Creative agency mono has tapped Steve Lynch to take on the new senior role of director of connections strategy at its Minneapolis office. Bringing almost two decades of experience, he will be responsible for expanding the agency’s channel-planning practice.
Prior to joining mono, Lynch spent 10 years at Olson, leading the company’s connections strategy discipline and increasing the department’s billings tenfold. While at Olson, Steve worked with clients such as General Mills’ yogurt division, McDonald’s, Belize Tourism and Bissell. Before Olson, Steve spent six years at Mithun working with such clients as General Mills’ Nature Valley Granola Bars and Pop Secret Popcorn.
In 2015, mono’s revenue grew 50% with key wins among leading national brands including Sperry, Propel, The North Face, Mozilla Firefox, Advance Auto Parts and SunChips. Most recently mono was named AOR for handbag and accessories brand Vera Bradley. The agency recently expanded to the West Coast with the launch of an office in San Francisco.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More