The Rise of Chrystel Jung’s Poetic Creativity

When she began as an art director trainee at JWT Paris in 2010, Chrystel Jung admits she “knew nothing about advertising.” She’d never even heard of copywriting. “And to me, a Lion was just an animal,” she quips. Now the metal ones from Cannes sit on her shelf while she works as a creative director at BETC Paris. Over the past two years she’s got a Gold Lion and a Silver Lion for a pair of hilarious short films she wrote for CANAL+ – as well as armfuls of less leonine trophies, such as an Immortal Awards skull, an LIA figurine and a D&AD pencil.

“I'm happy to have crossed paths with Ghislain De Villoutreys, the creative director at the time, who really believed in young creatives,” she remembers, looking back on her first job in advertising. “It was incredible how he let us take briefs, come up with proactive ideas and so on. He pushed us to do it.”

Pretty soon, she’d be staying up late into the night writing proactive briefs with a young trainee copywriter she met there, Johan Tchang-Minh. “We drank beers and smoked a lot (I've since quit. Stop smoking, it's bad!). We had so much fun together that we decided to form a team,” she says. Then JWT gave them a job and that's how it all started. 

Looking back at the moment that cemented their career was Chrystel and Johan’s first big shoot in Los Angeles in 2012. They spent a whole week there, working and having fun on their first big project for Crunch (Nestlé) with French YouTube star Norman Thavaud. “At the time, we had no idea we were on the cusp of the influencer era,” she remembers, but it was a wave that Crunch managed to ride with verve, winning plenty of awards. Chrystel is sure it changed her and Johan’s careers, at least in France. 

Although she hadn’t even heard of copywriting when she began in advertising, having studied at an applied arts school in life drawing, painting, plastic arts, Photoshop, etc., Chrystel soon learned that she might have more potential flexing other creative muscles. “To be 100% honest, I quickly realised I wasn't the best art director in the world, and most importantly, I hated spending hours on Photoshop doing photomontages and mock-ups with the client's endless revisions... Gradually, I noticed I was more comfortable with conceptualising and writing ideas. And Ghislain noticed it too. One day, he said to me, ‘Chrystel, have you ever thought about being a copywriter?’ and I thought, ‘That's it, that's the solution!’ I knew I had to make the switch, but it took me years to process. I wasn't overly confident in my writing abilities and didn't know if I could pull it off.”

Chrystel’s early career featured a lot of medication briefs, especially for Bayer, and that's how she learned to write scripts, create prints and films from start to finish, and stay within a budget. “I also discovered the joys of consumer testing and the entire legal aspect,” she says. “It wasn't necessarily the most creative part of my career (though it had its moments), but clearly, it was the most educational. It's how I was able to lay the groundwork for what came next.” 

It had been about a year since a friend of hers, Nathan Brunstein, had joined her at JWT Paris. They teamed up and both worked as art directors (Chrystel still not officially calling herself a copywriter). “We tackled our daily assignments together, which wasn't easy because the subjects and clients were challenging. However, we didn't let that get us down; we always brainstormed proactive ideas that we presented to Ghislain or added to our online portfolio.”

The team also participated in competitions for young creatives. That's how one day, Olivier Apers, a creative director at BETC, found out about Chrystel and Nathan. He’d seen their portfolio during the ‘Best Yet’ (a side competition for young people as part of Eurobest) and wanted to meet them. They immediately said yes, and Chrystel says “it was an instant match with him”. He introduced them to BETC’s chief president and CCO Stéphane Xiberras, and the adventure with BETC began. 

“Looking back, it was a fantastic time,” says Chrystel. “One of the best creative directors in Paris was calling us to come work at one of the best agencies in the world; we could hardly believe it.”

That was 2014. Chrystel still called herself an art director. Nathan and she worked together as a team for about a year. “He naturally took care of the art direction (he was much better than me), while I increasingly delved into writing, feverishly.” Soon enough, Olivier had the same feeling as Ghislain: Chrystel needed to become a copywriter. 

It was around this time that Nathan left the agency to start his own company, and Chrystel met Romain Ducos, a young art director. They started working together and got along really well. It was with Romain that Chrystel finally accepted the label of copywriter. “It took me three or four years to make that decision, but it's been the best decision of my professional life. I could focus on conceptualisation and words; I no longer had to spend my life on Photoshop. Of course, with my background in art direction, I have an eye for it and can be quite critical, but it wasn't my responsibility anymore. Hallelujah.” 

During that time, being named Young Creatives of the Year with Romain gave their careers “a little boost,” as she puts it modestly. They started receiving larger briefs, worked tirelessly, and their dream was to create big campaigns, especially beautiful films for the agency's brands. “Unfortunately, most of our ideas ended up in the trash,” she says. “That's the toughest part of this job: our ability to hit reset and come up with new ideas as if nothing happened.” 

Then, one day, something unexpected came along to alter the course of Chrystel’s career once again. “We received an email from a CANAL+ account manager: an idea that had died months before was resurrected. And that idea was the CANAL+ campaign featuring elderly individuals for the release of ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Dunkirk’ on the streaming platform. It was clearly the highlight of that period. Thanks to this campaign, we won numerous international awards.”

Working on the French premium TV channel account, among other clients, she eventually became an associate creative director as well as a creative. The transition was rather smooth. It was perfect for Chrystel. “I absolutely LOVE writing, but I also have the temperament of someone who enjoys taking charge and moving things forward. And as an ACD, you can combine the two. It has also allowed me to expand my skill set. For example, I enjoy the strategic aspect of our profession, and I believe that meeting with clients to understand their needs is crucial for creating better campaigns. Above all, I love working with younger people, sharing the passion for this profession, and watching talents evolve, guiding them along the way. The role of an ACD is pretty perfect for all of this. We still have our hands in the creative process, but gradually, we take a broader view of projects and see the big picture more clearly.” 

In the past few years Chrystel has also lived a double life. She launched an Instagram account called Le Vers Solitaire a few years back during the lockdown. “It's primarily a writing account,” she says, which makes sense because we all know that Instagram is a writers’ medium. For three years it hovered around 200 followers. Then, out of the blue, a former Miss Universe shared one of the posts on her account. “That single gesture catapulted my followers to over 4,000 overnight,” she says. “Since then, the growth has been relentless. However, I must confess, I struggle to find the time to give this account the attention it deserves. However, I still have a deep passion for writing beyond the scope of advertising. Whenever the opportunity arises, whether it's crafting song lyrics or poetry, I seize it without hesitation. One of my most ambitious dreams is to write a screenplay for a TV show or feature film someday.”

The CANAL+ account gave Chrystel multiple chances to celebrate filmmaking and tighten up her script writing talents, until one particularly special project came along. Film director Dario Fau and Chrystel had been eager to collaborate on a project for some time. So they began brainstorming ideas for short films and penned numerous scripts. Writing in this way opened new creative brilliance. “Working directly with a director is invaluable because they immediately contribute ideas for staging the film, making it easier to visualise,” says Chrystel. Once they were satisfied with their scripts, Chrystel sought the opinion of Stéphane Xiberras, chief creative officer at BETC. He immediately took a liking to the ‘Papa’ script – a black comedy in which a boy’s violin playing has hilariously fatal consequences. 

            

“We thought it was perfect for CANAL+, given their partnership with the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival,” recounts Chrystel. “We pitched the film to CANAL+, and they also embraced the idea, giving us the green light. We assembled a small team to produce it at a low cost. Upon release, it was well-received, enjoying significant success online.”

She’s understating the success this film has had. It won one of only three Immortal Awards given to any creative project from around the world in 2023 as well as a TV/cinema Grand Prix at LIA, a Gold Lion in Film at Cannes Lions, a Graphite Pencil in Film at D&AD and many more at shows including the Shots Awards, Eurobest, The Clio Awards, Stratégies de la Publicité, Epica and the French Art Directors Club. It’s even spent the past two years as the opening film at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, making it a part of the fabric of the short film world. Its 2024 sequel, ‘Super’ is also a masterful piece of cinema, albeit slightly more high drama than last year’s. It too has been picking up awards on the circuit this year.

            

The success of ‘Papa’ has catapulted Chrystel to a creative director role, which she’s been in for around a year. “This is an entirely different role,” she says. “It's not just about you anymore. I mean, as a creative, you can choose to isolate yourself in your office, writing scripts all day without interacting with anyone. However, being a creative director revolves around people. It's about how you treat and guide them, exercising patience, managing pressure, and facing clients head-on. Every day, I learn something new. I make mistakes sometimes (well, quite a lot actually), but I'm constantly finding my stride. Nevertheless, I genuinely enjoy it. My favourite aspect is the invaluable time I spend with the creative teams, brainstorming ways to elevate our ideas.”

  

Chrystel refuses to fixate on specific topics that ignite her passion, but she’s certain about her fervour for creativity in its broadest sense, “how it allows us to step back and perceive things from fresh angles,” as she puts it. “I'm particularly passionate about cultivating good ideas and expressing them effectively through writing. Moreover, I consider myself an inherently curious individual, which I believe is indispensable in our industry. Naturally, I'm intrigued by emerging technologies, such as AI, and the myriad changes they bring. However, I firmly believe that these tools must be wielded thoughtfully, serving as aids rather than distractions. We've witnessed numerous instances where technology is misapplied or overly complex. 

“For me, simplicity reigns supreme. Directness often proves to be the most effective approach in crafting compelling advertisements. I strongly believe in simplicity in advertising. So the change I most desire to see could be a return to simplicity, even dare I say, to poetry. This entails campaigns that don't spell out everything to the audience, ones that don't treat them as if they were fools. I sense that this shift is already occurring in several campaigns I've observed in recent months. We focus on the core message, stripping away QR codes, URLs, disclaimers, unnecessary words, and excess. So let's make advertising poetic again!”