Justine Armour is joining Grey’s New York flagship office as chief creative officer. She becomes Grey’s first New York CCO since 2017. She will help set and implement the creative vision, oversee all creative development, spearhead the recruitment of top talent and guide new business creative efforts, working closely with John Patroulis, Grey’s worldwide CCO.
Armour has worked in Brisbane, Sydney, Portland and Brooklyn. She has spent the last three years at 72andSunny becoming executive creative director, leading the creative department and overseeing clients such as General Mills, Diageo, Spotify, Trojan, Halo Top, and Marcus by Goldman Sachs.
Earlier in her career, Armour spent five years at Wieden+Kennedy. She helped reinvent iconic brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Old Spice, Secret and Herbal Essences, and drove market place success.
She began her career in Australia at McCann Erickson Brisbane; cut her teeth working on CPG accounts such as Masterfoods, Frito Lay, Pepsi Co as well as Visa and Mitsubishi at Clemenger BBDO Sydney; oversaw multiple Procter & Gamble brands at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and worked on Qantas, Coke, PayPal, Nestlé and Toyota at Publicis Mojo Sydney before coming to the U.S.
Michael Houston, worldwide CEO of Grey Group, said of Armour, “She is bringing her unique creative talents to help our clients build some of the world’s strongest brands. Her work sells, entertains and becomes part of the cultural conversation in tune with our ‘Famously Effective’ philosophy. Her arrival underscores our ongoing investment in assembling the best bench of creative leaders in the world.”
Patroulis shared, “Justine brings a deeply impressive creative pedigree, a reputation for work that’s famous in the world as well as in the industry, and a thoroughly modern approach to leadership. Not every great creative becomes a great creative leader–Justine has proven again and again, on big brands and at great agencies, that she’s both.”
Armour said, “I’ve been watching with interest at Grey’s reinvention over the past couple of years. When they committed 75% of their talent investment to creative, I thought that was radical and I was curious to see how it would play out. Since then, I’ve seen good people going in, and I’ve seen really nice work coming out. I will be a force for continuing that momentum as we start a brand new decade together.”
This move follows others that show Grey’s commitment to bringing best-in-class talent to the agency. Recent hires include Javier Campopiano as CCO, Grey Europe & Global Clients, and Cory Berger as worldwide chief marketing officer.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More