BARÚ, a cross-cultural marketing and media agency specializing in audience-inclusive brand building, has hired Jeremy Epstein as its new associate digital director. Epstein brings his senior skills in general market digital campaigns and media plans for major brands in entertainment, sports and retail, including AMC Networks, Hulu, the NBA, Apple Music, Expedia Inc., Bluefly and Uber.
Epstein was previously with Fetch, a division of Dentsu, in New York, serving as mobile strategy and innovation manager, where he developed media plans and cross-channel attribution solutions for mobile campaigns. He also spent several years with Media Storm as digital media supervisor, working with entertainment and sports clients as the team leader for multiple brand launches across social networking platforms. Epstein will helm the digital team at BARÚ, which includes media planner/buyer Rosalva Orozco and sr. social strategist Heather McDonald.
“The demand for our digital capabilities has become central to our clients’ media needs. Jeremy is the perfect addition to our team because of his expertise in digital and his deep knowledge of cross-channel marketing solutions, including Out Of Home,” stated BARÚ CEO Elizabeth Barrutia. “At BARÚ our entire team is cross-trained to deliver integrated marketing campaigns. We know that Jeremy will add tremendous value as we continue to scale our business.”
“Independent agencies like BARÚ are delivering some of the most exciting and innovative thinking in the industry,” added Epstein. “Having come from a large global media company, I’m excited to join a group that has such agility, and emphasizes personalized attention and service to their clients.”
Epstein will immediately begin overseeing digital strategy for some of BARÚ’s top accounts, including Treasury Wine Estates, Del Real Foods, Warner Brothers and Focus Features.
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