Independent creative agency David&Goliath (D&G) has appointed a new executive creative director, Gustavo Sarkis, to lead the agency’s Kia business. Reporting directly to D&G’s managing partner and chief creative officer, Colin Jeffery, Sarkis will be responsible for overseeing all creative work on the brand, for which the agency has been AOR since its inception in 1999. Sarkis will officially start at D&G effective Sept. 1.
Sarkis is coming over to D&G from Crispin Porter + Bogusky where he was executive creative director, overseeing all creative coming out of the agency’s Miami office. He spent the last two years working across a variety of clients, including Letgo, Vonage and Santa Margherita. Prior to CP+B Miami, Sarkis was a creative director at TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, working on Gatorade and Adidas. His work has been recognized and highly awarded industry-wide, garnering 12 Cannes Lions as well as awards from The One Show, the CLIOs, LIA, and D&AD.
“Los Angeles has built momentum as a melting pot for creative thinking, arts, and technology,” Sarkis said. “David&Goliath stands out as a hot, independent agency doing amazing work, which I have closely watched as it continues to get better and better. I’m very happy to join at what feels like a truly exciting moment, knowing it will be an honor and a great challenge to continue pushing the Kia work forward and drive business results.”
Since taking the creative reigns on Kia in 2006, Jeffery has been at the forefront of some of the brand’s most iconic work, including the ongoing Hamsters campaign for Soul, as well as the brand’s 2016 Super Bowl spot starring Christopher Walken. With this latest hire in place rounding out the creative leadership team, Jeffery will continue to manage the entire creative department.
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