With roughly six residents per square mile, glorious isolation is kind of the point in Wyoming. I was fortunate to be able to help put Wyoming on the map for crowd-avoiding adventure seekers.
This Oklahoma medical center let us do some imaginative and memorable work. Fun fact: The television spot included here was a Milwaukee 99 Best of Show winner.
St. Pete/Clearwater knew winter was a great time to tempt cold-weather warriors in cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle and Toronto. We took over train stations, buses, city sidewalks and other frigid places and hit ’em where the sun don’t shine.
The Brewers were not a good team in 2000 but they were moving into a brand-spanking-new stadium with all the modern-day bells and whistles. This work was designed to create excitement for the baseball experience – if not for the team itself. As a Brewers fan, I couldn’t complain.
The Mountain State had some well-known issues to overcome. Fortunately, natural beauty wasn’t one of them. We were asked to work with their tagline “Almost Heaven,” so headlines and copy dialed up the spirituality. John Denver would’ve approved.
Nurture was a new company whose mission was to improve the functionality and harmony of work environments. Health care was ripe for this kind of thinking. We used a little exaggeration and some uncomfortable humor to bring the problem to life.
Yet another attempt to defy the conventions of healthcare advertising. These spots promoted the hospital’s ER bedside registration and newborn training classes, but did it with humor and relatable human insights.
Louie’s Demise is a local beer inspired by the great-great-uncle of two brothers (and brewery owners) from Milwaukee. Louie, the story goes, was bludgeoned to death during a bar fight over a woman. Amber lovers would agree, he did not die in vain.
In Milwaukee, a large percentage of infant deaths are caused by unsafe sleep practices. Our job was to educate parents about the tragic dangers inherent in sharing a bed with a newborn. The campaign was controversial but the decline in deaths over a 5-year period validated our approach.
This now-defunct Milwaukee treasure curated and celebrated some of the legendary ad campaigns and cultural curiosities that left their mark on America. The museum closed in 2010 but inspired a ton of inventive work while it lasted.
As a top 10 cancer hospital, Moffitt wasn’t lacking in clinical excellence or surgical prowess. What they needed was an emotional hook to humanize them and make their patients feel empowered to beat the disease. We had a few ideas.
Unlike most healthcare clients, ProHealth Care often gave us the green light to deliver a message without doctors, nurses or sterile hospital halls. We brought imagination and charm to otherwise low-interest offerings like urgent care clinics, online health risk assessments and virtual visits.
People avoid donating blood for various reasons. Most just don’t feel the urgency of opening a vein for a perfect stranger. Using striking, beautifully shot images, this campaign posed a simple question designed to jostle the inertia of potential donors: “Where exactly do you think we get it from?”
Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate had been out of control for too long. Our long-running “Strong Baby” campaign set out to educate and change the behaviors of pregnant moms. It led to double-digit declines in infant mortalities over the life of the campaign.
From racial tension and drug abuse to sex trafficking and homelessness, the United Way goes to places most people won’t. This work was presented but not produced, as it was deemed too dark and not hopeful enough. Judge for yourself.
Gun violence in Milwaukee, like many big cities, was at alarming levels. This campaign was part of a broader ongoing effort to educate the business community, thought leaders and the general public that the problem touched all of us eventually.
Cellcom is a regional wireless carrier based in Green Bay. The client had been featuring Packers players and coaches before we took over the account and wanted to continue featuring them. True story: the TV shoot took place during the peak of Covid-19 in July 2020.
Work long enough in this business and you amass a vast collection of work that shows your range—and growth—as a creative. Some of it’s cringeworthy. Some of it holds up. Here are a few from the mists of time that I still have a soft spot for.
No photos. No video. Just imagine.
I’ve probably written over a thousand radio spots in my career. While I love working as a team, radio is pretty much a lone wolf kind of deal. And when script, talent and production all come together, it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Manifestos are written for new business pitches and campaign introductions to convey the essence of what a company stands for. They’re aspiration. Clarifying. And designed to rally the troops. Here’s a sampling of things I’ve written that let me stretch a bit as a writer.
Vince Van Patten was a teen idol in the ‘70s who laid low for decades before we cast him to be Potawatomi’s spokesman. His “California cool” persona helped elevate the casino’s image overnight. Have to admit, it was fun to write scripts for a guy who played the bionic boy on “The Six Million Dollar Man.”
Sex trafficking is an under-the-radar epidemic in Milwaukee, where the average age of children taken and sold for sex is just 13. Our “Unlucky 13” campaign raised awareness among parents and others in the community, offering warning signs and tips for how to protect children.
