Production house Slash Dynamic, under the aegis of managing director Tanya Cohen, has paired its comedic director Kiran (aka Kiran Koshy) with car specialist Christian Uka to form The Chads. The directorial duo shares a passion for automotive advertising and is being positioned to uniquely meet the changing production needs of brands in that sector. Already The Chads have wrapped a pair of spots via Slash Dynamic–Nissan’s “The Meter” and Infiniti’s “Kevin.” This marks the first time Uka has been repped as a director.
When Uka (who’s African American) and Kiran (who was born in India) first met, the subject of diversity, or the lack thereof, in the advertising and production world came up. There’s a dearth of directors of color within the saturated world of commercial directors. They mused that they should perhaps give their collective a very white name, maybe the whitest name possible and use it to cheekily announce their extensive combined skill set. The Chads moniker rose to the top (The Cardigan Brothers came in second).
Kiran and Uka provide a blend of complementary, diverse skill sets as a team. An alum of SHOOT’s 2017 New Directors Showcase, Kiran comes from an agency background as a creative director, focused on humor, storytelling, performance and art direction, building a body of work as a solo director. Meanwhile Uka comes from a more technical/product/design orientation, having been on the brand side while gaining recognition for his talent as a photographer. His recent tenure at TBWAChiatDay as a product specialist sparked a passion for automotive photography, after working on hundreds of commercials, print shoots and custom vehicle projects.
“We are in an extremely competitive business. We want to present the most precise solutions to achieving the client and brand’s creative vision. The Chads’ unique background allowed us to do that. Obviously early on we discussed the huge lack of diversity in the business, which is why the moniker made so much sense,” said Slash Dynamic’s Cohen. “It was an amusing way to call out the lack of diversity in filmmaking. Kiran and I recently had deep and meaningful conversations about implicit bias and unconscious discrimination in marketing, and how it sometimes directly affected the decision-making process in advertising. We had been analyzing some of the projects we had bid, based on feedback from the clients and our interpretation of some interactions. Did they not want to give an Americana beer ad to someone they thought was culturally different? Lots of questions started coming up, and the answers were disheartening.”
This conversation takes on deeper meaning given current events as a massive global movement has taken hold with people demanding equality and embracing inclusiveness while at the same time dealing with the virus pandemic. As a female-owned business, Slash Dynamic is hopeful that its partnership with The Chads will help positively impact the ad arena not only in terms of creating standout work but helping to bring more diverse voices to the community.
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” Wins Primetime Commercial Emmy Award
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” won the primetime commercial Emmy this evening (9/7) during the first of two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies being held this weekend in the Peacock Theater at LA Live. The yuletide film out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab was directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man in tandem with stop-motion animator Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures.
“Fuzzy Feelings” introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when the woman's day job takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Director Aniello is no stranger to the Emmy proceedings. As creator of the HBO Max series Hacks, she has won two Emmys (writing and directing) as well as a DGA Award. This year she is nominated for three more Emmys on the strength of Hacks--Outstanding Comedy Series as well as writing and directing for a comedy series.
This marks the second straight year that an Apple film has won the coveted primetime commercial Emmy. Back in January 2024, Apple’s “The Greatest,” directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch, came away with the Emmy.
This time around, “Fuzzy Feelings” topped a field of nominated commercials consisting of: Apple’s “Album Cover” from Apple’s in-house creatives and directed by David Shane of O Positive; Uber One | Uber Eats’ “Best Friends,” also... Read More