Deutsch LA has hired Kelsey Karson as SVP, group strategy director, to lead all strategy efforts for Taco Bell. Karson joins Deutsch from R/GA, where she was the architect behind many of the agency’s most disruptive and culture-impacting campaigns. She will report directly to Kelsey Hodgkin, Deutsch LA’s EVP, head of strategy.
Karson will be tasked with continuing to develop innovative strategies that connect Taco Bell with its fans. With the recent expansion of the agency’s scope to include social efforts, Karson will oversee all brand efforts, including upcoming campaigns for Taco Bell’s loyalty program, new product launches and platform work.
Karson is a Texan who made her way to Los Angeles to work on the Beats by Dre brand at HUSTLE, R/GA’s conflict shop. There she created campaigns that reacted to culture in real time, including LeBron’s return to Cleveland, the NFL draft, and leading the strategy for the infamous “Straight Outta Somewhere” campaign, which was the first campaign to trend simultaneously on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Karson then spent time at R/GA’s LA office, where she led strategy for brands such as Barbie, Amazon, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Amazon, to name a few. Throughout her career, she has collected top industry accolades including numerous Cannes Lions, CLIO, D&AD, Webby, Shorty, and Jay Chiat awards.
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