Bill Oberlander has joined JWT New York as executive creative director, where he will oversee the Microsoft Commercial business. He joins a Microsoft team that includes Jeremy Postaer on Bing and Jim Hord on Microsoft Office.
Most recently, Oberlander served as chief creative officer/executive VP of Cossette New York. There he worked on Estée Lauder, Carlsberg Beer, and Cannondale Bikes, among other brands.
Prior to assuming the lead creative role at Cossette, Oberlander was exec creative director at McCann Erickson, where he pitched and won the $350 million Intel business. Before that, he also spent time at Ogilvy on Motorola, AT&T Wireless, Sprite, Ameritrade and Nestlé Waters.
During the 1990s, he served as a managing partner/exec creative director at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners. Under his watch, the agency grew from 17 employees to 400. It also blossomed from two accounts to a wide portfolio of clients, which included Citi, Coach, Target, and Snapple.
As former president of the Art Directors Club, Oberlander is also credited with re-establishing it as a top industry organization. Under his watch, the ADC launched the Young Guns Awards Show, recognizing industry talent under the age of 30.
He currently teaches advertising at the School of Visual Arts New York and serves on the Ad Council Creative Review Committee, where he reviews and directs pro-bono campaigns for the country’s leading non-profits.
Disney Pledges $15 million In L.A. Fire Aid As More Celebs Learn They’ve Lost Their Homes
The Pacific Palisades wildfires torched the home of "This Is Us" star Milo Ventimiglia, perhaps most poignantly destroying the father-to-be's newly installed crib.
CBS cameras caught the actor walking through his charred house for the first time, standing in what was once his kitchen and looking at a neighborhood in ruin. "Your heart just breaks."
He and his pregnant wife, Jarah Mariano, evacuated Tuesday with their dog and they watched on security cameras as the flames ripped through the house, destroying everything, including a new crib.
"There's a kind of shock moment where you're going, 'Oh, this is real. This is happening.' What good is it to continue watching?' And then at a certain point we just turned it off, like 'What good is it to continue watching?'"
Firefighters sought to make gains Friday during a respite in the heavy winds that fanned the flames as numerous groups pledged aid to help victims and rebuild, including a $15 million donation pledge from the Walt Disney Co.
More stars learn their homes are gone
While seeing the remains of his home, Ventimiglia was struck by a connection to his "This Is Us" character, Jack Pearson, who died after inhaling smoke in a house fire. "It's not lost on me life imitating art."
Mandy Moore, who played Ventimiglia's wife on "This Is Us," nearly lost her home in the Eaton fire, which scorched large areas of the Altadena neighborhood. She said Thursday that part of her house is standing but is unlivable, and her husband lost his music studio and all his instruments.
Mel Gibson's home is "completely gone," his publicist Alan Nierob confirmed Friday. The Oscar winner revealed the loss of his home earlier Friday while appearing on Joe Rogan's... Read More