TBWAChiatDay New York has hired Chris Beresford-Hill as chief creative officer. Beresford-Hill, who joins from sister Omincom agency BBDO New York, will assume creative leadership effective October 2 across TBWAChiatDay NY’s full roster of clients–which includes Accenture, adidas, eos, McDonald’s, Michelin, Nissan, PepsiCo, TD Bank, Thomson Reuters, Tic-Tac and Travelers Insurance–and will be responsible for leading and cultivating the shop’s creative department. The appointment follows Chris Garbutt’s promotion to chief creative officer of TBWA Worldwide in May.
Beresford-Hill will report to Garbutt, and partner with TBWAChiatDay New York CEO Rob Schwartz. Alongside his agency duties, Beresford-Hill will also join TBWA’s Global Creative Core, a select group of top creative leaders from across the TBWA collective chosen to help execute against the company’s vision to make disruptive work that connects with culture.
As TBWA continues its push to make iconic work across the company’s global brands, Erik Vervroegen, who joined the agency last year as ECD and global head of art, will take on expanded global responsibility, driving creative excellence and elevating the level of craft for clients.
“Chris has the energy and talent to ignite a creative renaissance in New York,” said Garbutt. “He’s prolific, charismatic, he’s got New York swagger and he’s ready to excel. His work has consistently become part of culture and makes a tangible impact on his clients’ businesses.”
David Lubars, chief creative officer of BBDO Worldwide and chairman, BBDO North America, added, “BBDO New York is a proving ground for talent that can take on really big jobs. This is a great opportunity for Chris as well as a chance to leverage his talent within the Omnicom network.”
As EVP, executive creative director at BBDO New York, Beresford-Hill has led creative for several of the agency’s marquee clients alongside partner Dan Lucey, including Foot Locker, Guinness, Priceline.com and HBO. Beresford-Hill is perhaps best known for his award-winning campaigns for Foot Locker featuring boxing champions Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson, as well as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, the latter of which is said to have sparked the conversations that led to the Fight of the Century. Notably, Beresford-Hill also created the “Wheelchair Basketball” film for Guinness that was named one of TED’s Ten Ads Worth Spreading, and received the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s Visionary Leadership award.
Prior to BBDO, Beresford-Hill held creative director and writer posts at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco, and Modernista!, in Boston.
“I have always loved TBWAChiatDay New York, and have admired the members of this leadership team even before they fully assembled,” said Beresford-Hill. “Every conversation I have had in the process has reinforced my belief that amazing things are about to happen.”
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