I like to make things. In grade 6, my art teacher, Mrs. Kalflesh, asked: 'When you have ideas, do they come as words or images, because that is how you'll know if you're a writer, or an artist.' I told her both happened at the same time. She asked me what I thought about advertising. I didn't think anything about it then, because it was grade 6, but later I did, and I thought about it in images and words.
At the same time.
I thoroughly enjoy my time in advertising because of three things: I'm a morning person, I'm frustratingly positive, and I get to help young creatives do something with all that unfocused fresh brain they have. The morning thing - I'm a fan of how the brain works, and I know that the logical area of the left hemisphere, below the occipital lobe, likes to sleep in late. Because of this, mornings yield some of the most creative work, when you're up early enough to do it. At 6am there's no logic around to ruin the fun. The frustrating positivity - it's the only way to do this job right and not let the hills and valleys of the hits and misses throw you off your game. The young creatives - they're puppies and they need to be walked often. They keep us all young at heart - which is really all that matters. Aging is for suckers. If you like some of the work here, even a fraction of the amount of how much I liked making it, then that's a win/win.
I love win/wins. We each get one.
- Nathan
What happens when you invite a Canadian to be the Group Creative Director on the U.S. ARMY? You start to see a different side of the Army. One that is focused more on STEM than brute STRENGTH. (S.T.E.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - some people don’t know that so I’m just saying, and STRENGTH stands for……..ok nvm) The learning curve on this account has been incredible and I’m very fortunate to be able to bring a new look and feel to how they communicate what they have to offer - only 3% of people ever see combat. The other 97% get an education and more importantly, learn something about themselves along the way.
This Super Bowl, we crushed it. That ‘it’ being a 1962 Jeep Gladiator. It was the only way we could bring a New 2020 Jeep Gladiator back to life. The second film here is a graphic teaser I art-directed for the LA Auto Show Reveal of the Jeep Gladiator.
So, here’s some quick Jeep history on this account.
I've only ever driven a Jeep, so when we had a chance to 'Pitch' for it 3 years ago, I was so excited I grabbed my guitar and wrote a song about what my Jeep stands for - what it allows me to do and believe. Jeep wanted to celebrate their 75 years, but do it by not looking back but looking forward - Forever Forward. I’m so fucking awesome. That lead to the song I wrote '4x4ever' and it airing during Super Bowl 50. It's rare when the hobbies we do on the side lineup with the job we love during the day. Sucks for people who don’t love their jobs as much as I do. (Sorry, not sorry, haha) That happened here. I worked on recording the song with Sony Music Artist Morgan Dorr.
The full song is available on iTunes and Sony has released the music video which picked up a GOLD at the LONDON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS, 'Best Music Video' in ADWEEK'S ARC AWARDS and shortlisted in 2 Categories at the CLIOS. The 60 second spot aired on the SuperBowl and the day before it did, the client called me personally and told me they wanted to give us the whole account (this after they had already chosen an AOR weeks prior) Cha-Ching! Woot woot! It was obvious to them how much I loved and understood what they're brand stood for, just as I love all the brands I work on ha! When it comes to the work, every element is important from the sound design, the cinematography, right down to the graphic design of our end treatments. I’m very hands on at every level. In November 2017, to celebrate the ALL-NEW 2018 WRANGLER, which hadn't been redesigned in 10 years, I even created a typeface called 7GRILLE. It was designed to fill the 7 slats of the iconic Jeep Grill. Even the words that I wrote for the vehicles teaser films were made up of 7LETTERS. I also had an incredible experience working with Jurassic World director Colin Trevarrow to create the Jurassic Parked Super Bowl 52 Commercial. Working at Skywalker ranch on the audio and with the CG crew at Dreamworks was pretty damn special for someone that cares about the craft of the work.
(Did you just read all that?)
Kohler has always been an incredible brand with a rich design history. Over the last few years though, they'd went away from their colorful past, and tried to be all things to all people. As Creative Director/Writer, I helped pitch and win this business at DDB with an idea that allowed them to get their 'swagger' back. An idea that would demonstrate, that when it comes to the Bold Look of Kohler, you can NEVER be TOO BOLD. My goal was to make them a fashion brand. The last video here is just a little behind the scenes video I made. I like to shoot and edit them whenever I'm making something. It helps my parents understand what the hell I do.
If you love this country, you're a country boy. This was my first piece of work for RAM. We wanted to redefine what it meant to be a 'Country Boy'. We partnered with Justin Timberlake's band 'THE TENNESSEE KIDS' - a diverse group from around the country to re-record John Denvers 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy' for Super Bowl 52. Justin was playing the half-time show with them backing him and it was the perfect stage for an important message about unity. It aired a few weeks before the Super Bowl and in just 5 days received over 20,000,000 views on YouTube - the most in FCA's History.
Right before the Super Bowl Half-time show aired and the Justin and the TN KIDS played, we released an extended cut of the track along with several behind the scenes stories about what makes each member of the band a 'Country Boy'. We had RAM join the band on tour as a sponsor and we'll be providing relevant Ram content along the way for the year as the Truck becomes their tour vehicle.
This campaign idea came out of research, and I love that. I'm all for research if it's done right and you're smart about what you take away from it - It can be a useful tool. People repeatedly talked about the things they were doing to 'fill the time' that they have because they're no longer very intimate in their relationships - due to erectile dysfunction of which I could totally relate. (ED can happen at any age ok? Don’t judge me) Anyways, to get the performances we wanted, in casting, we removed 'Viagra' from the scripts. That was so brilliant. People believed they were actually doing a commercial for a 'pill' that stopped them from reading (Readicorex), antiquing (Antilaxor), and strolling (Strollinex). On the day of the shoot, we put Viagra back in the scripts and the actors started to add a 'grin' to it that felt very natural and added to the performances.
StateFarm believes 'It Pays to Double Check', so we Double-Teamed with Saturday Night Live's 'THE RICHMEISTER' and 'HANS & FRANZ' to breathe new life into these classic characters online. It was all part of a larger celebration of Saturday Night Live's 40th Anniversary. This work made it into the Webby's recently. I was the writer on this project and talking with Kevin Nealon about how good he was on Weeds was fun even though he was wearing a grey sweatsuit stuffed with socks speaking in a horrible faux-Austrian accent.
This Apple Project came up and was needed yesterday, so I wrote it and Art Directed it. Worked with JOSEPH KAHN, the music video director (see any Taylor Swift vid for his work) on it in a very collaborative way. Our Fingerbreaker was a guy named PNUT, because that’s just what you call yourself when this is what you do. We tracked him down online and got him onboard as soon as we got the go ahead to make it.
I love doing smart work. I love writing it and I love making it look really smart. When I moved to Chicago from Toronto, this was one of the first projects I took on. It was an incredibly immersive intro to the city I'd now call home. I got caught up in the idea of this 'White City' that had risen out of the char of the Chicago Fire and became a World's Fair that lasted 9 months, and had 3 quarters of the entire world's population cross the globe to visit it. I loved the idea that we could use tech from today to travel back in time and get a look at the fair. We engaged people with visuals of people witnessing the fair - that were slightly obscured, and then ask them to 'see what they saw' by way of their mobile device. We scoured through the Field Museum Archives for old pictures then re-created these images. In TV we created what felt like 'found footage' from the fair. As a CD, Writer and AD on this project I wore all three hats and worked with a great team.
Quick tip: Never wear three hats. It looks ridiculous and you sweat a lot.
This idea for Canadian Tire was one of my biggest wins. It graced the covers of just about every Canadian Marketing magazine and won awards at every show. Canadian Tire is Canada's Walmart. 489 Massive big box stores that provide Canadians with everything they need for life in Canada and getting through all four seasons. This wasn't a real project at all, and we brought it to them as alternative to just doing 'more TV commercials' that said that they had everything Canadians need. We bought an actual home in a real Canadian neighborhood. It was probably the first time an agency brought a real estate agent to a presentation. Also, may be the last.
We pitched Alfa Romeo and won. That lead to us pitching Jeep and winning as well. In both cases I sold through platform ideas that I wrote. This is the first work we've done for them under the campaign idea of: IF EMOTION MADE A CAR. It's the perfect way to take their italian tagline (which they're keeping) 'La Meccanica Delle Emozioni' and make it mean something in America. The translation is 'The Mechanics of Emotion'. We worked with Italian EDM legend Giorgio Moroder (best know for his work with David Bowie, Blondie and Daft Punk) to create the music using the sounds of the Alfa Romeo engine. It's Italian and sexy.
Me, not so much...but I'm working on it.
The brief was simple: 3 Musketeers is 'Light' and 'Fluffy'. We thought that brief was simple, but also stupid. So we got the planner to agree it was stupid. Then got the client to also agree it was stupid. Once everyone agreed just how stupid that brief was - we were ready to roll.
So...
We wanted to bring the '3 Musketeers' Chocolate bar back to relevance by digging into something that someone...somewhere was wondering. Why 3 Musketeers? It's a great example of having nothing to say and making that nothing everything. As the Art Director on this project it was a joy exploring the rich, deep history of these incredible characters - and then doing absolutely nothing with it.
I've always wanted to work on VW, so when the opportunity to help out Adam&EveDDB with some scripts came up, I totally ignored all the work I was supposed to be doing to Write and Art direct this spot and I’ll deny that in court. I have a long winded story about how collaborative this project was between myself, the VW client, the account people and CD's at Adam&Eve, but if I'm being honest, that whole story is all lies. I sent the script and they said I could make it and I was super excited. The ad was immediately featured in ARCHIVE MAGAZINE. And by ‘immediately’ I mean a year later because that’s the pace of Archive Magazine …….. they…………….. take………. ………………….. their…………………..time.
Capital One understands that they have to entertain to get people to listen to them. I love that from a bank. I was the Creative Director on this account for a year and a half and it was an amazing learning process (I learned how to be politically correct and write sentences like this one.)
Another great brand I always wanted to work on. I wrote and art directed this campaign to introduce the 'Open your world' line to Canada in a very simple graphic way that stood out. This campaign led to one of my favorite client comments ever:
"Where's the Heineken logo?"
After the client in Canada balked and didn't want to spend 400k on making this film, we decided to make it ourself for $400, then sell it to them as an online film. Myself, my partner at the time, a guy with a light, and a young first time director made it - he ended up getting into the Cannes Young Directors Showcase with the work immediately afterwards. I like keeping this type of work in my book because it leads to great conversations like ‘Why do you still have that in your book?’
Aviva wanted to change the way people looked at insurance companies, so they created a slew of new products and services that were unique for the category at the time. In the work, we wanted to leverage people's dislike of insurance to break through and try to send the message that Aviva was different, and wanted to try and 'change insurance' for good.
Carling Beer in Canada is a cheap 'Buck-a-beer' product. The whole category just yells their price and how many you can get for that price. We wanted to provide guys with a better reason than that it's cheap. We positioned the beer as something 'your girlfriend will be cool with, because the money you're saving, gets re-invested back into the relationship.'
Guys bought it. And then they went out and bought it.
We had a great client on this one, so good, that he got hired for a huge job at Coors Light. The next client in wanted to go a different direction - talk less about price and more about 'quality'. That lead to the 'Great Beer Decision Campaign'. My partner and I at the time even directed the 'Great Beer Decision Films' and won a few awards for them at the BESSIES - a Canadian Award Show.
Canadian Tire is Canada's Walmart. They sell everything you need to push through all four seasons of life in Canada. The first Video is an overall 'Case Study' of the campaign. This is an iconic brand and needed a facelift. Something with a bit of attitude and unapologetic swagger.
Canadians unapologetic? Really?
This is probably the most fun I’ve ever had. The YOUNG GUNS AWARDS only allow creatives 18-25 to enter. For many of them, it's their first Award ever - They're Award Show Virgins! We created a campaign to celebrate their Virginity called 'Let us be your first'. A full 4 Act Interactive Theatrical play starring David Droga as 'The Baby Droga', Lee Clow as 'The Holee Clow', and Alex 'The Wise' Bogusky. We sent out a Music Video and Posters as well as a full print campaign in Industry Magazines to raise awareness for the show.
I was able to write a lot of the music and lyrics, so that was too much fun. The whole thing was too much fun and I couldn't stop grinning for a year.
This poster is about Design Math. For the 90th Year of the ADC they wanted a cube shaped image that celebrated the show. I took every year from 1921 and worked outwards clockwise to create a perfect 90 year cube. You could say I got lucky.
(if you're mean)
This is a bit dated, but COORS LIGHT still has that stupid label that turns blue when the bottle is cold, so I think it’s relevant. It’s just another side of stuff I like to do. Maybe it’s a side you’ll hate, and that’s fine. A least your hate is informed.