Alex Dobson has been named creative strategy lead, U.S., for The&Partnership. Dobson, who joined the agency in 2019, previously served as strategy director and has played a pivotal role in the global success of the firm’s Mars account, overseeing high-profile campaigns for brands including Skittles, Snickers and Extra Gum. Since joining The&Partnership, Dobson has helped lead the way on Mars’ addressable strategy, social content and purpose-led campaigns, enabling the company’s brands to forge stronger connections with their consumers. This includes developing the strategy behind the 2023 Gold Effie-winning “Everyone’s Original” campaign for Ben’s Original – the brand’s first campaign following its rebrand from Uncle Ben’s. Most recently, Dobson oversaw strategy on global Halloween TV campaigns for Twix and M&Ms. Other campaign highlights include the launch of Skittles’ “Squishy Cloudz,” the brand’s first-ever gummy confection, and the Snickers’ “Go Full Fan” campaign in support of England’s Lionesses, the country’s national women’s soccer team during the team’s run to the Euro 2022 championship. Dobson also played a key role in driving sales for Extra White gum up by more than 30 percent through the “Every Smile Should Shine” campaign. In his new role, Dobson will lead the U.S. creative strategy Team, working with the firm’s media agency, mSix&Partners, to bring more data-informed content strategies to clients. Along with client work, he will guide the agency’s implementation of AI tools throughout the agency’s work. Prior to joining The&Partnership, Dobson was a sr. strategist at Grey London, working with client Nomad Foods. Earlier at Bow&Arrow (now part of Accenture Song), he developed strategy for clients including Dow Jones and Google….
The Hottest Ticket At Sundance: Writer-Director Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Rose Byrne plays a mother in the midst of a breakdown in the experiential psychological thriller "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You."
Anticipation was high for the A24 film, which will be released sometime this year. Its premiere Friday at the Sundance Film Festival was easily the hottest ticket in town, with even ticketholders unable to get in. Those who did make it into the Library theater were treated to an intense, visceral, inventive story from filmmaker Mary Bronstein that has quickly become one of the festival's must-sees.
Byrne plays Linda, who is barely hanging on while managing her daughter's mysterious illness. She's faced with crisis after crisis, big and small — from the massive, gaping hole in their apartment ceiling that forces them to move to a dingy motel, to an escalating showdown with a parking attendant at a care center. The cracks in her psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing are become too much to bear.
"I'd never seen a movie before where a mother is going through a crisis with a child but our energy is not with the child's struggle, it's with the mother's," Bronstein said at the premiere. "If you're a caretaker, you shouldn't be bothering with yourself at all. It should all be about the person you're taking care of, right? And that is a particular kind of emotional burnout state that I was really interested in exploring."
Byrne and Bronstein went deep in the preparation phase, having long discussions about Linda with the goal of making her as real as possible before the quick, 27-day shoot. Byrne said she was obsessed with figuring out who Linda was before the crisis. The film was in part inspired by Bronstein's experience with her own daughter, but she didn't want to elaborate on the... Read More