Indie Filmmakers Join The Ad World

Why The Duplass Brothers Are Opening Donut, A New Creative Shop For Brands. 

- Kristina Monllos

Over a decade ago, Mark and Jay Duplass made waves in the independent filmmaking world with their down-to-earth, low-budget approach. Now the brothers behind HBO’s short-lived Togetherness and the upcoming anthology comedy Room 104, as well as films like Blue Jay for Netflix—they’re prolific—are moving into the ad space with Donut, a new Los Angeles-based creative shop that will produce branded entertainment.

The Duplass brothers have partnered with ad veterans Nigel Lopez-McBean (Donut’s engagement director) and Charlie Leahy (Donut’s creative director), the team behind Optus’ Cannes Lion-winning work for Netflix: simple, humorous spots featuring Ricky Gervais breaking the fourth wall and talking about why he decided to do the ads, which introduced Netflix to Australia. Lopez-McBean previously worked for brands like Hendrick’s Gin, Citibank, Harley-Davidson and Honda and most recently served as director of social marketing and creative services at Optus. Leahy has held senior creative positions at shops like Ensemble and Emotive.

Adweek caught up with the team to ask why indie filmmakers would want to get into the ad business.

You guys have a film deal with Netflix and a TV deal with HBO. You’re busy. Why do you want to launch a creative shop to work with brands?