On the heels of the consolidation of the global Johnnie Walker business at Anomaly, the agency has hired four new group creative directors at its founding office in New York. The new GCDs hail from a diverse group of top agencies–72andSunny, Droga5 and Wieden+Kennedy–and will help new clients like Ally Financial, Booking.com, and Petco transform their businesses beyond just “advertising.”
The agency had already handled the U.S. account of Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand and just this month won global creative duties following a competitive review. The Johnnie Walker global business will be led by Anomaly’s London office working closely with the New York team.
The new hires are Tara Lawall, former creative director at 72andSunny, who will be based in New York along with Donnell Johnson, previously creative director at Droga5, Laura Sampedro, formerly creative director at Wieden + Kennedy London and Carlos Alija, another former Wieden+Kennedy London creative director.
“It’s not the name on the door, it’s the people in the building who give us permission to call ourselves Anomaly–we’ve seen it recently with the addition of Josh Fell in L.A. and the exciting, expanding team in London. This new generation of thinking is going to spark a powerful revolution within our walls. This is what I love about our business,” said founding partner and global CCO Mike Byrne.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More