“My mansion exploded.”
- Tim Robinson
Working in this business has allowed me to collaborate with some wildly talented people. I’ve grown smart enough to know when I should just get out of their way. We put Tim Robinson together with director, Neal Brennan, and laughed our asses off watching them work for three days.
Like I said, I’m smart.
“It is the flat-out masterpiece, the first pandemic commercial to qualify as a beautiful work of art.”
- San Francisco Chronicle
Only a week into lockdown, a few of us just wanted to do something to help. The piece was written, shot, recorded, cut, and posted in exactly one week from the moment we decided to do it.
Fox Sports saw it and ran it all summer for free on their air. The TCF Center, which was being used to handle hospital overflow, ran it on their marquee. A local OOH company donated media as well, which prompted us to develop some boards. But the most gratifying part was when we saw signs of residents adopting the message as their own.
Our message for our city made its way across the country and as far away as South Africa. It even landed me on MSNBC.
“This two-minute Jeep ad starring Bruce Springsteen is a triumph. It’s beautiful to look at and listen to, and it says something essential about this moment in American history.”
-AdAge
I wrote something that Bruce Springsteen wanted to lend his voice to. An honor I will never get over.
A hundred million people saw it on the Super Bowl. Another 80 million views came on social channels. And that was before the brand had to take it down until Mr. Springsteen’s DWI charge got dropped.
While some did not embrace our message of unity, an estimate put the earned media value of the piece at over $400 million with 75% of sentiment being positive.
That, and I now may or may not have Bruce Springsteen’s cell number.
“I need you to take this account. Nobody else wants it.”
- Amy Swain, Creative Den Mother, Doner
Truck Bed covers – who cares? Well, if you’re a truck guy, you do. Problem is that the ones of the past were limiting, complicated, and a general pain in the back bumper to deal with.
Enter Truck Hero with new designs that, by their mere demonstration, blow truck guys’ minds. Our goal was to launch the brand with heroic demos that do the products' ease of use justice, and speak in the irreverent voice pickup owners love.
GCD, Matt Swanson and I took this assignment that nobody else wanted with the goal of doing work that made everyone wish they had.
While only running in six markets, we have lifted shopping by 300%, brand searches by 400% and monthly site traffic is up 1200%.
"Bigger. Bolder. Faster."
- David Holmberg, CEO, Allegheny Health Network
Allegheny Health Network had a reputation deficit. Their CEO wanted us to do something to turn it around before open-enrollment started. That gave us about a month to make a difference. And what a difference it made.
Mr. Holmberg has called the work transformational to their culture and their business alike. Crediting it for making the organization profitable for the first time in its existence.
Others have taken note as well. Thus far, the work has earned a Clio, Effie and made the shortlist at Cannes.
A lot of really talented people contributed to this effort that has lived long after the initial launch and has been transformational for their business.
I got to partner with ECD, Karen Cathel and GCD, Matt Swanson on one of the most special campaigns of my career.
"Is it just me, or does that old lady look like she's tied someone up before?"
- Chris Hooper, Director
I love pitches. I got to lead this one with GCD, Matt Swanson.
While my Highmark friends have afforded me the opportunity to create things that make me proud, the best thing I can say about this work is that the Chair spot inspired one of my clients to lose 60 pounds.
Doesn't get any better than that.
"Tortionally stiffer. (Giggles uncontrollably)"
- Jim Feltz, ACD, Campbell-Ewald
Chevy Silverado and Ford F-150 have been trading blows for years. Every way to compare the two had already been done. Twice. So, when Ford was trotting out an unproven powertrain in a category that's built on dependability, we took this opportunity to take a good-natured shot.
I developed this work with ACD's Jim Feltz & Lew Baker. We built them an app when apps were a new thing and even gave them a voice on twitter at a time when we were all just learning how to tweet.
41% of breast cancer patients skip treatment due to financial hardship.
Awareness of breast cancer is about as high as you can get. Awareness of the financial toxicity brought about by breast cancer is nowhere near what it needs to be.
Pink Fund’s mission is to help women avoid the financial troubles that often accompany a cancer diagnosis. And when we met their inspirational leader, Molly MacDonald, there was no way we weren’t going to join her in that mission.
We turned October into Breast Cancer Unawareness Month and asked supporters to turn their pink ribbons upside down as a sign of support and to start a conversation about The Other Part of the Fight. Because no-one should have to choose between their life and their livelihood.
GCDs Robin Todd and Steve Platto as well as ACD Amanda Dalka were the force behind the effort. One we all considered ourselves lucky to take part in.
“I’m still struggling with some things. It just sucks when you are fighting with your own head.”
- Simone Biles
The anticipation for the 2020 Olympics was enormous, and not only because of the year-long delay due to the pandemic. Our clients at CorePower were a long time endorser of Simone Biles and we were all excited for her to have the Olympic moment she had worked her whole life for. While the events that occurred were completely unexpected, they proved that our clients had backed the right athlete.
AD, Madison Johnson and CW, Matt Milia quickly went to work with some existing footage and a beautifully powerful script. Turning Simone’s Olympic moment into something even more meaningful than the one everyone expected.
“We’re doing these even if I have to drive to Pittsburgh and put them up myself.”
- Karen Cathel
Smaller client? Smaller market? Big opportunity to just try stuff and see how people respond.
It means the world when you’ve got a great partner like AHN who was more than willing to support our creativity. It’s even better when you’ve got the conviction of people like Karen Cathel on your side.
“Do something about dependability. It can be anything you want.”
- Jim Gorman, Former Chevy ECD, Campbell-Ewald
The original assignment was to do some small-space print for USA Today. We ended up producing a Super Bowl spot, a Kelly Award winning print campaign, and even some small-space print for USA Today.
“91 Followers”
While I wish we got a thousand times more followers than this, I am still crazy proud we did it.
Struck by the protests of summer 2020, ECD Karen Cathel and I, along with ACD CW Bob Havlena and ACD AD Brian Nelson, put these together in less than two days. And while we may have only helped 91 people, one of them is Patton Oswalt.
“I pushed pretty hard and there’s no way she’s spilling anything about WandaVision.”
- Jennie Hochthanner, Executive Producer
When you have the considerable comedic talents of Katherine Hahn at your disposal, you use them. A lot. And that’s what we did. ACDs Angelo Patrona and Liam Soren created a great structure in which our star could really show off what she can do.
It was a great time making all of this content and the results were pretty great, too.
"Every family deserves the advantages fresh food provides."
- Matt MacDonell, Director of Planning
Food Lion came to us a bit of a troubled brand. While people would shop them for things like Cheerios, Kraft and Clorox, they didn't trust the quality of the store's fresh offerings.
By leveraging their 1.2 million followers, we were able to use the power of their social audience to build the store's credibility back to where it needed to be. And a simple, great strategy from Matt MacDonell allowed us to wrap the rational argument with an emotional promise to mothers that Food Lion was here to help them nourish their families all while taking some of the load off their plate.
We called it How Refreshing.
“I want you to come to work every day wanting to do great things for me, so I’m going to treat you that way.”
- Debbie Cantu, former CMO, Kaiser Permanente
She did. And I did.
Over seven years I wrote and lead a lot of work trying to impress Debbie. And as thrilled as she was with the work, I always wish I could have done even better for her.
The print is the piece that launched the Thrive campaign in 2004. I take some pride in the fact that it still runs to this day.
“Glad I bought my 2017, not this pussified 2019”
- GreenHeat (YouTube Commenter)
There’s nothing better than working for a brand that does the right thing even though they know they’ll get some heat for it.
I was proud to lead the exceptionally talented young team of Madison Johnson & Olivia Hill for this project. We wrote our own brief and were rewarded with being able to make a feminist statement on behalf of a truck brand for the biggest football game of the year.
“What about The Zoo that Could? Can you write to that?”
- Karen Cathel, ECD, Doner
Karen has been looking after The Detroit Zoo for almost a decade. At one point she almost single-handedly saved it from being defunded.
For this fundraising effort, the zoo wanted to tell a a more complete story of all the things they do. Animal rescue, sustainability, education, environmental protection, to name a few. I was thrilled to be asked to help and only hoped to do justice to the zoo and Karen.
To this date, the zoo continues to exceed both attendance and fundraising goals.