180LA, which most recently made news with its “Rickroll” campaign for Virgin Mobile and the loss of its AOR status on Adidas Sport, hired two seasoned ad men as its newest creative directors.
In news first broken yesterday, we learned that David Povill and Dave Cuccinello (whose names shall not be confused with one another) will run the Mitsubishi account in addition to “whatever else [180LA wants to] throw at them.”
Povill (portfolio here) — who is one of the few who can legitimately claim to have worked on both VW and Old Spice — joins 180 after spending less than a year in his second stint at Deutsch LA, where he worked as a copywriter and creative director.
His resume, as most readers will know, includes time spent writing for some of the industry’s biggest names: CP+B, TBWA, David&Goliath, and Wieden+Kennedy (which supposedly signed him on the strength of the Volkswagen work).
Cuccinello (portfolio here) followed a similar trajectory on the art direction side, working at Havas, BBH, and DDB before joining David&Goliath in the late 00’s. He most recently held the GCD position at Grey New York, where he ran the Volvo, Crown Royal, and Canon accounts.
The two simultaneously worked at David&Goliath, and Povill tells Little Black Book:
“We’ve shared a wall, but this is the first time we’ve actually been able to physically see each other. I always respected his work though and when I heard he was coming to 180LA too, I knew it was the right move.”