On the heels of the consolidation of the global Johnnie Walker business at Anomaly, the agency has hired four new group creative directors at its founding office in New York. The new GCDs hail from a diverse group of top agencies–72andSunny, Droga5 and Wieden+Kennedy–and will help new clients like Ally Financial, Booking.com, and Petco transform their businesses beyond just “advertising.”
The agency had already handled the U.S. account of Diageo’s Johnnie Walker brand and just this month won global creative duties following a competitive review. The Johnnie Walker global business will be led by Anomaly’s London office working closely with the New York team.
The new hires are Tara Lawall, former creative director at 72andSunny, who will be based in New York along with Donnell Johnson, previously creative director at Droga5, Laura Sampedro, formerly creative director at Wieden + Kennedy London and Carlos Alija, another former Wieden+Kennedy London creative director.
“It’s not the name on the door, it’s the people in the building who give us permission to call ourselves Anomaly–we’ve seen it recently with the addition of Josh Fell in L.A. and the exciting, expanding team in London. This new generation of thinking is going to spark a powerful revolution within our walls. This is what I love about our business,” said founding partner and global CCO Mike Byrne.
Music Biopics Get Creative At Toronto Film Festival
Many of the expected conventions of music biopics are present in "Piece by Piece," about the producer-turned-pop star Pharrell Williams, and "Better Man," about the British singer Robbie Williams. There's the young artist's urge to break through, fallow creative periods and regrettable chapters of fame-addled excess. But there are a few, little differences. In "Piece by Piece," Pharrell is a Lego. And in "Better Man," Williams is played by a CGI monkey. If the music biopic can sometimes feel a little stale in format, these two movies, both premiering this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, attempt novel remixes. In each film, each Williams recounts his life story as a narrator. But their on-screen selves aren't movie stars who studied to get a part just right, but computer-generated animations living out real superstar fantasies. While neither Williams has much in common as a musician, neither has had a very traditional career. Their films became reflections of their individuality, and, maybe, a way to distinguish themselves in the crowded field of music biopics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Rocketman." "This is about being who you are, even if it's not something that can be put in a box," Pharrell said in an interview Tuesday alongside director Morgan Neville. Also next to Pharrell: A two-foot-tall Lego sculpture of himself, which was later in the day brought to the film's premiere and given its own seat in the crowd. The experience watching the crowd-pleasing "Piece by Piece," which Focus Features will release Oct. 11, can be pleasantly discombobulating. A wide spectrum of things you never expected to see in Lego form are animated. Virginia Beach (where Pharrell grew up). An album of Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life."... Read More