Mike Harris joins ad agency 180 this week in the newly created position of global chief strategy officer. Harris will work across 180’s offices in Santa Monica and Amsterdam to drive new business growth as well as tackle high-level strategic opportunities for the agency’s clients. He joins the agency’s executive management team; including William Gelner (chief creative officer, 180LA), Michael Allen (global CEO), Al Moseley (president and chief creative officer, 180 Amsterdam), and Chris Mendola (founder/chairman).
Harris most recently served as president of creative advertising services for Deluxe Entertainment. Prior to that, his career includes running DDB California as president & CEO, founding agency twofifteenmccann San Francisco, serving as chief strategy officer for TBWAChiatDay, San Francisco, and spending five years each as an account person at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Y&R in San Francisco. His work has garnered multiple global Effies and Cannes Grand Prix honors, and he has a campaign in the Clio Hall of Fame. Along with his creative and strategic accolades, Harris has helped drive growth for clients across a variety of categories.
Harris’ new appointment follows 180 Amsterdam’s hiring of executive creative directors Dave Canning and Dan Treichel. Their books include breakthrough work for ESPN, Southern Comfort, and Climate Name Change.
An Omnicom subsidiary, 180 had numerous account wins last year and grew their business with existing clients like HP (who now engages both offices), Mitsubishi, PlayStation, Qatar Airways, and DHL. Other clients include Pepsi, Expedia, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Boost Mobile, and Replay Jeans.
Last year 180LA won two Effies for strategic effectiveness with Expedia and adidas, while 180 Amsterdam was awarded the Euro Grand Prix Effie for its work on PlayStation.
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