Arnold Worldwide has launched Arnold On, an agency-produced viral video series that gives perspective on current trends, happenings and important issues in the world of advertising. Each episode features different employees from one or more of Arnold’s three offices (Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York) discussing what’s happening at the agency and in the industry. The three- to five-minute clips will specifically highlight new work and events, drawing attention to groundbreaking campaigns and agency initiatives.
The first episode, which can be viewed at http://www.arn.com/arn.cfm, features The AdColor Awards™. AdColor™ is an Arnold-led initiative to draw attention to the importance of diversity in the advertising industry. The award show, which was the brainchild of Arnold’s own Tiffany R. Warren in partnership with Lisa Unsworth, was held in November in Boca Raton, Fla. and honored leading diversity agents in the industry including Iraq war veteran and creative director R. Vann Graves of BBDO, African-American marketing manager Melissa Brown of Home Depot and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
“The main idea we are trying to put out there is a real face for Arnold as a company,” said Arnold copywriter Matt Guerra who is also co-producer of Arnold On. “In a way we are branding ourselves.”
Upcoming episodes will include Arnold On Design, where designers within the Arnold family offer their take on design, what it is and how important it is. That will be followed by Arnold On Work Life, which will delve into balancing career and everyday life and the programs Arnold offers to make that happen.
Guerra conjectured, “I can see students looking at this trying to find out what the real world of advertising looks like. Or I could see people we’re recruiting looking at it to see what we are like as a company. I could also see potential clients looking at it to see what we are all about.”
Review: Director/Co-Writer Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ “My Dead Friend Zoe”
Even for a film titled "My Dead Friend Zoe," the opening scenes of Kyle Hausmann-Stokes' movie have a startling rhythm. First, two female American soldiers are riding in a Humvee in Afghanistan 2016 blasting Rihanna's "Umbrella." They are clearly friends, and more concerned with the music coming through loudly than enemy fire. Zoe (Natalie Morales) tells Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) tells that if they ever set foot in "some dopy group therapy," to please kill her. Cut to years later, they're sitting in a counseling meeting for veterans and Morales' character has a sour look at her face. She turns to her friend: "Did we survive the dumbest war of all time just to sit here all broken and kumbaya and ouchie-my-feelings?" But after this rush of cavalier soldiering and bitter sarcasm comes a sobering moment. Merit blinks her eyes and is instead staring at an empty chair. Zoe isn't there at all. "My Dead Friend Zoe," co-starring Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, confronts a dark reality of post-combat struggle with as much humor and playfulness as it does trauma and sorrow. It comes from a real place, and you can tell. Hausmann-Stoke is himself a veteran and "My Dead Friend Zoe" is dedicated to a pair of his platoon mates who killed themselves. The opening titles note the film was "inspired by a true story." Audience disinterest has characterized many, though not all, of the films about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the output has pretty much dried up over the years. "My Dead Friend Zoe" feels like it was made with an awareness of that trend and as a rebuke to it. This is an often breezy and funny movie for what, on paper, is a difficult and dark story. But the comic tone of "My Dead Friend Zoe" is, itself, a spirited rejection to not just the heaviness... Read More