TBWA/Chiat Day

Jayanta Jenkins, who you may remember as our “Hot Ad (W0)Man of the Day” at some point in 2008, has been promoted to global creative director on TBWA\Chiat\Day LA’s much-lauded Gatorade account. Last we remember, Jenkins was the creative director on the “G” spot from April featuring Serena Williams and Kevin Durant. His underlings will be Brent Anderson and Steve Howard, who were promoted from CDs to GCDs on the global and U.S. Gatorade account.

Jenkins joined Chiat LA after spending seven years as a senior AD at Wieden + Kennedy, where he worked on campaigns starring LeBron James as well as other Nike work. Prior to that, he served as an art director for nearly four years at the Martin Agency. As for new GCD Howard, he co-created the award-winning “Replay” work for Gatorade and worked on Nissan and Visa along with Anderson.

TBWA\Chiat\Day LA also hired Almap BBDO alums Renato Fernandez and Gustavo Sarkis as ACDs on Gatorade. Chiat LA’s CCO Rob Schwartz speaks from the heart of the appointments/promotions in a statement, saying,  “Brent, Steve and Jay are three of the smartest and most modern creatives in the business. Brent and Steve’s work, in particular on Gatorade Replay, is one of the most awarded ideas ever. Their passion and ideas for Gatorade and TBWA will continue to keep us on the cutting edge. It’s a testament to the bench strength of TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles when the people we’d typically search the world for are right here in Los Angeles.”

For those of you who’ve never wandered around TBWA\Chiat\Day LA’s admittedly nifty, dog-friendly office space and needed some musical accompaniment to help you explore, here’s a quick snapshot. Of course, Lee Clow and Rob Schwartz make an appearance in this clip that tries to show us how Chiat LA’s culture inspires its creativity. So, is this a recruitment video or what?

(h/t LA Egotist)

We’re still getting details, but for those of you who were wondering, Kerry Feuerman is no longer with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, which he joined alongside Jimmy Smith just over three years ago and eventually served as global creative director on Infiniti. When he was originally hired, Feuerman entered the Playa del Rey, CA-based office as GCD on Nissan/Infiniti, but now, it appears he’s left to freelance and run his own ideally named operation, FeuermanCreative.

During his early days, Feuerman spent 13 years at Martin Agency, where he worked on other automotive accounts including Mercedes-Benz and Saab and last served as vice-chairman/GCD at the Richmond, VA-based operation. Along with the Martin and Chiat tenure, Feuerman also had creative stints at Leo Burnett (nine months) and Fallon (13 months).

Looks like the allure of leading U.S. planning efforts for Pepsi at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA wasn’t enough to keep Clyde McKendrick aboard as the group planning director has left the agency to take on the executive strategy director post at WDCW L.A. The U.K. native was one of three new planning hires at Chiat LA last August along with Neil Saunders and Modernista! alum Catherine Heath.

WDCW, of course, is the agency formerly known as Wongdoody and its CEO Ben Weiner says of the shop’s new hire, “We’re all thrilled to have Clyde join us at this exciting stage of our agency evolution. He brings an intuitive sense for building brands which is crucial to our vision of being an agency at the forefront of cultural innovation.”

As for background, McKendrick is a 15-year strategy vet who not only founded London-based The Open Consultancy but is also creator and editor of “cultural insight” firm MILK.

Lee Clow and the gang at TBWA have gotten involved with raising money for Japan by launching their own effort called “Give a Shit, Get a T-Shirt.” While Grey chose the auction route and BBH decided to sweat it out in order to help the disaster-hit nation, the TBWA camp is offering a T-shirt featuring artwork by LA-based graphic designer/visual artist Geoff McFetridge in exchange for a $20 donation.

The “Give a Shit” site tells you how to take part and includes some brief, peculiar clips starring Clow himself (sporting the tee above), TBWA\MAL CCO Duncan Milner and TBWA CEO Tom Carroll.

Former Ogilvy New York ECD Aaron Griffiths, who you may remember from the CGI-enhanced Fanta spot as of late, has joined up with TBWA\Chiat\Day NY as a creative director. Now at Chiat NY, Griffiths will be be responsible for the Vonage and Michelin among other accounts. During his five years at Ogilvy, Griffiths worked on other accounts besides Fanta including IBM (worldwide CD for that) and Kodak.

Joining him at Chiat NY is Andy Nathan, who is taking on the role of managing director after spending well over three years as VP/group account director at CP+B and was partly responsible for the “I Am a PC” campaign. Nathan’s resume also includes account roles  at BBH, DDB and a partner/management supervisor role at Ogilvy.

Our good pals at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA follow up their recent hire of Crispin alum Matt Bonin with several promotions within the creative department including the appointment of Olivier Rabenschlag as first-ever group creative director of Media Arts. The creative, who has been with Chiat LA for nearly three years, will still maintain his CD title for Activision, Infiniti and the Grammys.

During his time at the agency, he’s had his hand in “There’s a Soldier in All of Us,” the “MusicisLifeisMusic” campaign for the aforementioned awards show, the Nissan Leaf iAd and played a key role in Chiat LA winning the global Visa pitch. Apparently Rabenschlag is ahead of his time according to a statement from TBWA\Chiat\Day LA CCO Rob Schwartz, who says, “He lives two years ahead of all of us. Fortunately, he’s willing to share the future with those of us living here in 2011.”

In addition to Rabenschlag, Chiat LA promoted Becca Morton and Gage Clegg to GCDs on Pedigree, PUR and Visa Olympics, Patrick Condo and Bob Rayburn to CDs on Infiniti and last but not least, Goodby alum Will Hammond to global CD on Visa. Hammond, who joined TBWA\Chiat\Day LA in the fall of 2009, most recently served as U.S. creative director on the Visa account.

Eliza Esquivel‘s bound for a good weekend as TBWA\Chiat\Day NY has promoted her to planning director of the Omnicom-owned agency. Esquivel, who has been with Chiat NY for two-and-a-half years give or take previously served as group planning director for Starburst and Skittles as well as newer business wins including Kahlua and McDonald’s.

Prior to joining TBWA\Chiat\Day, Esquivel was a planning director at W+K Amsterdam for two years and spent four as a partner senior account planner at JWT. During her pre-Chiat career, Esquivel worked on global brands including Coke, Pfizer, Cadbury and Nike Women for Europe. One of her more recent side projects was a white paper penned last year for AdAge called “Social Activism 2.0,” which outlined a model for brands which target young adults to communicate social responsibility. If you have $99 to fork over, it’s yours.

After a few short-lived stints at both Goodness Mfg./Trailer Park and Tool of North America, Matt Bonin is now headed to TBWA\Chiat\Day LA to take on the newly created role of executive director of integration.

If you recall, Bonin joined Tool as an EP in June of last year after spending mere months at the merged Goodness operation. The ad exec is perhaps best known, though, for his efforts while at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he served as a VP/head of video and worked on projects including MINI Cooper “Counterfeit,” BK’s “Xbox Games” and Microsoft’s “I’m a PC.”

In a statement regarding the new hired, TBWA\Chiat\Day LA president Carisa Bianchi says, “Matt’s appointment will strengthen our ability to deliver big ‘Disruptive’ ideas across all media forms and enable us to continue to create value and further amplify the behavior of the brands we work for.”

If you’ve seen 8 Mile, you know that life on the streets of Detroit isn’t easy (just look at what happened to BBDO there). Based on the real life story of Marshall Mathers aka Eminem, the film tells the story of a young white kid stuck in poverty who rises above adversity on his way to becoming one of the greatest rappers in history. These days, Eminem is trying to tell a new story with his 2010 album, Recovery. This next chapter follows the world’s most famous rapper as he hits rock bottom due to prescription drug abuse, legal troubles and relationship problems, later redeeming himself through his music and finding himself back on top.

Recovery didn’t quite live up to the expectations of its creator, mainly because it wasn’t that great and because Eminem is now bordering on total irrelevance (2002 might have been the “Eminem Show,” but 2010 belonged to Kanye West). Still, TBWA\Chiat\Day convinced the Grammy folks to buy into Em’s mythology (probably an easy sell considering the success of the agency’s 2010 Grammy effort), with the above spot chronicling the rapper’s life as a series of highs and lows leading up the the 53rd Grammys. As Chiat CD Bob Rayburn tells MTV, “It was important to capture (Eminem’s) struggle.”

The spot is one of three in a campaign that includes a social networking aspect, which allows users to mark milestones on life maps with musical inspiration. Eminem once said at the peak of his popularity, “You think I give a damn about a Grammy?/ A lot of you critics can’t even stomach me, let alone stand me.” Recovery is up for Album of the Year at the Grammys. Gee, you think Emimen gives a damn now?