Featured Consumer Work
States United for the Prevention of Gun Volence.
Director, co-writer
FedEx
Copywriter
Coalition for the Homeless
Writer/Director
Game Ready Performance
Creative Director/Writer
Kidsport, Vancouver
Director
Rolling Rock
Copywriter/Creative Director
States United For the Prevention of Gun Violence
Director
The original script made the same observation, but set the action in a bank, during a robbery - making the spot broader and more overtly comedic. I rewrote and restaged the spot, placing it in an office to make the setup more subtle. I covered the primary action in a single fluid take to make the moment feel found, sudden, and startling while preserving wit and insight of the original idea.
The spot became an immediate sensation across social media, blogs, and traditional news coverage, including an entire 5 minute segment on the Lawrence O'Donnel Show where it was replayed in full.
To date, it has been viewed over 200 million times, making it the most organically viewed PSA in history.
It has also earned numerous awards, 2 compliments from President Obama, and 11 death threats.
FedEx
Copywriter/Creative Director
At BBDO/NY, I had the great good fortune to work with ECD Gerry Graf on several different FedEx campaigns. Including the one that set the tone for years of award-winning work. It began with a single :30 for FedEx.com. The mandate was to say "Save 30% on online express shipping on FedEx.com" three times.
Not exactly the kind of assignment most creatives see much potential in. But exactly the kind of assignment Gerry Graf saw as a chance to do something under the radar. His direction: Do what you do. Just write something smart-funny.
The resulting spot became one of FedEx Chairman Fred Smith's all-time favorites. Despite having already aired, the brand team elected to run it on the Super Bowl. Then they asked us to turn it into a campaign.
Several years and way too many awards to count later, it's still going strong.
Along the way. I also helped a couple of brilliant junior creatives flesh out and sell their inventive installation idea. And start their rapid ascent to brilliant senor creatives.
Street Installations, print Copywriter
Coalition for the Homeless/NY
Copywriter/Creative Director
I spent a few years doing volunteer work with Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. Donations led to delivering meals, delivering meals led to getting to know the staff and the homeless as people, and that led to my getting more and more deeply involved. I initiated an AV program documenting the stories of unhoused individuals over time to show the impact CFTH was making, and produced a video honoring Peter
Jennings for his commitment to the organization. And then I wrote, produced, and directed these spots making the case for supporting CFTH in the language New Yorkers know best: Real Estate.
Game Ready Performance
Copywriter/Creative Director
Vertically integrated branding for high-performance athletic training facility.
Game Ready Performance works with elite athletes ages 12 to pro. With a committed client base ranging from NBA All-Stars to World Champion MMA fighters to US Girls National Team Soccer Players, GRP had grown organically for several years.
Word of mouth was a key business driver. But to expand the business, we needed to reach wider while still preserving the feeling of a passionate personal referral.
I developed a social campaign, print campaign, and designed a new web experience celebrated their elite clientele while communicating the complex and deeply researched Game Ready science, statistics, and innovation in a lighthearted, familiar tone.
Kidsport - Vancouver, B.C.
Director
It's well known that playing sports as a child provides substantial benefits later in life. From self-esteem to collaboration and frustration tolerance, the things we learn playing sports are the things that help us succeed in careers and relationships.
This campaign from DDB/Vancouver makes that point, well... literally. But effectively.
Rolling Rock
Creative Director/Copywriter
Once seen as a working class brand along the lines of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Rolling Rock had become a mainstream brand literally by accident - A type setting error on the bottle left the character count "33" on the bottle beneath the brand's anachronistic quality pledge. Left in place and unexplained, theories about it evolved into a cultish attachment to the brand.
Our challenge was to reconcile the no pretense, hometown brew with the suddenly hip "alt.beer" in the green silkscreened bottle. To do that, we turned all things Rolling Rock into another version of the famous "33." From the long neck bottle, to the steeplechase label to the horse's head icon, we gave anything and everything Rolling Rock a deeper meaning and hidden significance.
In TV, print, radio, digital, retail, and a catalog selling everything from bottle openers to Rolling Rock bikes, we built the brand into a cultural icon with it's own view of the world. Think Q-Anon but without the violence and with better music.
In fact, it was music that brought it all together: To make it tangible, we created the Rolling Rock Town Fair. A summer music festival that brought 60,000 fans to Latrobe to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and experience firsthand the invented world of Rolling Rock in the process.
Writer, Creative Director; concept development of store itself.
Evolution
Ex-Wife
