Boxer Films has signed The Real McCoys, a writing and directing team which consists of Sean Mullens and Nelson Cabrera. Mullens and Cabrera had been freelancing as a helming duo for several years. The Real McCoys are active in both English and Spanish-language ad fare and will be handled by Boxer in both the U.S. and Hispanic markets for spots, interactive, branded entertainment and television.
Already under the Boxer banner, The Real McCoys wrapped a Volkswagen job as well as a Southern Nevada Water Authority campaign.
Mullens and Cabrera had long track records as individual directors prior to coming together as The Real McCoys. Mullens had been solo directing at such shops as Uber Content and RSA while Cabrera had been on the rosters of Savant and HKM.
Individually and together, the pair has turned out work that has netted Gold, Silver and Bronze Cannes Lions, four Gold Clios, and eight ANDY Awards, among other honors.
Mullens started in the industry as an art director/copywriter en route to becoming creative director at FCB, San Francisco, on such brands as Levi’s, MTV and Nike. Since exiting FCB to continue building his directing career, he has created documentaries and commercials for clients including ESPN, Verizon, Atari and McDonald’s.
Along the way, he partnered with longtime friend Cabrera, a noted multicultural director in his own right, to form The Real McCoys. Cabrera rose from the ranks of A.D. and 2nd unit director to create his own diverse body of work that spans live action comedy, automotive, CGI-driven and interactive content. Since embarking on his directorial career, Cabrera has won recognition for international spots commissioned by clients such as Mini Cooper, Geico, Ford, and VW.
The Real McCoys duo has a body of work that spans spots, branded entertainment, feature-length films and music videos, including spots for VW and the U.K.-based travel website the trainonline.com. The directing teams short documentary BirthRight has generated festival buzz, winning the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at this year’s Austin Film Festival.
Currently, The Real McCoys are putting the finishing touches on a one-hour branded documentary, entitled The World’s Fastest, about one man’s superhuman quest to break the world land speed record behind the wheel of a turbo-charged Cadillac.
Boxer is headed by founder/executive producer John Clark and exec producers Beth George and John Barrerio.
Effie UK and Ipsos Report Concludes Marketing Industry Should Do Its Part To Heal Societal Divisions
Society has never been more divided, according to a new report Healing the Divide in which Effie UK and brand and advertising experts from Ipsos explored brands’ role in shaping society and healing societal divisions.
The report details how instability, inflation, and COVID recovery —the convergence of multiple interconnected crises around the world that coincide with and amplify each other, causing hard to resolve systemic challenges, have become the norm over the past few years. As a result, the use of division as a weapon is now a major theme in today’s culture and politics, and sadly 47% of the UK and 49% of the US agree with the statement that “Within my lifetime, society in my country will break down,” according to Ipsos Global Trends 2024.
While some brands have tried to respond to this, the report finds responsible marketing is now threatened by weaponized division. It points to the World Federation of Advertisers’ decision to shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X, combined with DEI rollbacks, as significant setbacks.
The report says these setbacks underline the importance of marketing in solving collective problems, such as climate change, food security, and harmful online content. It also points to a need for marketers to take more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions.
Research claims marketers are ideally placed to build and rebuild the antidote to division (trust, empathy, a sense of control, connection and collaboration). According to the Ipsos Veracity index of trusted professionals, society is becoming more trustworthy of advertising executives. Additionally, 57% of Britons agree that brands should communicate their... Read More