Socially-led creative agency We Are Social has appointed Lore Oxford as its first global head of culture and insights.
In the newly created role, Oxford will be responsible for diversifying the agency’s research and insight function; bringing with her a qualitative specialism which will enable the agency to more effectively respond to questions around society and culture. She will also be leading a series of work-streams across the business, aimed at encouraging greater collaboration between markets, to build on the agency’s already expansive body of global insights.
Oxford will report directly to We Are Social’s chief strategy officer, Mobbie Nazir, who oversees the agency’s strategy and research and insight teams at a global level, with a focus on championing the role of social thinking to drive business value.
Before joining We Are Social, Oxford worked with global brands across a variety of industries to support their creative communications by unearthing cultural insights and consumer behaviours to inform their businesses more broadly. Most recently, she has worked within the strategy teams at AMV BBDO–providing audience understanding for Bacardi and Samsung–and Karmarama, where she delivered cutting edge youth insights for Nando’s and the National Citizen Service (NCS).
Prior to her time in creative agencies, Oxford built her career at global research agency Canvas8, where she worked across multiple markets to help Google understand how teens use their phones globally, and support MTV in understanding the science of boredom and how it manifests across different cultures.
Nazir said, “Cultural insights and understanding are core to our agency offering and Lore will help us to scale and operationalize our expertise in this area at a global level.”
Oxford added, “There’s never been a better time to work in cultural insights. At a time when attention is more fragmented than ever, and declining trust in social platforms is seeing people turn to more private digital spaces, genuinely understanding how people think, feel and behave is the only way brands and marketers can guarantee cutting through the noise.”
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More