Four Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) staffers have been named partners in the independent advertising agency: Portland managing director Tom Blessington, London managing director Neil Christie, Portland executive creative director Mark Fitzloff and global interactive executive creative director Iain Tait.
They join co-founder and CEO Dan Wieden, Dave Luhr, Susan Hoffman, Bill Davenport, John Jay, Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth as agency partners of the global W+K network. This is the agency’s first partnership addition since Davidson and Papworth were appointed in 2009.
Blessington first joined W+K in 1990 after working for Hill Holliday in Boston. Over the course of the next 12 years, he ran the Nike accounts in both W+K’s Portland and Amsterdam offices, worked as group account director for Miller Brewing Company and Coca-Cola in the Portland office, and was the first managing director of W+K’s New York office, which he expanded from a media-buying operation to a full-service creative shop. Blessington then spent four years at TBWAChiatDay in LA before returning to W+K Portland as managing director in 2006.
Christie began his career in advertising at ABM and in the 1990s helped build Yellowhammer into a top shop known for hard-hitting work. Christie went on to work two years at BBH and eight years at TBWA, where he ran such accounts as Nissan and Cadbury and was promoted to client services director and eventually managing director. While at TBWA, the agency topped the new-business league and the awards tables. Christie began as managing director of W+K London in 2004.
Fitzloff came to W+K in 1999, working as a copywriter on the AltaVista, Nike and Coca-Cola accounts. When appointed creative director on Old Spice, Fitzloff was charged with reinvigorating “your grandfather’s deodorant.” Fitzloff helped breathe new life into the old, iconic American brand and, in doing so, helped create some of the best, most recognized work to come out of the Portland office in recent years.
In 2008, Fitzloff was appointed to the Portland management team as executive creative director and has since continued to lead work that both wins awards and pushes the client’s bottom line.
Tait joined W+K as global interactive executive creative director in 2010. Prior to joining W+K, Tait was a founder and creative director at digital creative agency Poke, where he worked for such clients as American Express, Orange, Yahoo! and Zopa. Upon starting at W+K, Tait worked on the game changing Old Spice interactive “Response Campaign.”
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Delay TikTok Ban
President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a "political resolution" to the issue.
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.
"President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act's deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case," said Trump's amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump's choice for solicitor general.
The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.
He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger... Read More