Marketing a movie is always work—especially when it’s about a wholly dishonorable Wall Street operator in the go-go ’80s. Josh Greenstein was up to the challenge. Since 2011, he has served as CMO of Paramount Pictures, which distributed Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in North America and Japan.
The FCC could be close to a long overdue review of media ownership rules come March, and there’s bad news for media owners: Early indications are that the new chairman Tom Wheeler is likely to propose tightening them. Backed by his fellow Democrats, Wheeler isn’t expected to loosen the rules but rather firm them up even more, which will no doubt bring strong opposition from TV broadcasters and newspapers, and will split any vote along party lines.
The revamping of Grey San Francisco continues with the hire of Curt Detweiler as chief creative officer of the WPP agency. Detweiler was most recently the S.F.-based evp, managing director and ECD of Arnold Worldwide. Detweiler is Grey’s second major West Coast appointment, following the recruitment of Milan Martin as president last May. In October, the agency parted ways with ECD Jack Fund. Detweiler’s CCO role is new.
The new face of Jim Beam, the iconic bourbon brand, might not be quite what you expect. While a rough-around-the-edges cowboy or country rock star might seem to fit the bill—Jim Beam has used Kid Rock at times in the past—its newest spokesperson is the petite and beautiful Mila Kunis. The 30-year-old actress, who says she is a big fan of bourbon in general, is featured in two new 30-second Beam ads, as well as five other videos ranging in length from 15 seconds to more than three minutes.
How does the world's oldest tequila maker introduce a brand-spanking-new website? By keeping one foot firmly in the past. McCann New York has launched a new site for Jose Cuervo that's actually five sites in one. In addition to its new site for 2014, the brand also imagines what the brand website would have looked like in 1795, 1880, 1945 and 1974.
Hey, it's filmmaker Jason Headley! You might remember him from such short films as "It's Not About the Nail," and now he's lampooning the "It Gets Better" project with this mock PSA from people who peaked in high school. "It Doesn't Get Better" has its moments—the IROC-Z guy and the brunette have great delivery—but it showed up kinda late to the party and isn't quite clever enough to compensate for that. Also, the whole nerdy teen/yacht owner thing almost never happens in reality.
Philly-based ad agency Red Tettemer O'Connell + Partners is back to carving likeness of its new employees, but it's graduated from crayons to wooden totem poles. The details of the faces are pretty rough in both mediums, but the new material is clearly more forgiving—if less endearingly weird. Still, particularly lucky hires get adorable paper-doll versions of themselves. It could be an apt bit of foreshadowing, as a career in the industry might leave them feeling flattened, or square anyways.
Meet Domestic Abuse Barbie, a doll that will not be modeling for Sports Illustrated or appearing in toy stores anytime soon.
CeeLo Green may be flaking on The Voice, but a new sponsorship deal ensures that fans of NBC’s musical competition series won’t be left scratching their heads.
Papa John's has completed its search for a new lead creative agency. Grey has landed the business, beating back competition from BBDO, Arnold and Doner, the pizza chain has confirmed. The brand's annual media spending totals about $120 million. The new agency succeeds Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which did not defend. Zimmerman, however, continues to plan and buy all media for Papa John's and create franchisee and co-operative advertising. Neither of those assignments were in play.
