Pete Johnson has been named to serve as executive creative director at Deutsch New York. Joining in June, Johnson currently serves as Arnold's creative co-lead, executive creative director, in the Boston office. A highly awarded creative, he’s worked on an array of brands including Progressive, Sony, Jack Daniels, New Balance, Carnival and Truth.
Deutsch NY CEO Val Di Febo described Johnson as "an idea-driven creative with a focus on craftsmanship and his mixed-media approach make him a seamless fit for our clients and us." Johnson's appointment as ECD was announced jointly by DiFebo and Deutsch North American chief creative officer Pete Favat.
“Deutsch is on a tear. Great people doing great work,” noted Johnson. "It’s what it is all about and I can’t wait to be part of it.”
Johnson has been with Arnold for over three years, and prior to that he was at LBi New York where he helped transform the creative merger of independent agencies such as Icon Nicholson, Syrup, Lost Boys and Special Ops into one digitally focused, unified creative shop. He also held stints as a creative director at Tribal DDB and a senior copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather and MRM.
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