A handful of 50: (From left) AKQA's Rei Inamoto, CAA Marketing's Jesse Coulter, Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca-Cola (seated), Smuggler's Patrick Milling Smith, Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code, R/GA's Nick Law, Smuggler's Brian Carmody and Damian Kulash of OK Go, taken on the stage of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, home of the Tony-awarded Broadway musical "Once". Photograph by David Yellen
Welcome to the 2012 Creativity 50--our eighth installment of the year's 50(+) most influential and groundbreaking creative thinkers and doers, representing a broad spectrum of disciplines. Over the last year, their contributions have shifted the creative landscape in advertising, art, business, technology, pop culture and more, making the world a much more invigorating, entertaining, caring, innovative--and overall, better place.
Among them, you'll find those carrying out the legacy of a brand synonymous with happiness, the production pros who translated their lessons from the commercials world to a Tony-winning Broadway hit, the agency-turned gaming boss who proved that creative skills are incredibly useful--and lucrative--in the CEO seat, talents who bridge the gap between branding and entertainment, an aspiring politician who has taken on the charge of steering more young women toward careers in technology and more. While you may recognize a number of this year's inductees, we trust that you'll find many surprises as well. But most important, we're hoping you come away more inspired, and more excited to make your own bold ideas happen.
New Era Marketers
Linda Boff, Paul Marcum and Katrina Craigwell, GE
Leslie Berland, American Express
Jonathan Mildenhall and Pio Schunker, Coca-Cola
Martijn Van Der Zee, KLM Airlines
Jesse Coulter, Jae Goodman, David Messinger, CAA Marketing
Youna Chung, Youbin Bang, Yeonjoo Lee and Misu Yi, Cheil
Maxi Itzkoff and Mariano Serkin, Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi
Ted Royer and Nik Studzinski, Droga5
Glenn Cole, John Boiler, Robert Nakata, Matt Jarvis, 72andSunny
Roberta Paixao, Gustavo Fortes, Cleber Martins, Espalhe Guerilla Marketing The Entertainers
Lena Dunham, Director/Writer/Producer
Production Pros
Brian Carmody and Patrick Milling Smith, Smuggler/Once
Graydon Sheppard, Director/Comedian
Petter Westlund, Anders Wahlquist, Pelle Nilsson, B-Reel
World Changers
Graham Douglas, Copywriter/Problem Solver
Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code
Olajide Williams, Hip Hop Public Health
Technology and Invention
Suran Goonatilake, Bodymetrics
Babak Parviz, Google Project Glass
Ryder Ripps and Jonathan Vingiano, OKFocus
Ben Silberman and Evan Sharp, Pinterest
Gaming Giants
Publishing Game-Changers
Richard Turley, Bloomberg Businessweek
Art/Design/Style
