Olivier Lefebvre has been promoted from executive creative director to president and partner at FF Paris, the creative boutique agency founded by Fred & Farid.
This brings the Paris office in line with FF’s bureaus in Shanghai, Los Angeles, and New York, putting an executive from the creative division in charge of overall operations. FF began this strategic leadership shift in 2012 to be better-placed to respond to the rapid changes currently revolutionizing the marketing industry. FF Paris aims to be even more connected with the group’s three other agencies by intensifying collaboration between international teams and increasing direct contacts between creative people and the clients.
Lefebvre started as a copywriter at DDB Paris and became creative director at CLM-BBDO in less than 10 years. In 2014, he joined FF Paris as executive creative director. Throughout his career, he worked for more than 30 French and international brands such as Mercedes France, Tag Heuer Worldwide, Pepsi-Co International, Mars Group (Mars, Snickers, M&M’s,Whiskas, Suzy Wan), Greenpeace, Audi, Lipton International, Aviva, Eurostar, The Economist (worldwide campaign), EDF Digital, La Redoute, Bouygues Telecom,l’Equipe, Voyagessncf.com, and Inpes Tabaco.
Lefebvre is part of the exclusive Club of French Creative Directors, and is internationally multi-awarded: more than 35 Lions (including 8 golds), 9 D&AD (including 3 Yellow Pencils, 8 Graphite Pencils), 30 One Show awards (including 1 Best of Show), 35 Clio awards, and 50 Eurobest awards.
James Earl Jones, Lauded Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies At 93
James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — eventually lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, "The Lion King" and Darth Vader — has died. He was 93.
His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed Jones died Monday morning at home in New York's Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately clear.
The pioneering Jones, who was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
He cut an elegant figure late in life, with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway run of "The Gin Game" having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service of the work.
"The need to storytell has always been with us," he told The Associated Press then. "I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn't get him."
Jones created such memorable film roles as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in "Field of Dreams," the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit "The Great White Hope," the writer Alex Haley in "Roots: The Next Generation" and a South African minister in "Cry, the Beloved Country."
He was also a sought-after voice actor, expressing the villainy of Darth Vader ("No, I am your father," commonly misremembered as "Luke, I am your father"), as... Read More