Meet Covie.

Covie loves you. Covie loves everybody. He doesn’t care about your politics or your “scientific theories.” He just wants to hang out, no big deal. And probably eat your lungs.

He’s out there, and he’s everywhere. Just doing what viruses do. So you’d better watch out for yourself. Because Covie gonna Covie.

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This was an independent project by a small, scrappy crew of ad and film folks. We were driven by our personal Covid losses to channel our anger into something that stood out against the drone of preaching and political rancor. To encourage awareness and prevention. And hopefully save some lives.

Also, we wanted to build a giant virus costume.

WEBSITE: heycovie.com

Two of my favorite things are food and people bringing me food.

So a stint doing digital deliverables at food delivery app Caviar was ideal, a chance to write about something I truly believe in: SNACKS.

Featured in Shoot Magazine

Our goal with this work was to create a tongue-in-cheek celebration of certain common threads in the Jewish experience. That’s not true. What we really wanted to do involved a ridiculously long tandem bicycle. But these were fun too. Throughout the Bay Area, across a variety of media, we raised awareness and invited all to attend in honor of the festival’s 25th year. 

Generally speaking, I would rather be outside, which, weirdly for something that’s free, can cost a lot of money. And right around the time I picked up a gig at REI, I was spending way too much at REI. But why pay a couple hundred dollars to drive somewhere and stay inside all warm and cozy when you can drop thousands to carry 40 pounds on your back for miles and sleep on rocks in the cold?

I was brought on to help out with the social and DM pieces for the annual dividend and the 20% off coupon that is sent out soon after. These are the Instagram pushes we did for the kickback. TBH I’m not sure which actually went out, but these were the contenders. (Well, the last one was never going to run, I just threw that in to make the internal team laugh because I’m thirsty and I need that kind of validation.)

Print - Silver Cannes Lion Silver Drumstick (Golden Drum Awards) TV  - Lürzers's Archive

In the bowels of Old Town Prague, through a tunnel filled with vendors hawking “Prague Czech It Out” and “Praha Drinking Team” t-shirts, down some stairs into a cellar that is itself dungeon-like, you’ll find this gallery dedicated to the medieval aptitude for pain infliction. It’s kind of schlocky and definitely gory.

But here's the thing. People actually did these things to each other. People actually had these things done to themselves.

So I wanted to do something disturbing. But not gratuitous. By eliciting a visceral response using inanimate objects, the visual experience is emotionally transferred into the horrifyingly human. 

I am not what you would call an early bird. I love the IDEA of greeting the sunrise with open-armed joy, but when 6 a.m. rolls around I want no part of it. So when the brief called for some Big Morning Person Energy, I dug deep. You say you want some mothertruckin’ exuberance before noon? Bam! You want some more? Bam!

This was Torani’s first venture into consumer-town in their hundred-plus year history. These ads set the tone for their campaign, which increased retail sales dramatically and encouraged them to run additional work across print, web, social and other marketing materials. 

You have probably never heard of Bemis but there’s a good chance they’ve been on you. There’s a good chance they’re on you right now.

They do Sewfree bonding, a construction technique that replaces sewing. They’re like the guy behind the guy, especially when it comes to high-end athletic and athleisure brands, as well as quality leather goods and certain highly-litigious and proprietary tech companies that shall remain super-secret. 

As a business that had pivoted towards market demands for over a hundred years, they had found an exclusive and unique niche – and had no idea how to talk about it. They had stacks of cumbersome tech spec brochures and product lists. They weren’t connecting with the designers and developers who would benefit most from the product, if only they knew what it could do.

We got them to stop selling thermoactivated adhesive films and start selling inspiration.

Redesigned and reimagined, they were finally able to be on the outside what they always knew they were on the inside. Singular. Game-changing. Beautiful. 

Results came fast with broadened relationships. Inroads into new industries. Profits. And a clear vision for the future.

They came to us a company. They left a brand.

Applied Underwriters sells a lot of workman’s comp insurance, and they have a lot of employees to sell that insurance, and they want those people to sell more. So they do an annual drive called the Great Golf Giveaway to bribe their brokers with golf gear. And to let them know it’s that time again, they send them some objets de desk clutter along with the details of the promo.

These projects are always fun — it’s a unique challenge and change of pace to actually MAKE make something. These are a few of my favorites.

Worker’s comp insurance may not sound that glamorous but I’ve concepted and created some cool projects with this client. They do a lot of in-house sales drives, and produce clever DM tchotchkes and trade show thingamabobs to get the word out. (I can’t claim credit for this one but check it. In your face, Chuck Woolery.)

These projects are for a wine promo that Applied runs every year for its brokers.

Applied Underwriters wanted a fun poster to tip into the worker’s comp “almanac” that they send out to their tens of thousands of brokers every year.

Of course, we were going to need pirates. Starting with the basic fact that the buccaneering industry was the first to implement a sort of proto-workers’ comp system, we put together this piece, a cross-section of a ship showing the modern-day ICD-10 (cause of injury) codes for a plethora of hazards that could have applied to life on the deep blue sea. And discovered just how many weird and weirdly specific afflictions they can classify today. A little bird fanciers’ lung got you down? (J67.2) Maybe contact with turtles didn’t go the way you’d hoped? (W59.2) Click on the image and poke around to see some of the potential ways things could go horribly, horribly wrong at work, then or now.

Napa Valley isn’t just a place, it’s a lifestyle. Wine country living ties people to nature, to each other, and, obviously, to some big, sexy Zins. There is an appreciation for the best things in life, the simple things, that permeates everything­–the food, the culture, the mindset. Stress is hard to come by in a place like this.

There’s a winemaking term, terroir, that describes the unique characteristics a vineyard's location imparts. A grape grown in one place will be totally different than the same grape grown in another. The wine tells a story of soil, water, air. And there's another element, one you can’t quite put your finger on. That’s Napa, telling you to chill.  

IDA Design Award - Graphic Design (as part of campaign) 

Sometimes the clients you'd expect to be open to quirky ideas are depressingly straight, while others you wouldn't are like, "Yes, we should make your super weird idea." This was created as a companion web/social component for Applied Underwriters' in-house wine promo. You get 10 randomly generated terms that are either wine or pro-wrestling lingo. An animated sommelier and an old-timey brawler either praise you or deride you for your answers. At the end of the round your abilities are ranked, and you can share your success/shame with your social networks. 

It’s harder than you’d think, give it a try.* 

(ERROR ERROR The live link has gone…funky. Hope to have it unfunkified soon. Please check out the still shots in the meantime, you’ll get the idea.)

Leitz, a German office supply company, was looking to make inroads into new territories.

The Mission: Take over the office product market in the U.S. 

The Secret Weapon: ...A label printer.

The Budget: Nope.

Oh, and it had to be VO-only for global use. So, some challenges. Using mostly spit, duct tape, and non-SAG talent we created an online campaign promoting Leitz as the messiah of mobility. Cut into :30, :60s and :90, the video served from pre-roll to demo purposes, and was re-dubbed for other markets. (And got a surprisingly high number of hits.) Higher-level brand messaging followed up on social media.

A deep-ish dive into the world of Indy Cars, not just the race itself but how closely interwoven it is with the place it’s held and racing culture. Produced by Applied Underwriters as part of a goodie bag given to their guests at the event.

I still need to get me one of them fried pork sandwiches.

Featured on AdForum

This project was in conjunction with an exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago meant to bring awareness to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the first official genocide of the 21st century.

As we were mounting the work before we showed it to the client, I sliced off the tip of a finger with an Exacto knife. Two words: Blood. Everywhere.  No amount of clotting spray could stop the flow. The executive assistant suggested whiskey–she was Irish–also not helpful. I presented with my hand swaddled in paper towels, hidden behind my back, hoping it didn't start to leak liquid horror. 

SInce then, although international attention has dwindled the situation in Darfur continues. In a country of 7.5 million, 3 million are estimated displaced and as many as 400,000 dead.

My finger has long since healed. 

It was a simpler time, when all we had to worry about was the collapse of the global economy, and the war, famine, societal disintegration, and general deathiness that would follow. Obviously, what we needed most were vegetable oil spreads. As part of a larger initiative called “The Goodness of Margarine,” (yeah, I know), these were done to support a media buy in various financial publications in the U.K. As Winston Churchill famously said, “When you’re going through hell, make toast.”

The first couple of days you work at an agency with a gum account, your jaw gets very, very sore. Gum is just…there. Everywhere. You chew gum All. The. Time. You pop a piece in your mouth and go to town on it for a few minutes, spit it out, and a few minutes later you cram another piece in. At gum client meetings, breaks in the conversation are filled with a strange white noise, the muted concerto of a roomful of mouths wetly gnashing and smacking and grinding. A couple months down the line you see yourself in the mirror and wonder how your face has gotten so square, your profile so robust and masculine. And still you chew. And you chew. And you chew. 

Here's some gum ads. 

(These were done under the existing campaign line for 5, Stimulate Your Senses. The idea being that this gum was so intense it would activate a highly unusual response of the nervous system including, but not limited to, flavor hallucinations and mouth seizures. Or something.) 

Jamba Juice was doing ok-ish, financially, but continuing to lose traction as similar retailers expanded into their territory. Identity-wise, they were a mess. Five agencies over as many years had left their mishmashed footprints all over the stores, the signage, the collateral.

We moved them away from a dated color palette, random fonts, weird puns, and gave them a cohesive look and personality. We also got them to embrace existence beyond the walls of their retail locations, to establish an outdoor presence that kept them top of mind. We wanted to make people thirsty while handing them the solution.

Über-macro images of fruits, lush and borderline abstract, offered the beauty of nature–at the core of Jamba’s being­–in startling detail.

Every piece of communication became a caring message, a reminder to be good to yourself. Love, Jamba.

It was clean. It was fresh. 

It never was. It got kibboshed mid-implementation following a change in their C-suite. 

Advertising, am I right? 

I learned a word when I was working on clients in the UK. "Poncy." Pretentious. Elitist. Über-cool. Pretty much anything that ran in that market, whether it was beer or appliances or margarine, was to some degree poncy. 

The campaign for Beck’s that was running in Britain at the time was all about the things you said “no” to, presumably because you were too edgy for all that loser pedestrian bullshit. It was HELLA poncy. We were tasked with the continuation of the brief and found that it was a lot more open and interesting if you talked about what you said “yes” to. Go explore. Share. Connect. Get out there.

We created the Beck'sphere, a partially-curated, partially user-generated experience that was held together with social and mobile tech and supplemented with traditional media. With real-time geotagging, it allowed you to share events, art, music, whatever, with either specific groups and connections or the general public.

But it was still, of course, a tad bit poncy.