VMLY&R has expanded its West Coast footprint with the addition of a new executive lead, Jennifer DaSilva, who is promoted to executive director of VMLY&R West. DaSilva will oversee the agency’s client engagement, delivery operations, and new business in the Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offices. In addition, she will continue serving as president at Berlin Cameron. In this new role, she will be based in L.A. and work alongside Seattle-based EVP Eric Baumgartner and report to Eric Campbell, global president of VMLY&R.
VMLY&R’s West Coast presence has seen substantial business growth, with 150 new employee hires and double revenue growth since 2019. The agency has welcomed a rapidly expanding client portfolio including technology leading brands like Intel, Microsoft, Meta, and T-Mobile, along with Lululemon, Mazda, and Driscoll’s. To support its growth, VMLY&R will open up a new office at the WPP campus in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, marking its first official hub in the L.A. market–with 60 employees.
“At the intersection of tech and culture, you’ll find VMLY&R West,” said DaSilva. “I’m thrilled to be joining a team that’s made a real impact in today’s world, as driving cultural change is my passion at Berlin Cameron. I hope to take my experience as a marketer and an advocate for equitable workplaces to continue nurturing an agency environment that is supportive, collaborative, and empathetic, while also bringing creativity to everything we do.”
VMLY&R has cultivated a strong expertise in technology platforms, including emerging XR spaces. The agency is behind notable work for technology clients including Microsoft, Intel and Meta. VMLY&R was also recognized as “Mastering Virtual Worlds” in the 2021 Cannes Lions Creative Report for its Super Wendy’s World campaign.
Commenting on the appointment, Campbell said: “Jennifer has made a name for herself creating our women-founded initiative, being an accomplished connector, and driving strategic and creative solutions for our clients.”
DaSilva is a seasoned marketer with 20-plus years of experience working on Fortune 500 brands. As president of WPP creative agency Berlin Cameron, she spent the last 20 years managing key brands such as Coca-Cola, Heineken, Lexus and Capital One. Under her leadership, Berlin Cameron has expanded through new divisions in support of experiential capabilities, including metaverse practice with brands including NYX Professional Makeup and Under Armour, for which the agency has won several industry awards.
She is also an influential thought leader who has been published in over 20 leading national media outlets and covered in three published books on her expertise in building community, gender empowerment, leadership, women in the metaverse, mental health, reframing motherhood, and more.
DaSilva is a vocal champion of female empowerment and entrepreneurship, having launched LLShe, a Berlin Cameron division that works with women-loved and women-led brands. With that same mission in mind, in 2019 she founded Connect4Women, an initiative designed to help women build powerful networks and find job opportunities, which has brought together thousands of women and counting.
She’s also been working on a number of initiatives to combat the “SHEcession” (the first-ever economic recession impacting more women than men). Her dedication to female empowerment is shown through her work with brands including No7 where the WPP WBA team, in partnership with Berlin Cameron, VMLY&R, and DeVries, brought awareness to the issue and developed the nation’s largest “Unstoppable Together” job summit, helping thousands of women take back their jobs, and P&G’s Secret Deodorant where she led the USWNT pay equity work in the “All Strength. No Sweat.” campaign.
DaSilva graduated from Boston College and is on the board of global movement, Girl Up.
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