JWT Promotes Sharfstein, Williamson

NEW YORK Jay Sharfstein and Con Williamson have been named senior partners, creative directors, new posts effective immediately, according to a J. Walter Thompson representative. Including Sharfstein and Williamson, there are now 12 senior partners, creative directors at the New York shop.

Sharfstein, 37, and Williamson, 35, were previously associate creative directors, working on accounts including Diageo’s Smirnoff. Most recently, they created “Get Out,” a Smirnoff TV spot showing a man looking out his bedroom window and seeing a crowd including Carnivale dancers, an astronaut, jockeys, geisha girls, pro wrestlers, people on stilts and others, all holding signs and yelling at him to “Get out.” In their new roles, they will oversee all Diageo accounts, including Smirnoff and Smirnoff Ice.

This is the first creative promotion Eric Steinhauser, executive creative director of JWT in New York, and Nat Whitten, deputy executive creative director, have made since being promoted to their roles in January, following the exit of chief creative officer Mike Campbell.

“The guys represent everything that we hope our New York creative department to be about. They’re … doing breakthrough work on our Diageo brands,” Steinhauser said. “With the ‘Get Out’ campaign they just created for Smirnoff, they hit a big concept and created really hip, really relevant work.”

Sharfstein, a copywriter, joined JWT in 2001. Previously, he worked at Scali, McCabe, Sloves in New York as a junior copywriter and Lowe & Partners/SMS, where he worked on accounts including Sony, Sun Microsystems and Perdue Farms. Williamson, an art director, worked at Holland Advertising in New York for clients like Sundance Film Channel and ESPN. The two became a team when they joined Fallon in New York in 2000 and worked on MTV, Time and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, among other brands. In 2001, they joined JWT as associate creative directors.