Fashion is fickle. You're either too hip. Or not hip enough. Thankfully, Levi's doesn't see themselves as a traditional fashion brand. Rather a life brand. In one of our first meetings, the CMO of Levi's said "You wear jeans. You live in Levi's." From that, we wrote an essence video that captured that belief. It worked, we won Levi's. Everyone loved the essence video so much, we turned it into the global launch spot for Live in Levi's.  

Working on an iconic brand can be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Having your work become iconic, is life changing. I still pinch myself over how much of a piece of pop culture "The Force" has become.

That said, the father in me loves all my children equally. This Tiguan commercial makes me laugh every time. And the post production work on this Beetle launch spot amazes me.

VW is one of those rare brands that has an emotional connection with everyone that has owned, grown up around or been a passenger in one. People love talking about their '67 Beetle, '74 bus or '86 convertible Rabbit they used to have. The problem was, too few people were driving the new VW models. New car buyers didn't know there were new VW models.

The challenge was to relaunch VW with the 13 new models that no one knew existed. Simple. We had to make the new VW models as iconic as the logo on their hoods.

So we brought back the original game of Slug Bug. Updated the name, called it Punch Dub and tweaked the rules slightly to promote the 13 new models.

The Punch Dub campaign not only relaunched the VW brand, but it educated and engaged new car buyers on the 13 new models and reignited the national dealer group with foot traffic they never had before.

It also made for one of the most talked about and highly rated Super Bowl spots featuring Stevie Wonder playing Punch Dub.

Thank you Stevie for the gift of an incredibly funny end joke to our spot. 

When I first started working with Nabi, they were a small start up with one goal: To build confidence in kids and make them fearless when it comes to using technology. Nabi lives by the idea of "encouraging the next generation of creative thinkers".

How could I not want to work with this company?

The challenge was simple, or at least one that I've heard from almost every client: How can you make our tiny production budget feel big? I do what I always do, call my friends and pull some favors.

There's always a way to make great work for great brands. 

Not too long ago, the light beer category had the best and most talked about commercials on TV thanks to Bud Light and Miller Lite. Unfortunately, Coors Light wasn't part of this conversation. Their commercials were humorless and invisible in the most beloved category in advertising. 

This needed to change. An iconic brand like Coors Light needed to be a part of the pop culture conversation.

So we turned Coors Light into a badge of honor. "Here's to the Wingman" celebrated one of the most relatable buddy-beer moments ever and gave guys (and the women who love them) a beer drinkers anthem to sing. 

We followed this up with several spots that paid tribute to the smaller, sometimes overlooked, achievements that guys do. The achievements guys brag about for the rest of their lives every time they get together and drink Coors Light with their buddies. 

After launching the Live Mas campaign with the world's most anticipated taco in the history of tacos (the Doritos Loco Taco) it was time to launch a whole new menu board of new products to sustain the campaign.

The first was the one-hand nacho that you can eat on the run. And I know what you're thinking: Who would ever need to eat nachos on the run? Exactly, sometimes the best ideas come from asking the obvious question. This commercial, "Nachos on the run" gave Taco Bell one of their best new product launches ever. 

The next spot "Girlfriend" introduced the appetizer for one. Which flew in the face of what an appetizer is meant to do: Be shared. But we found that not everyone wants to share everything. No matter how attrative their girlfriend is. 

Before Netflix, Apple TV or Hulu, we had only one option to watch first run movies at home: Rent them from the local video store. Truly the dark days of mankind. 

This campaign was a reminder to the person watching DirecTV, that they had DirecTV, not just regular TV, and they could watch any first-run movie that was still in theaters, without waiting, without going to the video store, without doing anything other than pointing their clicker at the DirecTV box and ordering any movie they wished on DirecTV Blockbuster pay-per-view. 

These are the three original launch spots. We did close to 50 commercials in this campaign. It was such a success, so beloved by customers and the clients, it became the brand campaign for DirecTV for following 7 years.

Cheese is a commodity. So how is a consumer suppose to differentiate between cheese made in Wisconsin and cheese made in California? Plus, Wisconsin is famous for being the cheese capital of America.

Enter a herd of Happy Cows from California. Some have argued, the most beloved advertising icons ever. Not only did we give consumers a reason to believe that California Cheese was the best, we gave California cows their rightful place in the sun. Literally. 

This was just one of many spots created to relaunch Kmart. We didn't want to do just another back-to-school spot targeting moms.

We couldn't think of a better way to put a smile on mom's face than with a bunch of "Yo Mama" jokes. 

Hyundai had a simple challenge: Give us some Super Bowl spots that get ranked among the top 10 on the USA Today Top 25 Super Bowl ranking the morning after the Super Bowl. 

We earned the #5 and #9 spots that year. 

You gotta love demanding clients. 

I've worked on some pretty challenging brands. None of which were more so than GM. The company had gotten so big, so lost and so mired in financial problems, they were literally forced to make massive change. 

The "Chapter One" relaunch commercial was the most honest way of saying "we made a mistake and we're going to fix it." And GM fixed it.

The "Robot" commercial only ran once, on the Super Bowl. It proved how everyone at GM is committed to quality. And we mean everyone. 

When we heard that 88% of GM owners had never pushed their OnStar button in their vehicle, it didn't surprise me. I was one of them. i didn't know what it was, why it was in our Suburban and how much money it would cost me if one of my kids pushed it. So we did what 88% of GM owners did, ignored it. 

So I knew the challenge first hand: Educate me, and all current GM owners, but also attract new buyers with the most ingenious piece of technology ever put into a vehicle.

This was one of the easiest assignments I worked on while running the GM account. Chevy is a beloved American icon and had a long history partnering with two of America's greatest sports: MLB and NASCAR.

I didn't come up with the line American Revolution. But my name is in America. I don't know why I just said that. I guess I just want to see if anyone is actually reading these write ups I'm sweating over.

CiCi's is a small chain of all-you-can-eat pizza restaurants in the South. They have one of the most loyal customer bases I have ever seen. People love them some CiCi's. So to connect with CiCi's fans we created this campaign to celebrate them and the two things they love the most next to God, family and country: CiCi's pizza and saving money.

I love brands that know who they are and the power they hold with their customer base. 

Back in 1998, everyone wanted a Mitsubishi. Unfortunately, they wanted a Mitsubishi big screen TV. Not a Mitsubishi car. So, as you can imagine, Mitsubishi Motors was considering shutting down and pulling out of North America. Then we won the account, came up with the Wake up and Drive campaign and turned the company around. The work engaged new car buyers for the first time in it's history to consider Mitsubishi like never before and lead to record sales 4 years in a row. 

After working on Coors Light, CiCi's Pizza and Calfornia Cheese for several years, it was time to get the Springer in shape. Not only did I lose 20 pounds, I got inspired to help create this campaign for Anthem. 

This advertising stuff really works.

This was the project that won the Saturn account for Deutsch/LA. The CMO of Saturn had heard great things about the agency from our clients at GM. But she wasn't sure we could write to the Saturn voice she loved. Not only did we win her over with this work, we won the entire Saturn account and sold a lot of Aura's with this launch work. 

Saturn was an icon American car company that helped bring back faith in the American car industry. Hal Riney originally launched this brand with a voice that made all of us believe that America could build a great car to compete against the imports. Unfortunately, the cars (with plastic doors and limited production) weren't as desirable as the advertising. After years of having "nice" cars, Saturn finally had a whole new lineup of models and it was time to introduce them with a new brand voice that didn't walk away from the soul of the brand that Hal created years prior.

I was honored to work on this brand.

RIP Saturn.