opening its third office, in Chicago in 2016, Carbon–which also has operations in NY and L.A.–continues to elevate its standing in the Midwest market by acquiring the brands Filmworkers Chicago and Vitamin. Among those joining Carbon are industry mainstays Rob Churchill and Danny DelPurgatorio, both bringing with them a depth of talent and knowledge of the market that comes with the many years of experience they have heading up Filmworkers and Vitamin, respectively. Carbon is a full-service creative studio specializing in design, color, visual effects and motion graphics. Carbon is part of the Whitehouse Post community of companies. Whitehouse maintains production and finishing partnerships with sister companies Cap Gun Collective and Carbon VFX, as well as with design-driven production company Gentleman Scholar….
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