Hasta La Creative!

Ten high school students, many of whom spent years in shelters or lost their parents, are ready to take on the next big challenge: college.

Himanshu Kumar Suri recently joined AGW Group, the Brooklyn-based culture marketing and integrated communications agency that also handles PR for Mother, as a creative strategist. Suri is better known by his rap alias Heems, as a member of Das Racist, Swet Shop Boys and as a solo artist.

But his position doesn’t appear to be just an empty celebrity title a la Matthew McConaughey. He reportedly works at the office alongside his coworkers at the Brooklyn office full-time.

“I genuinely want to be in an office five days a week, learning from people around me who have skills that I don’t,” Suri told Fast Company earlier this month. “I know a lot of musicians and artists end up working with agencies in [a part-time] capacity, but for me, it’s really about being there every day.”

That doesn’t mean he’s giving up his other career, however.

“At some point last year, I had decided that, alongside working on my music, I wanted to transition into the world of advertising and marketing, and how brands engage with artists,” he added, noting that most of the money such artists make is all about advertising in the first place.

The hire resulted from a December meeting with AGW Group co-founder Adam Gorode, who told Fast Company that his agency has had trouble finding people to link artists and clients “because it takes a certain mind frame.”

Suri began his role the following month.

He’s not entirely new to the agency world, by the way. In the past he’s worked as an influencer on campaigns by Wieden + Kennedy and Cornerstone.

Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Wednesday, March 8:

The FBI, the CIA … and TBS too? (See No. 6, below.) Clearly, every private conversation by everyone everywhere is being monitored. Have you been bad? Or good? Either way, it’s getting marked on your permanent record. (So be good for goodness sake.) Anyway, let’s get started …

1. The Guardian is liveblogging International Women’s Day 2017 “as events take place around the world to mark the ongoing fight for equality.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Director James Frost has signed to Rattling Stick’s global roster, after running his own production company, Honey Badger, for several years. According to statement, Frost decided “it was the right time to forego the duality of being a filmmaker while running a business and refocus solely on creativity.” Frost has worked with brands such as Nike, Mercedes Benz, American Express, Ford, The Gap and AT&T as well as artists such as Radiohead, OK Go, and Coldplay. He has won many awards, including at D&AD, AICP, LIA and Epica, in addition to having nominations at the Grammys, MTV VMAs, Billboard Awards, the Brits and Cannes.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

When Eric Reynolds talks about brand building, you pay attention. As the CMO of Clorox Company — and a CMO Club Marketing Innovation Award-winner — Reynolds is leading the charge for household names like Brita and Burt’s Bees, directing his teams to give their brands new life “in a nimble, studio-focused, team way.”

With Brita, for example, Reynolds drove a strategic reimagining of the brand amid apparent stagnation in the water filtration category. By leaning on new data — and perhaps even more heavily on human storytelling — his team eventually tied Brita to the act of filtering out negativity in The Filtered Life, a campaign that is currently tackling online bullying in partnership with NBA star Steph Curry. With Burt’s Bees, Reynolds and his team are using the same elements of data and a strong story to drive sales, including automated, weather-based media-buying for the brand’s lip balm.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. It’s also A Day Without a Woman, a strike organized by the group behind the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., to “act together for equity, justice and human rights of women and all gender-oppressed people, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity.” But what does that actually look…

-Invisible Man, a venture led by WPP/Team BAC CCO Rachel Howald, created this amusing short “Anywhere But Here” for International Women’s Day.

-On that note, a recent Engine study found that most women don’t like advertising at all. But More About Advertising had some quibbles with their methodology given that stuff still gets bought.

-Adweek examines what agencies are doing to support “A Day Without A Woman” today.

-The annual Battle of the Ad Bands is coming to Chicago in June. Start practicing your best best Eddie Vedder impression.

-Over 33% of U.K. ad spend will go to mobile this year.

-JWT London launched a “That Moment When…” initiative celebrating female role models.

-The IPA released a list of advertising’s “game changers” from the past 100 years.

-The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned ads from Black Cow vodka for associating alcohol with sex, encouraging excessive drinking.

Several publications, quoting a satirical New Yorker piece as factual, reported a frantic President Trump, in a bathrobe, fearing possible eavesdropping.