Ripple Street, a peer-to-peer marketing platform that matches brands with their ideal consumers, has named Alice Hawari as VP of marketing. Hawari will focus on accelerating and enabling revenue growth by strengthening the company’s market position—from marketing strategy, branding, messaging and thought leadership to community development and product experiences. Through a data-driven lens, Hawari will be responsible for testing new channels and determining the ideal marketing mix for both community and customer acquisition and retention goals. Mondelez International, Molson Coors, and JMSmucker are among the brands that have turned to Ripple Street to drive online and in-store retail trips, user generated content, and product reviews through authentic shared product experiences. With more than 15 years of leadership experience at technology companies, Hawari brings a wealth of go-to-market expertise. Before Ripple Street, Hawari served as a marketing consultant for a wide range of high-growth organizations such as Stanford GSB, Slingwave, and Pipewave (acquired by ZEFR). Integrated into their businesses, she accelerated their ability to connect, communicate, and better serve their customers. Prior to consulting, Hawari served as the head of marketing at Nativo, a native advertising technology platform, and as the director of product marketing at AOL, where she owned messaging and positioning for AOL’s mobile, premium formats, and native ad products….
Crystal (Rix) Zerrenner, former global marketing chief marketing officer at BBDO, has joined Thinx, Inc., maker of reusable period and bladder-lead underwear, as chief growth officer. At BBDO, she was key to bringing to life Thinx’s first award-winning, taboo-breaking national ad campaign, “Menstruation.” As chief growth officer, she will work cross-functionally to align marketing and business development goals, among other key responsibilities in order to drive new customer acquisition, increase lifetime value through retention marketing efforts, establish brand awareness, recognition, and consumer trust especially through third-party validation and effectively tell the story of the product and the company….
Advanced Systems Group (ASG), a media technology and engineering firm, has added Collyer Spreen as sales engineer. He is based in Dallas. Most recently, Spreen provided pro audio consulting and sales for Cutting Edge. He also spent more than seven years as a pro audio solutions specialist for Avid Technology. A Pro Tools expert, he continues to work as a freelance recording engineer through his company, Soundasleep Productions…..
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More