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.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More