Diego Scotti, chief marketing officer of Verizon, has been named chair of the Ad Council’s Board of Directors. He succeeds Jacki Kelley, EVP, chief client officer and chief business officer, IPG. Tara Walpert Levy, VP, Americas, YouTube, currently serves as vice chair of the Ad Council’s Board of Directors and will succeed Scotti as chair in 2024.
For more than 80 years, the Ad Council has been at the forefront of driving the communications industry’s social impact efforts. Its Board of Directors is comprised of a prestigious group of senior marketing, media and business executives who provide expertise, insights and financial support to ensure the Ad Council’s social impact campaigns are effective and drive measurable change. Focused on some of the most pressing issues facing the country, the Ad Council’s Board of Directors is now working closely with the organization’s leadership to spearhead the communications industry’s efforts to address gun violence, mental health, the drug overdose epidemic, racial justice, and more.
As chair, Scotti will work in collaboration with the Executive Committee, the governing body of the Ad Council’s Board, and Ad Council leadership to further the organization’s mission of using the power of communications to address the country’s critical social issues. Additionally, Scotti will chair the Ad Council’s 2023 Annual Public Service Award Dinner, the organization’s largest annual fundraising event, on November 30, 2023.
“Diego’s unrelenting commitment to DEI and social impact has been an invaluable asset to the Ad Council and is one of the many reasons he is going to be extraordinary in his role as Board chair,” said Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “With Diego’s leadership, we will continue to convene the brightest minds and develop groundbreaking work to drive measurable change on the country’s most critical causes.”
Scotti joined the Ad Council Board of Directors in 2016, became a member of the Executive Committee in 2017, and was elected as vice chair of the Ad Council’s Board of Directors in 2020, leading the Ad Council Board’s Diversity Task Force from 2018-2021.
Scotti has been a respected leader in the advertising and media industries for over 25 years. He joined Verizon in 2014 as executive VP and CMO, overseeing all aspects of Verizon’s marketing, experience design, and brand communications across business units. Scotti is a known advocate for change and has taken action to impact both responsible business practices and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the marketing industry. In addition to the development of the Responsible Marketing Action Plan, he founded adfellows, a breakthrough marketing fellowship offering diverse, entry-level talent an integrated experience within Verizon and various brand and agency partners, with the goal of placing the fellows in full-time positions. His leadership and contributions have been consistently recognized with honors including ADCOLOR’s Catalyst Award and the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame.
With the election of Scotti, the Ad Council will continue its ongoing tradition of rotating Board chairs between the organizations’ four sectors: media companies, technology platforms, agencies and advertisers.
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More