Michael Phillips is joining Eleven San Francisco as director of digital production and creative technology. He will serve as a senior level thought leader for the agency, helping to plan and execute digital strategies for clients as well as to manage the content development process in collaboration with internal and external teams. Phillips will work closely with Eleven’s creative, digital and account teams in leading and identifying opportunities for growth and profit with both new and existing clients. He comes over from Goodby Silverstein & Partners where he led the BETA Group, the agency’s internal creative-technology and digital innovation team. Prior to that, he was an executive producer at GS&P and led digital-production teams on Google, TD Ameritrade, Nintendo, Elizabeth Arden, Specialized Bicycles and Nature’s Way….Veteran digital and social strategy director Mike Chiavetta has joined bicoastal Stardust. He began his career in the tech start-up space, building tech platforms for entertainment brands. He then went to TBWAChiatDay and built out the social analytics department, working on the Nissan, Pepsi Co and Kraft accounts. He has led digital and social strategy for a variety of brands including Amazon, ExxonMobil, GameStop, Monster.com and Sony….
Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens
"Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.
The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.
And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).
This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.
"'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."
As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More