The man behind those Allstate Insurance "mayhem" television ads has been picked to lead marketing at Ford Motor Co.
Mark LaNeve, a former marketing chief at General Motors, will start the new job on Feb. 1. He'll try to reverse Ford's declining sales.
The 55-year-old LaNeve replaces John Felice, who is retiring after 30 years with Ford. LaNeve will be vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service.
Ford's U.S. sales fell just under 1 percent last year even though the market grew by nearly 6 percent. The company lost almost a full percentage point of market share.
From 2009 until 2012, LaNeve led marketing at Allstate. He launched the popular "mayhem" campaign that features an actor who causes car crashes, fires, and other insurance disasters.
LaNeve left Allstate early in 2012 and later that year joined Global Team Ford, the company's advertising agency. He was named chief operating officer for the agency in August of 2012.
Before Allstate, LaNeve was at General Motors, where he led corporate sales and marketing from 2005 to October of 2009. He also headed the Cadillac brand and once served as North American CEO for Volvo Cars.
"He will be focused on continuing to grow the business by building the Ford brand with innovative new digital communications and transforming the retail experience for customers," Ford said in a statement.
Ford's sales fell last year largely because it closed pickup-truck plants to switch production to the new aluminum-clad F-150.
Barbra Streisand approves multi-part documentary that will draw upon her archives
A year after telling her story in a 1,000-page memoir, Barbra Streisand has approved a multi-part documentary about her life โ to be directed by fellow Oscar winner Frank Marshall.
The documentary, announced Thursday by Sony Music Vision, is currently untitled and does not have a release date. It will feature rarely seen video, photographs and audio recordings from Streisand's personal archives. Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney, whose many credits include films about Paul Simon and Steve Jobs, will serve as producer.
"For years I've been thinking about the best way to share the vast amount of content I've been safely storing in my vault," the 82-year-old Streisand said in a statement. "These films, photos and music masters โ many never seen or heard by the public โ hold some of my most cherished memories. I'm so pleased that producer Alex Gibney and director Frank Marshall have agreed to take this journey with me."
Marshall, who has directed documentaries about the Beach Boys and the Bee Gees and produced such classics as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Sixth Sense," said in a statement that the Streisand movie would "illustrate why she has become an enduring icon to a global audience of all generations."
Sony Music Vision is presenting and distributing the project in partnership with her longtime record label, Columbia Records.
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