On My Radar: Carol Dunn

What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?

The best is very subjective, but I really dug the m ssn g p eces experiential/digital project they did with Google Translate; it marries food and art together - two things I love.

I also loved the recent MailChimp campaign: FailChips, MailShrimp [below], JailBlimp, KaleLimp spots.

What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?

Hoverstat.es; it’s a site that showcases the coolest sites. I find myself here educating myself on a wide range of things.

What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?

Tile. I didn’t buy it, but a co-worker, after having only worked together for five months, got it for me in our holiday gift exchange. Tile helps you find lost keys, wallet, purse, phone, etc…. I lose them all.

What’s your favoured social media platform?

Highly unoriginal but, Instagram.

What’s your favourite app on your phone?

I don’t really have a favourite on my phone. I use IG a lot, as well as WAZE, but there is a web app/website called Them.gifts, which helps me find thoughtful gifts to purchase.

What’s your favourite TV show and why?

Chewing Gum [above]. A British sit-com centred around a 20-something black shop girl who is on an awkward, comedic quest to break her virginity.

What film do you think everyone should have seen and why?

A Spike Lee Joint called Do The Right Thing [below]. The movie is the perfect snapshot of a moment in a diverse neighbourhood where attitudes bubble over and people start acting instead of thinking.

We’re living in a moment right now where people feel empowered to express negative attitudes and biases that are being steered by prejudice, but Do The Right Thing tells us simply, in the title, without even seeing the first scene to DO THE RIGHT THING. It’s not that hard.

Where were you when inspiration last struck?

Having dinner with my 29-year-old son in Bed-Stuy when I missed my plane home. He is a millennial. He and his closest friends went to Rhode Island School of Design. They are all exploding with ideas on how to make the world a more inclusive place through art - be that visual, technical or otherwise.

A lot of them are wrongly dubbed lazy and entitled when what they really are is innovative and irrational. They are unwilling to take no for an answer and have to forge their own trail in order to execute what a lot would see as the most outrageous ideas.

What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it? 

Fear. There are WAY too many pieces of offensive film that get produced that, had someone been brave enough to raise the red flag in the initial brainstorm session, would not have been made. Conversely, there are a ton of great ideas that don’t see the light of day because people are afraid to push the envelope.

What or who has most influenced your career and why?

Jimmy Iovine [above]. I began my career in music and I worked with him at Interscope Records. One day after a meeting in his office, he could tell I was not myself. He asked me to hold back as we were all exiting. He sat me across from him and asked me, “What’s going on?” As I began to share, he stopped me, called out to his two assistants and told them to hold all his calls. This, mind you, was in the midst of the Eminem/Snoop Dog/Deathrow Records era.

I will never forget his kindness and ability to turn off the world outside to take a personal moment with me. I’ve taken that note with me into my career and leadership role. I believe that mindfulness and reacting on a human level has helped me go further. I would also suggest the book Radical Candor for any leader or manager looking to be their most effective self.

Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.

From 18-to-20-years-old, I played in a steel drum band called The Harmonics every weekend. During my last year in the band, we closed the first set with Lionel Ritchie’s All Night Long and opened the second set with singing Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It.