TBWAChiatDay New York has announced the appointment of Barney Goldberg and Mike Blanch as co-executive creative directors for Nissan United US, the multi-agency team within Omnicom that directs all U.S. marketing and communications for Nissan. The duo will report to TBWAChiatDay New York chief creative officer Amy Ferguson and be responsible for leading all of Nissan’s retail and brand work, elevating the creative and craft to deliver strong business results. Blanch will be based in New York and Goldberg in Los Angeles.
Goldberg joins the agency from INNOCEAN USA, where he was most recently executive creative director on Hyundai, overseeing award-winning integrated campaigns for FIFA World Cup and the NFL. For years, Goldberg helped Hyundai create Super Bowl fan-favorite ads, from the well-known spot “Smaht Pahk,” to Hyundai’s three in-game commercials during Super Bowl 50 that landed prime spots on USA Today’s AdMeter–#1, #5 and #6–making Hyundai the first car company and first foreign company to ever win the top nod. Goldberg also creative directed Hyundai’s partnership with The Walking Dead, Chop Shop, an app that quickly became the #1 car app on iTunes, amassing 500K downloads, and winning awards at The One Show, Cannes, and Webbys. Prior to INNOCEAN, Goldberg worked at Deutsch LA where he helped win the Volkswagen account. He also held roles at Deutsch LA and Saatchi & Saatchi where he worked on Toyota.
Blanch meanwhile has been promoted after five years as group creative director at TBWAChiatDay NY. During this time he helped usher in a new brand platform for Nissan built upon the thrill of the drive, and has helped lead the company’s beloved Heisman House campaigns. In 2022, for the first time in eight years, he helped bring Nissan back to the Super Bowl with an ad that garnered praise. Prior to joining TBWAChiatDay NY, Blanch was creative director at Johannes Leonardo.
“I am so excited to see Mike and Barney take the creative helm of this amazing brand. Both bring impressive creative chops, an understanding of the business, extensive category experience, and a kind, collaborative approach to leadership. I can’t wait to see what these two proven creative leaders will do as we continue to build on the effectiveness and momentum we’ve created with our clients and we look to make Nissan an even more culturally relevant brand,” said Ferguson,
For the last 37 years, TBWAChiatDay has helped Nissan disrupt the automotive industry. Work in recent time has ranged from the introduction of its brand platform “The Thrill” with brand ambassadors like Brie Larson, to viral campaigns like the TikTok trending #HowDoYouSayARIYA challenge, and the internet-winning LoFi Girl, both of which helped bring awareness to Nissan’s latest EV models.
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