Creative agency MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER has hired David Gonzales as director of strategy. With a background in account strategy for agencies such as Publicis, Venables Bell & Partners, Deutsch LA, TBWAMedia Arts Lab, and Droga5, Gonzales has worked with a host of brands including Apple, Audi, T-Mobile, Google, Motorola, Toyota, and American Express.
Most recently a freelancer working in-house with Facebook’s internal agency “The Factory,” Gonzales also served as group strategy director at Droga5. There he oversaw strategy for Motorola and helped pitch and win the launch assignment for Toyota’s first ever hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, Mirai, culminating in the award-winning “Fueled by Everything” campaign.
When it comes to brands, Gonzales believes they should focus more on defining and working from their purpose than from vapid mission statements. “Purpose,” he said, “is the good fight, the joyful work. When we can help brands solve that, everything else tends to fall into place.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More