Brands & Merch Business News

Alicia Keys is still Blackberry’s Global Creative Director (until the end of the month)

By | Published on Saturday 4 January 2014

Alicia Keys

So, apparently Alicia Keys’ ‘job’ as ‘Global Creative Director’ for Blackberry lasted beyond the press conference where it was announced. In fact, she’ll still be turning up and clocking in right up to the end of the month, when her contract officially comes to an end.

As previously reported, Blackberry announced in January 2013 that it had taken on Keys to help promote its Blackberry 10 range of phones. She was charged with convincing people that the mobile devices were just as much for creative types as they were for dull old business people. But this week the struggling phone company announced that a year-long contract with the self-confessed “iPhone junky” had come to an end.

In a statement the company said: “BlackBerry and Alicia Keys have completed our year-long collaboration. We thank Alicia for her many contributions including providing creative direction for the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project which attracted more than 40 million visits, advocating for women in STEM and launching the BlackBerry Scholars Program. We have enjoyed the opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and passionate individual”.

Last month it emerged that Blackberry had once turned down the opportunity to have Justin Bieber as a brand ambassador for relatively little money, early in his ascendency. Execs at the company deemed his popularity as nothing more than a passing fad and turned him away.

Keys’ departure from the company comes as it attempts to overcome its recent run of bad fortune, brought on by the popularity of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system. In November the company announced that it had secured $1 billion of private investment, concluding a strategic review launched in August.



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