John Mescall is ending nearly a decade as New York-based global executive creative director at McCann Worldgroup and president of the McCann global creative leadership council. Mescall transferred to New York to take up the role in 2014
He announced his departure on LinkedIn with these words, “So it’s the end of something that was very special. I can’t help but think about all the great people I was lucky enough to work with on this ride. And now, on to whatever’s next.”
Javier Campopiano, will join the agency in September as chief creative officer of both the McCann Worldgroup network and the McCann agency, and will take on the role of president of McCann’s global creative leadership council.
Mescall was chief creative officer of McCann Australia from October 2011 until September 2014. He was responsible for the phenomenon Dumb Ways to Die, the campaign for Metro trains Melbourne that made McCann Australia the most awarded agency in 2013. Among its myriad of awards that year were five Grands Prix and 18 Gold Lions at the Cannes Lions, a Black Pencil & 2 Yellow Pencils at D&AD, 15 Golds at LIA, 10 Gold Pencils at the AWARD Awards, 2 Grands Prix at Cresta, 7 Grands Prix at Spikes (plus Agency of the year for McCann Australia), 3 Golds at the One Show, the Grand Award at NYF, 3 Gold Clios and the Grand Lotus for Film plus 3 Golds at AdFest. It also became part of popular culture in several iterations.
Under Mescall’s leadership, McCann Australia won more than 200 awards across 15 globally recognised campaigns, including Dumb Ways To Die for Metro Trains, Impossible Orchestra for the federal government, Guilt Trips for V/Line and the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation’s 100-Day Challenge.
Prior to joining McCann, Mescall was partner and executive creative director of SMART (which was acquired by McCann Worldgroup in 2011), one of the most successful and progressive independent agencies in Australia.
His work has been featured in TED’s Ads Worth Spreading initiative, the only Australian work to ever be selected.
