Best in class: The mom at the heart of Quinn Katherman’s ad for SmartyPants vitamins did not come to make friends. Rejecting the “everyone’s a winner” concept of modern kids’ events, she came to actually win with trash talk and wellness tips—a refreshingly honest look at today’s hypercompetitive parenting scene.
Meet Tami: Because it’s time we stopped being too serious—without getting too coy—in ads for period products, agency Grey trusted Katherman to bring to life Tampax’s new spokesperson, Tami.
Modern sensibility: From Cardi B’s Super Bowl plug for Nyx Duck Plump to a hit Progressive commercial that didn’t feature Flo, Katherman’s sense of humor spares no one while feeling like sharing a laugh with a friend.
Rodrigo Inada
Partizan
Revealing portraits: When you need a world built that feels real but also just a little bit different from reality, you turn to Rodrigo Inada. The Japanese-Brazilian director likes to challenge ordinary moments through camerawork and technical wizardry to reveal the surreal lying just beneath.
Another world: Inada is a landscape artist, both in crafting dreamy settings for Spanish lager Cruzcampo and delving into inner worlds, like the glimpse of tennis star Coco Gauff’s off-court life for Ray Ban Meta AI glasses and Arlo Parks’ creative process for Dazed x Converse.
Breakout moment: With creative partner Nono Ayuso, Inada traced the epic trek from Nigeria to Greece to the U.S. of NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo for Whatsapp. The 12-minute documentary film, Naija Odyssey, was released on Amazon Prime in 2022 and won three bronze Clios.
Ryan Coogler
Genre master: Boasting a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is a feat for any film, but Sinners is a supernatural thriller that also brought in gangsters, blues music, and racism in the Mississippi Delta. The film notably made 20% of its ticket sales on IMAX screens, helping to revive interest in large-format production.
