Commentary

TBWA\MAL Adds Agency A-Leaguer To Its Social Purpose Unit

TBWA\Media Arts Lab formed a cause-related unit a few years back called MAL\For Good. It was launched by Lee Clow, who needs no introduction. He has always challenged the industry to use its creative skills to contribute to society in a meaningful way — beyond hawking products for clients (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). 

Now the unit, known as MFG, has added some major management firepower — naming Julia Porter Plowman as managing director. 

Plowman’s credentials are somewhat intimidating. 

She’s a former Wieden + Kennedy Global Group Account Director who created award-winning campaigns for Nike, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Old Spice, Electronic Arts and Audi. Since leaving the agency a decade ago, she has pursued a commitment to social enterprise and innovation, starting with the Nike Foundation.

There, she helped launch “The Girl Effect,” a multiplatform campaign promoting investment in adolescent girls in the developing world to break the cycle of global poverty.  

Plowman was subsequently named COO of the nonprofit World Pulse, which she helped turn into a social-media network that supports and advocates for grassroots women leaders. Later, she became managing director of the social-innovation design startup Context Partners.

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Just before joining MFG, Plowman was director of integration and communications at Providence Health & Services, the third-largest not-for-profit health system in the country. 

At MFG, Plowman will be working alongside the shop’s global creative president Duncan Milner to plot the next steps of this social impact agency. 

“Today, brands need to have more than just a point of view on what’s happening in the world,” stated Clow. “A brand’s values need to be part of their brand behavior and message. Julia and Duncan leading MFG, uniquely positions us. They combine a deep understanding of ‘social impact’ marketing with a world-class history of brand building and storytelling. They’ll do good.” 

For those who want a deeper dive into the offering, here’s a site where you can read more about the shop’s mission and its new “manifesto.”  I hate that word. It sounds so overwrought and highfalutin. And sort of pseudo-intellectual. Plus, it reminds me of Ted Kaczynski, who, as we all know, was up to no good for many years. (He actually killed an agency guy in the town where I misspent part of my youth.) 

Why can’t they just call it a mission statement? Whatever. Coming from MFG, it seems genuine and well-intentioned.

 

1 comment about "TBWA\MAL Adds Agency A-Leaguer To Its Social Purpose Unit ".
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  1. Darren Mitchell from TBWA/Chiat/Day NY, August 3, 2017 at 9:29 a.m.

    Pretty sure his name is Lee CLOW....

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