True story. I ate 26 that day.
Recently, I carried 2,000 pounds of old advertising materials to the curb. One ton. Yes, Duncan Disposal disposed their asses off.
I thought about doing this for a good 10 years. Most everything went: Laminated portfolio pieces (some smelling of smoke from the Doner fire); box upon box of old campaign materials; hundreds of magazines with my campaigns tabbed by different media departments; new biz bombs and pitch presentations; props from shoots and agency capability pieces and Effie case study submissions; hundreds of tapes and several thousand print ad proofs. I tossed my expensive/worthless 3/4-in tape machine and all my broadcast work, too –– laid off on 7 different antiquated tape formats, each format that was destined to change the way we work, all equally dead.
To the curb!
My awards annuals? I’m not ready to pitch or give away the old bibles yet.
Speaking of awards, I did toss my silver galvanized trash cans brimming with metal and Lucite hardware. Hea-vy. An affectation of my youth, I’ve realized. I’m more George Tannenbaum in my outlook nowadays than the awards maven I used to be. George is right. Today, awards shows are out of control fed by our lust for personal recognition in a selfie world. Awards for me were kind of over when holding companies started garnering creative honors. Another George had it right too. George Carlin. We have too much stuff.
So now, I have less stuff.
This archive section is a smattering of some of the old work that my basement coughed up. Kind of a haphazard trip down memory lane in different eras of my career.
Different eras? Sheesh.
You know you’ve been in the biz awhile when you can refer to eras and magazines and 3/4-in decks.
From 1994 at J. Walter Thompson in Detroit. Back when the Commodore’s full signature was the agency’s logo. This campaign won a raft of awards. It was also an object lesson for me in the ways of the world. I was on another shoot in LA when my ECD called. He said, “Kevin, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is your United Way campaign won the creative competition for the office’s best work of the year. The bad news is that Peter (JWT CEO) said the best work coming out of our office will be for Ford.”
Still makes me chuckle to this day.
White Castle is covered in another section on the site. This just goes to say that you’re nobody in this business until your work has run above a urinal.
From a direct mail campaign we did pitching the Detroit Translation Bureau’s services. We played off examples of famous tag line translation blunders. Like the mistranslation of Ed McCabe’s famous “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” for Perdue. To hear my old AD partner of many years, tell the story – about how he and the photographer went into a Lover’s Lane store asking for panties that would fit a chicken – is to laugh until you cry.
This was ’94-95ish. Red Pelican was a Detroit Mustard with zero budget and they wanted to grab attention. I don’t remember if this made it out of the agency. I kinda doubt it. What I do recall is how Kevin Johnson, a freelance producer, friend, and major Detroit booster LOVED this ad. He lived with his wife in Lafayette Park. Every time I’d run into him, he’d say “Teevens! That Red Pelican ad. That’s the best goddamn ad!”
1997 or thereabouts. We were late to the pitch. We needed to hack our way in. So, we delivered an actual old scoring table to the offices of the PBA in NYC, including bottle caps and cigarette butts. They laughed and we got in. Unfortunately, over the course of the next few weeks their advertised budget of 1.5 million, shrank to an unworkable for our small agency, 175k. We simply couldn’t work for that little. For a brief shining moment, though, our 300-game bowling art director was a hero.
1998. Twenty-six years ago. Different times to be sure. We had repositioned our 30-person shop as a go-to source for marketing to women. We realized that women make or are responsible for 85% of all purchases. And that women also process information very differently than men and have very different communication needs and styles. (True then, and still true today, regardless of all the agency smoke being blown about data). These simple postcards reaped a ton of response from new biz prospects.
One year we celebrated the holiday season by giving the money we’d spend schmoozing clients and friends to the Lancaster Shelter for Abused Women. This was the agency holiday card where we announced this and wished all well in the new year.
This one came to me walking down the street in Manhattan after having more than several cocktails. An automotive take on winning and losing at The Caddy Show in the Motor City. That’s award shows, right? You get the hood ornament, or you get the.... The poster was distributed around town and was printed on real, smelly, Blueprint paper.
This was a poster we did for the Addy Awards of Central PA. Adweek covered it and I still say it’s a good day when you can legitimately work David Ogilvy into whatever you’re doing. I can quote him. Can you? My favorite line in this is the caption: The coveted plastic thingy.
As a small regional airport, our pugnacious client wanted to go after his main competitor, Baltimore Washington International Airport. Adweek, AdAge, The Baltimore Sun and many other pubs covered the smart-ass campaign we created, and it got a load of attention for Harrisburg International. Measurably improving their bookings, as well garnering award show recognition.
On my way out of PA I stopped for a year or so at a small shop and got them out of a jam. Their biggest client, Turkey Hill Dairy, was very unhappy. I turned the relationship around by creating the Where We Make It Is Why It’s Good campaign. Crisis averted; business retained. Here’s a spot for their famous Iced Tea and a super low budget spot for an Eagles sponsorship. Unfortunately, when my partner and I went back to Detroit to work for Tom Cordner at JWT, the account let the agency go.
2006-ish. Did this campaign in my Doner days when PNC got their customers off the crazy train of ATM fees. Adweek positively reviewed the retail spot but nicked us about putting ketchup on a hotdog versus mustard. I agree. I don’t know what we were thinking! The thing I loved about this one was doing an OOH board at a train station that featured a train story problem. (Which actually got produced and ran, I’m pleased to say. Unfortunately, all I have to share is an old comp, though.)
Another ad from my stint at Doner. A one-off print assignment for ADT.
I used to do a lot of radio. Not so much these days. “Granny on Ice” brought in a lot of award show hardware, including an Effie. “Good Old Days” was performed by Rube Weiss, a voiceover legend who was in the original Lone Ranger radio series that was made in Detroit in 1933. Rube was a very generous and funny man who also happened to be short. So, he often said, “I’m 6’4” when I stand on all my money!” This spot was one of the last things he recorded before he rode off into the sunset of eternity. Hi Ho Silver, away!
This campaign was my first big break in the business. (Other than being hired as a junior copywriter by my first mentor, a cigar smoking Dan Hughes.) And I have Jack Frakes of Ross Roy to thank for it. Jack was my ECD. I learned a great deal from the man and I am forever grateful.
Tim Allen was on the rise at the time, and I said... wouldn’t he be great for Builder’s Square? The agency was getting ready for a big presentation and there were several campaigns the CD’s wanted to sell. My partner and I tooled up a board and it went to the meeting but wasn’t going to be presented. Turns out the client mowed down all the work and there was nothing left.
Except for this one small board in the corner. The Tim Allen board.
Suddenly, I was reading scripts in all sorts of meetings because I did a great impression of Tim’s manly grunting. (A skill I still possess to this day). We shot 14 spots and did radio and print with Tim over two years and had a blast. It was a great learning experience for a young writer.
RRR!
