Rick Dodds and Steve Howell, creative directors at Droga5 New York, have been promoted to executive creative directors at the agency’s London office. In their new leadership roles, Dodds and Howell will report to chief creative officer David Kolbusz.
Dodds and Howell have been creative partners for nearly 13 years, having first teamed at Buckinghamshire New University before beginning their professional careers together at Saatchi & Saatchi London where they turned out work for clients including Guinness, Visa and Weight Watchers, most notably creating T-Mobile’s “Dance,” “Sing-Along” and “Welcome Back (Heathrow)” campaigns. During their first tenure in the U.K., Dodds and Howell won 15 Cannes Lions, as well as the BTAA Grand Prix in both 2010 and 2011.
Seven years at Saatchi led to Dodds and Howell joining Droga5 NY in 2012 as art director and copywriter, respectively. They created campaigns for brand such as Puma, Under Armour, NRG, NYCFC and Strongbow Hard Cider. Dodds and Howell were appointed creative directors in 2013.
Following what was supposed to be a brief stint at Droga5 London, Dodds and Howell have decided to make a permanent move to their native England to work across the agency’s client roster and new business initiatives. The creative duo has most recently produced work for Hobbs’ “Make an Understatement” campaign, and they are currently working on Vita Coca, Radox, Impulse, Belstaff and Rustlers.
Howell noted, “Not many people get the chance to help run a creative department in London. And even fewer get the chance to run one with the name Droga5 above the door. We know how lucky we are and recognize the incredible responsibility and opportunity we have to make this agency as great as we know it can be.”
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