You Torch, Bro?
With the increased popularity of Juuling, anti Tobacco crusaders Truth needed to get through to kids that just because vaping isn’t smoking, that doesn’t make it safe.
Insight:
JUULing is dumb, and A VICE News-style parody of an even DUMBER smoking alternative would a funny way into this without seeming judgmental and out of touch.
This spot was so well received it’s slated to have its broadcast premiere during an upcoming MTV awards show. This one is worth watching. It’s wild.
My Roles:
Concepted and pitched the big idea
Scripting
Casting
Location Scouting
On Set for rewrites and directorial input
In editing bay to craft cutdowns including for broadcast
Industry leader Genesys was looking to overtly claim their throne as the top-of-mind call center software in a marketplace that isn’t usually brand focused.
Insight:
The original call for help was prayer, making heaven the original call center. Despite their name, and their role as senior players in the call center software game, Genesys had never made the connection to ‘in the beginning’ before. Now, they’re considering making it their entire brand identity.
My Roles:
Concepted and pitched the big idea
Scripting
Casting
Location Scouting
On Set for rewrites and directorial input
GitLab is a tech company for DevOps teams, which is hard to talk about without getting extremely technical and boring. GitLab wanted spots that looked and felt different than any competing DevOps tool’s dry, jargon based ads.
Insight:
While DevOps may be something I don’t understand at all, I understand the frustration of components or teams not being able to work together properly. Let’s throw out all the tech jargon entirely and focus on the human truth: when things can’t work together properly, projects and partnerships get ugly fast.
My Roles:
Concepted and pitched the big idea
Scripting
Casting
Location Scouting
On Set for rewrites and directorial input
In contrast to GitLab, Veracode is a security software that wanted to show how in-the-know they are to uppity IT/website security guys by utilizing lots of technical jargon to prove they’ve got their finger on the pulse. The catch: they also wanted it to be funny.
Insight:
Who better to seamlessly use the jargon of this obscure tech than the hackers that Veracode’s target customer is trying to thwart? By building a split screen interface with four iconic hackers, we could create a spot that’s at once highly targeted at IT and security teams while also being watchable to someone who has no idea what the hell Apache Struts even means.
My Roles:
Concepted and pitched the big idea
Scripting
Casting
Location Scouting
On Set for rewrites and directorial input
Currently lending my voice to a rebrand for this flagship education technology software company in a blog series designed to show the real world trials and tribulations of learning a language through the Stone while navigating your every day life. Dig it here
Brands are fundamentally tone deaf on Twitter and are ripe for skewering. In 2015, I just couldn’t take it anymore, and the results were beyond anything I could have ever imagined.
Insight:
What better parody point is there than the beaten down social media coordinator who has lost all will to live, and yet still has to pump out some meaningless slogan with every tweet?
Nihilist Arby’s became a genuine cultural phenomenon and single handedly changed the way QSR brands present themselves on Twitter. It gained national attention when it surpassed Arby’s in engagement and has been featured in AdWeek several times, as well as almost every national news outlet. As of today, Nihilist Arby’s has under 800 Tweets, and 381,000 followers, better engagement than 99.999% of any Twitter handle, and has become a touchpoint in the cultural lexicon
My Roles:
Concepted Nihilist Arby’s from scratch
Head/only writer
Social media manager
Head Nihilist
When future president Trump held a rally in Chicago, the good people at Weiner’s Circle wanted to make a big splash, bringing attention to the restaurant, as well as their opposition to Trump’s campaign platform and general being.
Insight:
Trump had just assured the world that his hands and other parts of his body were clearly huge, so I conceptualized the Trump 3-inch footlong hot dog special. Sure it’s 3 inches, but if you say it’s a footlong, doesn’t that REALLY make it a footlong anyway?
The promotion went viral and was picked up by news outlets all over the world, setting the stage for a series of high profile Facebook favorite marquis signs featuring humorous slogans that have become even more iconic than the already iconic hot dog stand.
My Roles:
Concepted the 3 inch footlong
Wiener’s Circle head copywriter and Creative Director
Social media director
PR liaison
These days, every restaurant dresses up for halloween, so it’s easy to forget that it all started with one hot dog stand in Chicago in 2015 who was looking for a big promotional play to rebrand themselves as a major force in not just the world of hot dogs but also viral comedy
Insight:
Sure, PEOPLE dress up for Halloween, but a restaurant, up until then, really hadn’t. Especially not in this capacity. We’d completely turn the Wiener’s Circle into McDowell’s from the hit movie Coming To America, changing our signage, our uniforms and even offering the Big Mick, which was done to the authentic specifications as laid forth in the film.
It’s hard to believe now since this is stunt is so ubiquitous and this was so recent, but no one had ever seen anything like this before. A RESTAURANT dressing up for Halloween was international news. Stars of the film Tweeted and posted Instagram photos of the stunt. The Big Mick sold out time and time again as we scrambled to keep up with demand. We trended on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and more. In the Wiener’s Circle’s storied history of viral stunts, this was the one that truly influenced the culture and paved the way for all our future shenanigans.
My Roles:
Concepted the idea of dressing up the store
Oversaw every aspect of the “costume” from the uniforms to the signage to the Big Mick
Head creative director of the project
Head copywriter of all signage and collateral
Social media director
PR liaison
I’ve been the manager/CEO of this long running band since 1999. I’m also one of the main songwriters. I mostly just put this in here so the Squarespace page would be balanced, but if you need a minor celebrity for weddings or to make your office seem cooler or whatever, I’m your guy.
