Andy Bird is joining the Publicis Worldwide North America leadership team as chief creative officer for its New York flagship office, reporting to North America CEO Andrew Bruce. Bird is currently executive creative director, Publicis London, and will continue to lead the creative vision for key global clients in that role during a transition period. Bird will divide his time between London and New York, as the offices partner to ensure a smooth transition. Bird has been working increasingly on Publicis Worldwide global clients including Nestlé, P&G and Cadillac, and he will permanently reside in New York starting in September.
Bird joined Publicis London as ECD in July 2012 and since then has cultivated a talented team of senior creatives who have delivered outstanding work and won numerous awards. Recognition has included D&AD, Gold at Cannes and Gold at The One Show, which has resulted in Publicis London becoming the 5th highest-ranking UK creative agency in the Gunn Report 2014.
Prior to joining Publicis, Bird was creative director at Ogilvy&Mather where he oversaw accounts including Europcar, Expedia, The Spectator, Castrol, World Wildlife Foundation, Kraft, Comfort and MTV.
He spent the majority of his career at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where he became one of the company’s youngest ever board members and head of art & design by the age of 27. In 2000, he was one of four executives who left to set up Soul Advertising, the first and last BBH breakaway agency, and later a founding partner of Nitro London where he worked for clients including Coca-Cola and Nike and was responsible for the award winning GLA “One London” campaign.
Over his career, Bird has won many high profile creative awards on the global stage including Cannes Lions and D&AD pencils for clients such as American Express, Mattel, Levi’s, Dockers, Boddingtons, Lynx and Audi. He was also the creative behind the highly acclaimed Kick Homophobia out of Football campaign.
Bird now completes a sr. leadership team at Publicis North America, which includes such notable additions over the past 18 months as chief strategy officer Carla Serrano, chief digital officer Dawn Winchester and chief marketing officer Julie Levin.
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.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More