Creative agency Fortnight Collective teamed up with a collection of local Boulder breweries to create “Colorado Care Can,” an assortment of community-crafted beers whose sales will support The Colorado Healing Fund, helping those directly impacted by the Boulder supermarket tragedy.

The CO Care Can will be available at the taprooms of the breweries that will also include a QR code to take consumers directly to the Colorado Healing Fund, sold alongside tote bags with a similar design. 100% of the proceeds will go to the fund.

Fortnight Collective brainstormed and ideated with the breweries on 14 design ideas. Ultimately, the “CO Care Can” was selected, featuring the Colorado state flag at half-mast along with 10 stars in a circular pattern representing the 10 victims. The flag waves in such a way that it distorts the center “CO” icon into a heart.

“As a proud Coloradan, it’s upsetting to see the Boulder community in pain,” says Andy Nathan, CEO of Fortnight Collective. “While we can’t take the hurt away after this tragedy, we know how important it is to come together to show compassion. Through this design, we wanted to communicate our respect for the victims and give back to them, while also empowering our tight-knit community which comes together in the face of tragedy.”

The breweries involved include: Upslope Brewing Company, Oskar Blues Brewing, Left Hand Brewing, Sanitas Brewing Co., Bootstrap Brewing Co. and Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery.

One step closer

MDC Partners has announced to shareholders that a meeting for investors to vote on its merger plans with Stagwell will be held virtually on June 22. The deal, which was first proposed in June of last year, is expected to close on or around June 30, shortly after completing necessary transaction steps, an MDC spokeswoman confirmed after its earnings call earlier this month.

Dentsu’s first DE&I report

Dentsu Americas released its first diversity equity and inclusion report which shows improvement compared to last year but a long road ahead for the holding company as it maps out its goals and strategies for improving its diversity efforts.

Some key goals for Dentsu are to have women represent 50% of its executive leadership (currently at 36%) by 2025, as well as 30% multicultural representation in the U.S. (currently at 27%), including 25% of executive leadership roles (currently slightly over 20%) by the same year. According to the 39-page report, compared to last year, Dentsu Americas has seen marginal improvements in Black leadership and a small increase in Asian employee representation for the entire U.S, whereas Hispanic and Latinx representation has mostly remained flat across the board.

“We spent most of last year building a foundation, Christina Pyle, chief equity officer of Dentsu Americas told Ad Age. “We were always realistic about numbers and we are very proud of the work we did over the past year, knowing that it was thoughtful, intentional and built to be sustainable and scaled.” 

Recently, Dentsu has made a number of key hires that show a shift in commitment to diversity in its leadership positions.

Last April, the agency brought on Wendy Clark, formerly global CEO of DDB Worldwide, as its new global CEO. In August, Dentsu hired Pyle as its first chief equity officer for the Americas, after previously serving as an executive director of advertising at Time’s Up, a charity formed in the wake of the #MeToo movement. And in April of this year, Dentsu brought on Kai Deveraux Lawson as senior VP, diversity, equity, and inclusion, for the network’s creative service line in the Americas, which includes agencies such as 360i, Dentsumcgarrybowen, Firstborn and Isobar. Most recently, Dentsu hired Kedma Pognon Brown, who spent 25 years with Publicis Groupe, as chief operating officer for its Americas media service line, consisting of Carat, iProspect and Dentsu X powered by 360i.

States embrace their culture

To celebrate National BBQ Month, Austin-based creative agency Proof is teaming up with Travel Texas (the tourism office for the state of Texas) for an integrated social and digital campaign, coined “It’s Not May. It’s BBQ Month.” The campaign includes: a TikTok video series called “Pitmaster Ponderings,” which features a host of renowned Texas Pitmasters that will also run on Facebook and Instagram stories through May; a series of TikTok videos paying homage to different memes on the platform; and a “Texas BBQ Month Cookbook,” released in partnership with Texas Monthly.

Chicago-based agency O'Keefe Reinhard & Paul teamed up with the Illinois Office of Tourism to launch the state’s first campaign since the onset of COVID-19. The campaign, which will showcase different attractions that Illinois has to offer, will run on TV, radio, digital and print media, and highway billboards, spanning 18 markets, with ads also available in Spanish.

“After an incredibly difficult year in which the pandemic kept us all close to home and staying apart, life-saving vaccines are bringing us back to life and heading toward a summer of fun and venturing out,” Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement. “I’m proud to launch the Time for Me to Drive Campaign—inviting people to see all of Illinois, showing off adventures of all kinds.”

Changes in creative leadership

Havas Chicago has appointed a new chief creative cfficer, Myra Nussbaum, replacing John Norman, who is slated to leave today to pursue “new creative endeavors,” according to a spokeswoman for Havas. Nussbaum, who has more than 15 years of experience in the industry, comes from Leo Burnett Chicago, where she was executive vreative officer for a year. Prior to that, she served as senior VP, group creative director, at DDB Chicago for nearly four years.

BBH New York has brought on two new group creative directors. Kaisa Canning most recently served as a creative director for 72andSunny, where she ran its Carl's Jr./Hardee's and Grubhub accounts. Prior to that she worked with brands like Little Caesars and Bob's Discount Furniture at Barton F. Graf, and led the rebrand of MassMutual at Johannes Leonardo. 

Estefanio Holtz most recently, served as a VP creative director at McCann NY. The expansion of the creative department follows the recent solidification of the BBH NY leadership team, which includes President Amani Duncan, Chief Creative Officer Rafael Rizuto and Chief Strategy Officer Tom Callard. “I couldn't be more excited to welcome the dream team, Kasia Canning and Estefanio Holtz, to our flock,” Rizuto said. “We have incredible momentum at BBH New York right now, and I'm beyond happy to have them joining us.” 

The&Partnership is bringing on Hannah Fishman as its chief creative officer for North America. She previously served as an executive creative director for Grey, overseeing work for clients like P&G, Walgreens, GSK, and TJ Max. This is a new role for the agency, following the departure of Justin Ruben, who served as chief creative officer of its New York office for two years, and departed to move back to Australia, a spokesman for The&Partnership confirmed. 

Account wins

Portland-based agency Via was named Make-A-Wish International’s creative agency for its 2021-2022 campaign launch. According to a statement from the agency, Via is going to help Make-A-Wish “establish a stronger presence and educate a new segment of prospective donors about how their donations will help heal critically ill children around the world.” The first campaign is expected to launch this July.

Knoxville-based independent agency Tombras has been named social media agency of record for Mozilla, working on Firefox and Pocket brands.

Subculture, a subsidiary of luxury global marketing agency Issa PR, has been appointed agency of record for DecideAndAct, a new responsible, high-quality Swiss watch company that launches this month.

The Community, an agency based in Argentina with offices in the U.S., has been named the new U.S. Hispanic agency of record for Volkswagen. This is the second big car account win for the agency in the past two months. In February, Porsche Latin America tapped The Community as its new AOR, as reported by AdLatina.

Education Matters

BBDO NY has partnered with the NYC Department of Education to form ADiverse, which is an initiative dedicated to instilling passion for advertising and marketing within diverse talent at NYC public high schools that have large BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) populations.

Deutsch NY has announced the two winners of its Deutsch NY’s Fund the Change mentorship and scholarship opportunity. High School graduates Waverly Johnson from Brooklyn and Michael Barclay from Chicago were chosen out of a pool of 800 students and will receive year-round mentorship opportunities and paid summer internships at Deutsch NY, as well as an annual $10,000 renewable merit scholarship for four years at the School of Visual Arts.

The One Club called on the industry to sign its paid internship pledge, “urging agencies, brands, ad schools and other organizations to step up and help support workplace equity,” according to a statement. Founding signees included Cartwright, Collins, The Community, Design Army, Edelman, FCB Worldwide, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, The Martin Agency, School of Visual Arts, R/GA, Sid Lee and Wieden+Kennedy, as well as The One Club. 

Upon signing the form, agencies and brands can upload their logos to be displayed on the page on The One Club website, and provide a link to paid internships they offer.

Just briefly

Adam & Eve is merging its two content and production teams, Cain & Abel and Gutenberg Global, to form a large-scale creative production agency. The new, combined operation will be rolled out under the Cain & Abel brand, and its leadership team will report directly to Adam & Eve/DDB’s Joint Group CEOs, Tammy Einav and Mat Goff. 

Chemistry has promoted Taylor Guglielmo, formerly an executive VP group account director, to a newly created role of chief growth officer, where she will be responsible for leading new business efforts for the agency’s Atlanta and Pittsburgh offices. 

Northwell Health is teaming up with Rogers & Cowan PMK to bring back its “Side By Side: Celebration of Service campaign” during Memorial Day weekend, which will include a pre-taped benefit concert with live performances by the Northwell Nurse Choir, and singers Gavin DeGraw and Ne-Yo, as well as a virtual performance by Katy Perry. The live performances will be performed in front of a small crowd of military personnel and nurses who are vaccinated against COVID-19.

“A lot of my family was in the military, so this hits close to home for me, it is my way of honoring them too,” DeGraw told Ad Age. “Being back in New York City to perform is really special as well. It feels really good to play live again. Plus, as a native New Yorker, there’s a special place in my heart for what these people are providing.