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Boston Globe
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Asthmatic sharks and 18-foot bears: the movies that were inspired by ‘Jaws'
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Richard Dreyfuss (left) and Robert Shaw watch the shark emerge from the water in "Jaws." Getty Images/Getty Advertisement As part of our tribute to the 50th anniversary of 'Jaws,' here's a notebook on some of the movies its success hath wrought. (I'm saving the sequels to 'Jaws' for another notebook.) So that it doesn't feel like I'm picking on the much-maligned shark, baby or otherwise, I am splitting this into the two most popular pitches filmmakers threw out in the hopes of getting an 'homage' made. Let's start with: 'It's 'Jaws', but with a __________!' Spielberg's ordeal with Bruce, the faulty mechanical shark, initially put producers off financing shark movies. Instead, filmmakers had to search elsewhere in the animal kingdom for their man-eating predators. Boy, did they find plenty of suitable stand-ins! Advertisement In 1976, Louisville-based filmmaker William Girdler had the biggest success of his career with 'Grizzly,' the first official nod to 'Jaws.' Girdler was no stranger to being accused of ripping off popular movies — Warner Bros. sued over his 1974 film, 'Abby,' a.k.a. 'The Black version of 'The Exorcist.'' Because of its low budget, that movie made a lot of money before Warner Bros. had it pulled from theaters. Universal had no such power, as the makers of 'Grizzly' could plead plausible deniability: Its killer was an 18-foot grizzly bear. However, the similarities were so recognizable that the pundits referred to the movie as 'Paws.' Girdler's bear changed sizes multiple times throughout the movie, but is never seen at the advertised height. It was also played by an actual Kodiak bear named Teddy, who was 7 feet shorter than advertised. Like 'Jaws,' the bear's victims included scantily clad women and a kid. Also like 'Jaws,' there's a shot of a disembodied leg, watery jump scares, and the bad guy meets an explosive demise. Both films are surprisingly graphic for their PG rating (though 'Grizzly' is gorier). The most important thing to note, however, is that, like 'Jaws,' 'Grizzly' was a huge hit. I saw it in theaters, so I did my part for the box office grosses. Irish actor Richard Harris in a June 1982 file photo. PA I also saw 1977's 'Orca' in theaters. Its inclusion here is a bit of dirty pool on my part, because the Dino De Laurentiis production isn't exactly ''Jaws' with a killer whale.' It's more like 'Death Wish' with a killer whale. After killing a great white shark, a male orca sees his wife and baby brutally killed by heartless Richard Harris's boat crew. Advertisement The whale seeks a deserved revenge on Harris and the fishing village he inhabits, killing most of the crew and busting up fuel pipes. Targets includes Bo Derek who, like the guy in 'Jaws' and the kid in 'Grizzly,' winds up losing a leg. Eventually, the orca finds Harris and gets justice for everyone who hated Harris's Shelley Winters in the 1970 film "Bloody Mama," directed by Roger Corman. American International Pictures The same year, American International Pictures gave us 'Tentacles,' where beachgoers are attacked by — you guessed it! — a gigantic octopus. This sucker kills people real good, too. An all-star cast includes John Huston as a hero and Henry Fonda as the bad guy. Shelley Winters costars as Huston's sister. Bo Hopkins plays the Quint stand-in, an expert who sends his killer whales to turn that octopus into pulpo. Paul Bartel in the 1978 movie "Piranha," directed by Joe Dante. New World Pictures It's no surprise that two of the most entertaining 'Jaws' homages were written by legendary filmmaker John Sayles. In 1978, Sayles worked on 'Piranha' for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. B-movie mainstays Barbara Steele, Kevin McCarthy, and Dick Miller costar with a school of ravenous, genetically engineered piranha. Director Joe Dante doesn't scrimp on the gory mayhem; the piranha chew up an entire lake's worth of spring breakers and summer camp kids. Alas, the fishes couldn't devour the other Jaws rip-off that opened the same summer, 'Jaws 2.' Sayles also wrote 1980's Robert Forster vehicle, 'Alligator.' The script brings to life the urban legend about baby alligators flushed down the commode. This one grows to gargantuan size due to discarded growth hormones in the sewer. After chowing down on sewer workers and an obnoxious tabloid reporter (his demise is truly terrifying), the gator takes to the streets. Victims include cops and an unlucky kid tossed into a swimming pool (children do not fare well in these movies). Advertisement A maid at a swanky wedding gets bitten in the worst possible place by the gator before it suffers the same fate as the shark in 'Jaws.' Speaking of sharks, that leads us to the second movie pitch heard at studios everywhere: 'Jaws was a hit! Let's make another movie with a shark!' Ignoring the 'Jaws' sequels leads me first to 1977's 'Tintorera,' a Mexican film starring Susan George ('Straw Dogs') as a Brit touring in Mexico. You probably want to hear about the asthmatic tiger shark (it sounds like an obscene phone call) chewing up skinny-dippers, but trust me: The homoerotic throuple George forms with an American businessman and a Mexican swimming instructor is the real draw. This trashy movie is loaded with sex and full frontal nudity. No wonder the shark is panting! Four years later, an Italian film called 'Great White' opened to good business in American theaters. I remember seeing the poster and thinking 'wow, that looks a lot like 'Jaws'!' You know who else had that exact thought? Universal Pictures. They Samuel L. Jackson in 2019. Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Fast-forward 18 years to the best film about a shark since 'Jaws,' Renny Harlin's 'Deep Blue Sea.' Mutant CGI sharks attack an underwater facility, but don't worry! Samuel L. Jackson is the star of this movie. He even gets a rousing speech about how he's going to kick some shark fin. That speech ends with one of the most shocking (and hilarious) jump scares ever shown to a stunned audience. Advertisement Another 21st-century badass, Jason Statham, takes on Bruce the Shark's ancestor, the megalodon, in 2018's 'The Meg.' Yet another research facility is in danger, this time from a 75-foot-long CGI effect. You get two Spielberg rip-offs in one film: 'Jaws' and 'Jurassic Park'! And just like those two movies, 'The Meg' spawned its own rip-off of a sequel. Last, but not least is 'Open Water,' an anticlimactic bore that made me think of Quint's magnificent speech about the USS Indianapolis shark attack. An unlikable married pair of scuba divers are left stranded in shark-infested waters. All the movie does is wait for them to get eaten. It's a long wait. Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kentucky clinic treats child abuse (and tries to prevent it)
Dr. Christina Howard and Darcy, a therapy dog, in the Kentucky Children's Kosair For Kids Center for Safe and Healthy Children and Families on May 8, 2025 in Lexington. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes) This story discusses child abuse. Report child abuse to Kentucky's Statewide Child Abuse Hotline at 1-877-597-233. LEXINGTON — Before Kosair for Kids Center for Safe and Healthy Families was founded in 2024, Kentucky children with bruised faces or sexual trauma waited for medical care alongside those with the flu. This was 'not trauma-informed care,' said Barry Dunn, the president and CEO of Kosair for Kids, which then put up $2 million to do something about the problem. Kosair for Kids is a Louisville-based organization that advocates for children's wellbeing. 'Do we want a child who has just experienced the worst moment of their life — who has just been sexually assaulted — being seen … beside a kid who's there because the child is running a fever?' Dunn said. 'Not to minimize the fever, but as you're talking through what happened to you being sexually or physically abused, do we really want that to happen in an ER setting?' The obvious answer to Dunn and others was no, children facing the worst moments of their lives need personalized and private care. It also helps if there is a therapy dog whose entire job is to comfort traumatized children. Dr. Christina Howard, a forensic pediatrician and Kentucky's leading expert on child abuse, said the sterile ER is just 'not an ideal' place for sensitive conversations about abuse. 'As a parent, if you see a kid whose face is just bruised, it's hard to look away,' she said. 'It's hard to not pay attention to that and want to do something.' It also was not a comfortable setup for much-needed mental health services, Howard said. The Kosair for Kids Center for Safe and Healthy Families at the University of Kentucky Hospital was built with this need for privacy and trauma-informed care for the smallest patients in mind. Now a year old, the clinic is a model for treating abuse — and trying to prevent it. Anyone, including parents, can bring a child to the clinic for treatment. A 'large majority' of patients are referrals from the UK Hospital, which has consulting protocols when children come in with certain injuries, Howard said. The Department for Community Based Services, in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, may refer children to the clinic, as well as concerned caregivers, police and other hospitals throughout the state. The clinic has three exam rooms, including one with a shower — which sexual abuse survivors can use after a rape kit, for example — and therapy rooms. One is a 'play therapy' room for younger children. Another therapy room is where non-offending caregivers can get mental health treatment, a much-needed component because a lot of child neglect and abuse instances aren't straightforward cases of cruelty, Howard said. Many other factors play a role, she said — addiction and other mental health issues are key culprits, as well as child care challenges. 'We're in a world where it's really, really hard to be a parent, especially to be a single parent,' Howard said. Child care is expensive, she said, which sometimes forces parents to leave children in suboptimal situations so they can earn a paycheck to support the family. 'It's one of those (decisions): cheap child care that might not be the safest, or work.' Howard said parents in such situations need support, including more affordable child care. 'It's pretty much on a daily basis, where I will see a single parent asking how other parents are surviving? 'How are they putting food on the table and getting child care?'' she said. Plentiful data backs this struggle up. A 2024 survey of 1,357 parents from 88 Kentucky counties showed that some parents had already chosen to exit the workforce because of inaccessible child care. Many families put off having more children, delayed big purchases and sacrificed health care needs because of child care complications, the Lantern previously reported. Child care centers closing during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in 'fewer eyeballs on kids,' Dunn with Kosair explained. It's also difficult to get people to work in child care facilities, he said, due to the industry's low wages. An increase in wages helps with retaining good workers — but parents bear the cost. 'For some it's just unsustainable,' Dunn said. 'It's not possible to pay those rates.' That difficult choice between work and child care puts children in jeopardy, Dunn said. A lot of abuse cases happen when a working parent has to leave their child with a boyfriend or girlfriend, he said, and the child is then harmed. 'There is a misconception out there that child abuse is perpetrated by random strangers that one has never met, and they just show up out of the blue in (an) ice cream truck or van going down the road and somebody steals the child,' he said. But 'the majority of child abuse is perpetrated by someone who knows the child. It's family, it's a friend. It's someone that you thought was safe, but it turns out they were not.' Meanwhile, more than 85% of the clinic's patient population is enrolled in Medicaid, a program currently under federal threat of deep cuts. Howard cannot bill parents — even if they are the perpetrators of child abuse — but she can bill Medicaid and said providers like her need an intact Medicaid reimbursement. In Howard's Lexington office, she keeps a clear plastic tub full of gun locks and gives them out for free to people who need them. Guns remain the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. 'We do, unfortunately, see a lot of pediatric firearm injuries as well unintentional ones. And so if we can prevent that, then that would be the best course,' Howard said. 'Storing bullets separate from the gun, for example, always treating a gun like it's loaded, are definitely tips to have when you have young children in the home.' Kentucky's 2024 Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel report, released in February, showed the extent of this neglect. It found that most fatalities were 'potentially preventable.' In one case, a 1-year-old ingested fentanyl and died. In another, a 7-year-old fatally shot his 4-year-old brother while playing with a shotgun, which was loaded and kept beside the refrigerator. 'As a child abuse pediatrician: we don't want to see abuse. We want to prevent as much as we can,' Howard said. 'Unfortunately, we're just not able to prevent it.' Still, she tries to educate guardians and parents about safe storage of guns and medicine, both culprits in hurting and killing Kentucky's children. In a state with extremely high rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and addiction, children are too often exposed to medications that can kill them. 'We're huge advocates for parents to get medically assisted therapy, but having that in the home still is dangerous, so we do recommend safe medication storage on those,' Howard said. 'We've provided medication lock boxes and bags and recommend that for any caregiver that has something like that in the home.' All medications should be stored safely out of reach of children, she said; 'even medicines like Tylenol can be dangerous to a child.' UK also offers a variety of classes, including ones for new dads, Howard said. At this 'daddy boot camp,' new fathers are paired with established fathers and learn important parenting skills. This is another way of going far upstream to prevent neglect and abuse. 'Families …. (have) a lower risk of child maltreatment if the father is involved and supportive,' Howard said. At the Kosair clinic, most patients are 4 and younger. In many cases, they don't understand what is going on and can't — or don't want to — talk to an adult. Sometimes the trauma is too great for words. Enter Darcy, a golden retriever raised to be a therapist. 'We actually first had the idea of a therapy dog when we had a child that unfortunately did not survive injuries; it was a homicide,' Howard said. She went to evaluate the child's siblings, who were in the emergency room. 'You walk in the room and you could feel the burden of it in there; they knew their sibling had passed away,' she recalled. 'None of the kids would make eye contact. It was just complete silence.' A hospital volunteer brought her therapy dog into the ER, who then immediately transformed the mood. 'As soon as that dog walked in the room, one of the older girls was like, 'a dog!' And then she just completely started talking to us about school, what she does at school,' Howard recalled. 'It just made her more comfortable already, just that automatic thing.' Howard knew she had to research the benefits of therapy dogs, especially in the child abuse field. She found plenty. Purdue University researchers say therapy dogs help survivors of violence by providing comfort during their treatment process. The American College of Qualitative Research found that therapy dogs helped decrease anxiety in school shooting survivors. 'There is clear evidence that they are beneficial,' Howard realized after her research. 'There's kids that won't talk to anybody, but will tell a dog something.' Using grant money from Children's Miracle Network, Howard applied for a therapy dog, who came from Ultimate Canine in Indianapolis. Darcy came to Howard in January 2024 at 10 months old, having passed her therapy dog training and ready to work at the Kosair clinic. Her days vary widely depending on the patient. If the patient is an infant, Darcy may focus her energy on the parents while she will climb in bed and cuddle with an older child. There are a few times Darcy can't be in the room — when a patient is allergic or during rape kit evidence collection. Sometimes her help is quite practical — a reserved child can 'teach' Darcy how to step on a scale and get weighed or may take her for short walks. 'You always hear they're man's best friend, and I think it's because they're … not judgmental. They're just there for you,' Howard said. In her spare time, Darcy loves to collect socks and bring them to Howard, who is one of her handlers. But she loves her job at the clinic, and starts a happy purr when Howard pulls into the parking lot in the mornings. Each day she works, Darcy is helping kids with their anxiety and coaxing them into sharing terrible things that they've been through so they can receive proper care. 'We had a child that was just up in the pediatric ICU because she had a pretty significant injury, and she wouldn't talk to anybody,' Howard recalled. 'She'd be like, 'No, leave me alone.' So we're like, 'Well, we'll try Darcy.' And we did. She was one that was like, 'a dog!' (Darcy) got up on the bed with her, and the girl snuggled her. By the end of it, she was like, 'I love you, Darcy.'' In 2024, about 16% of Kentuckians lived in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Nearly 17% of Kentuckians are food insecure, meaning they don't have enough to eat and may not know where their next meal will come from. Poverty like that can blur the legal line between true neglect and a family who lacks the resources to meet middle class ideals. For Dunn, the president and CEO of Kosair for Kids it's important to not punish people who lack resources and said the dividing line is what parents do about their lack of resources. Those who are trying to get help for their children, he said, need more support. To protect children, Dunn said, Kentucky needs to take a serious look at environmental factors in neglect and abuse — food insecurity, child care, housing. He also wants to make sure Kentucky has enough social workers who can properly investigate every report of mistreatment. 'As much as I want to see (child abuse) end overnight, I think we are on a march toward the day where we can get those rates down to a point where it really is only the cruel, irredeemable folks who are committing child abuse, not the people who are just poor or have financial stresses,' Dunn said. 'But it's going to take a while. It won't be overnight, unfortunately.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Yum Brands considers moving its Louisville headquarters. Here's what to know
Yum Brands, the Louisville-based fast-food chain giant, is considering moving its corporate headquarters, which for now is expected to remain in Louisville. Yum Brands, the parent of KFC alongside Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger and Grill, is looking at properties in Louisville's downtown as well as its East End in addition to considering a renovation of its current headquarters. "No firm decisions have been made; this is an ongoing process," a Yum Brands spokesperson said in a statement May 23. "We look forward to continuing to be a part of the Louisville community." The news of the possible headquarters relocation, first reported by Louisville Business First, comes three months after Yum Brands announced it would be moving the KFC division of the company out of its Louisville headquarters and to Plano, Texas, sending a shockwave across the metro which has been home for the company since 1997. The move to Texas cost Yum Brands approximately $7 million. Additionally, earlier this year, Yum Brands CEO of five years David Gibbs announced his retirement. Gibbs is expected to retire in the first quarter of 2026, The Courier Journal previously reported. Here's what we know about the potential relocation of the Yum Brands headquarters: Background: KFC corporate to move 100 jobs out of Louisville, relocate its headquarters. What to know While the company spokesperson did not directly respond to The Courier Journal's question about why the company is considering relocating its corporate headquarters, the decision is related, in part, to employee collaboration. "As Yum! Brands charts its next chapter in Louisville, we are assessing whether enhancements to our current offices or moving to new ones will best foster connection, collaboration and innovation to drive our business objectives. As part of that process, we are evaluating several office options downtown and the east end," the company statement said. Earlier this year when the company announced it was relocating its KFC division and employees to Texas, it also said the move would "foster greater collaboration among brands and employees." More: Employers, like KFC, are leaving Louisville and taking jobs. What it means for the city Earlier this year, The Courier Journal reported that Jefferson County Public Schools is looking for a location to house a new, consolidated administrative office. To fund this effort, the school district is selling three administrative buildings. JCPS is looking for a building between 168,000 and 250,000 square feet that would have space for 850 employees and a large meeting space that would hold a minimum of 500 people. The current Yum Brands headquarters off Gardiner Lane opened in 1970 as international headquarters of the Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp., coinciding with the 80th birthday of Harland Sanders, according to Courier Journal archives. The public was allowed to pay their respects to the late founder during a public visitation there in December 1980. After his death, his on-site office was converted into the Colonel Sanders Museum. The colonial style headquarters building, knowns as the 'White House,' sits on a nearly 10-acre campus, with an assessed value of $5.31 million, according to the Jefferson County Property Valuation Administration. A six-story technical center was added to the campus in 1986. The Sanders' handwritten recipe is guarded inside the White House by a 770-pound safe encased in two feet of concrete and watched by video cameras and motion sensors, according to a 2024 National Register of Historic Places registration form. While a Yum Brands spokesperson reiterated a definitive decision has not been made on if the company will leave its current office or renovate it, they did confirm, "Simultaneously, as we evaluate all options, we have had conversations with JCPS about our campus and if it would suit their needs." JCPS did not directly respond to questions about conversations with Yum Brands. The district also did not respond to questions about if the current Yum Brands headquarters would satisfy its needs or if it has sold its current administrative facilities. "We are using a (request for proposals) process to find a new location for an administration building. We anticipate bringing a recommendation to the Jefferson County Board of Education in the near future," a JCPS spokesperson told The Courier Journal. More: Yum! Brands decision to relocate KFC from Louisville to Texas came with a price tag Education Reporter Krista Johnson contributed to this report. Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@ or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @oliviamevans_. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Yum Brands considers headquarters move three months after KFC goes to Texas
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Food insecurity is up, says Louisville food bank chief, as Congress mulls funding cuts
Vincent James, president and CEO of a Louisville-based food bank, says more people in the region are unsure where their next meal will come from. Flanked by anti-hunger advocates and religious leaders, he spoke in a Dare to Care warehouse, May 14, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) LOUISVILLE — Saying 'hunger knows no political boundaries,' Dare to Care president and CEO Vincent James urged Congress not to cut Medicaid, SNAP and other safety-net programs. Doing so could increase an already 'unimaginable' spike in food insecurity in the Louisville area and Southern Indiana, James said. James gathered with anti-hunger advocates and religious leaders in the Dare to Care food bank on Fern Valley Road Wednesday, the same day the nonprofit Feeding America released results from the latest Map the Meal Gap study, showing food insecurity is on the rise in the area. Over the last two years, Dare to Care has seen a 48% increase in food insecurity in the 13 counties it serves. In Louisville and the surrounding region, 1 in 7 people — including 1 in 5 children — live with food insecurity, which means they don't have enough to eat and may not know where their next meal will come from. James said people are feeling the loss of pandemic-era assistance. 'If you think back to 2020 when there were a lot of COVID benefits, you had child tax credits, you had so many other benefits that were coming to our community and to individuals to be able to help them to build that bridge of the gap that they had with their resources every month,' James said. 'But when those benefits were cut around two or three years ago, we're now seeing the impact of those cuts.' With Medicaid and SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — facing likely funding cuts in the Republican Congress, there's a real concern that Dare to Care, which provides food to people who need it in parts of Kentucky and Southern Indiana, won't be able to keep up, James said. 'If you think about a senior who is getting Social Security and also some other benefits — Medicaid, Medicare — and now (if) those things are being cut, that means that they've got to pay for it in some kind of way — the money that they were using, most likely, for food,' James explained. 'That's when we actually see and hear stories where we have seniors who are adding water to soup so it can stretch longer. No one should be in that situation.' Joining James were religious leaders — Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre from the Archdiocese of Louisville, Imam Muhammad Almoutem of the Muslim Community Center of Louisville, the Rev. Martin Brooks of Peace Catalyst International and several others — who said that their respective faiths call on them to feed all hungry people. Cantor David Lipp from Congregation Adath Jeshurun called feeding the hungry a religious and moral 'mandate.' Fabre said feeding people is a way to recognize 'basic human dignity.' Almoutem said 'ignoring the people in need, and in particular the hungry people, is a form of sin' in his religion. These faith leaders gathered in support of Dare to Care and the continued funding of programs to feed and otherwise help people to, as James said, show a united front in the message that 'no one will go hungry in our community again.' James added: 'We're deeply concerned about the increase of food insecurity that we've seen, the lack of access to being able to have access to fresh food we've seen, simultaneously faced with the threats and cuts to some of the nutritious programs that are run by our federal government.' The 2025 Map the Meal Gap report, based on data from 2023, shows that about 70% of food insecure Kentuckians fall below the threshold that qualifies them for SNAP benefits; about 30% are above it. In total, 753,410 Kentuckians are food insecure, according to the report. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, that number was 644,540. Children, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, single-parent households and people living in the South. are more likely to be food insecure, according to the report. Overall, nearly 17% of Kentuckians have a shortage of food, the new data shows. Other data points from the report showed that nationally: Hungry people live in all — 100% — of counties and congressional districts. Child food insecurity affects every county and district, with rates reaching almost 50% in some areas. More than 12 million seniors and older adults experience food insecurity. 86% of counties with the highest food insecurity are in the South. 86% of counties with the highest food insecurity are rural. Among counties with available estimates, rates of food insecurity for Black or Latino individuals reach nearly 60%. More than 2 out of 5 people facing hunger are unlikely to qualify for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The national food budget shortfall has risen to more than $32 billion. The national average cost per meal is $3.58 in 2023. County meal costs range from $2.60 to $6.09. Addressing this need is a 'bipartisan effort,' James said. 'We cannot afford any cuts to programs that are providing nutritious food for our neighbors.' 'Every side knows that every human deserves the right to eat. It's not even a question of a political stance,' he said. 'It's a question of your humanity, that each person has to have an opportunity to have access to food.'
Business Wire
06-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Republic Bank Seeks to Elevate Identity With New Partner, Expand Exposure in Multiple Markets
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Republic Bank & Trust Company ('Republic' or the 'Bank') is proud to announce its new full-service marketing partner, BUNTIN. The advertising agency will lead all strategy, media and creative efforts, while strategic communications and public relations efforts will remain with longtime partner, C2 Strategic Communications. 'We're excited to welcome BUNTIN to the Republic Bank family as well as to continue our strong partnership with C2 Strategic,' said Courtney Eder, Republic Bank Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer. 'We're excited to welcome BUNTIN to the Republic Bank family as well as to continue our strong partnership with C2 Strategic,' said Courtney Eder, Republic Bank Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer. 'In collaboration with these creative, industry-leading minds, we'll work together to elevate Republic's brand identity and amplify the Bank's community engagement in Louisville and across all of the markets we serve, including Nashville, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Lexington and Tampa.' Founded in 1972, BUNTIN is a fiercely independent agency that specializes in building Brand Conviction as a tool for achieving disproportionate business results for clients. For more than 50 years, BUNTIN has created and managed visionary campaigns for brands like SERVPRO, Trex, Kentucky Lottery Corporation, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and more. 'We're thrilled to partner with Republic Bank – a brand that shares our Conviction for innovation and community impact,' said Jeffrey Buntin Jr., CEO of BUNTIN. 'Their team is among the most energetic and forward-thinking in the industry, and together, we're committed to helping their customers thrive across a rapidly expanding market footprint. It's an honor to add Republic Bank to our long legacy of Louisville-based partnerships.' As part of Republic Bank's external communications strategy, the Bank will continue to seek the expertise of C2 Strategic Communications. The strategic communications firm – with offices in Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis and Nashville – has provided critical counsel, public relations strategy and execution, event planning and creative support for Republic, its executives and all the Bank's markets since 2020. 'Republic Bank is an incredible partner, and our team greatly values the relationships and trust we've built with Republic leadership and team members,' said Chad Carlton, founder and CEO of C2 Strategic Communications. 'Working in tandem with BUNTIN, we are confident that we can further drive home Republic Bank's mission to enable its clients, company, associates and the communities it serves to thrive.' About Republic Bank Republic Bancorp, Inc. (the 'Company') is the parent company of Republic Bank & Trust Company (the 'Bank'). The Bank currently has 47 banking centers in communities within five metropolitan statistical areas ('MSAs') across five states: 22 banking centers located within the Louisville MSA in Louisville, Prospect, Shelbyville, and Shepherdsville in Kentucky, and Floyds Knobs, Jeffersonville, and New Albany in Indiana; six banking centers within the Lexington MSA in Georgetown and Lexington in Kentucky; eight banking centers within the Cincinnati MSA in Cincinnati and West Chester in Ohio, and Bellevue, Covington, Crestview Hills, and Florence in Kentucky; seven banking centers within the Tampa MSA in Largo, New Port Richey, St. Petersburg, Seminole, and Tampa in Florida; and four banking centers within the Nashville MSA in Franklin, Murfreesboro, Nashville and Spring Hill, Tennessee. In addition, Republic Bank Finance has one loan production office in St. Louis, Missouri. The Bank offers online banking at The Company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and as of March 31, 2025, had approximately $7.1 billion in total assets. The Company's Class A Common Stock is listed under the symbol 'RBCAA' on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. About BUNTIN BUNTIN is a full-service advertising agency that uses Brand Conviction to achieve disproportionate business results for clients. Services include Strategy, Creative, Media Planning & Buying, Digital, Social, and Data & Analytics. Headquartered in Nashville, BUNTIN is among the leading independent agencies and an ADWEEK-recognized 'Top U.S. Shop.' In addition to its work with corporate clients, the agency operates a cause-branding division called AdHope that assists organizations in maximizing their social value through 'great work that does good in our world.' To learn more, visit or @TheBuntinGroup on Instagram and LinkedIn. About C2 Strategic Communications C2 Strategic Communications is the region's leading full-service strategic communications firm with offices in Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis and Nashville. Since 2011, C2 Strategic has served as the communications partner for some of the region's most prominent and fastest-growing companies, nonprofits and public agencies across sectors including transportation, infrastructure, health care, government, education, real estate and economic development. C2 Strategic specializes in connecting clients with the right audiences at the right time — delivering insight, strategy and results that move people and organizations forward. Learn more at and by connecting with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
