Steve Hayden's NDAC Talk

Last night I saw Steve Hayden, an advertising giant (Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather North America), speak in Denver at the Curtis Hotel for the New Denver Ad Club. I won't try to regurgitate all the relevant thoughts he surfaced, but I will mention what I walked away with.

Steve said if you simply add the letter "L" to the idea of an ad campaign - you have an "ideaL." His recent success has been marked by the ability to define the purpose of an ad with a noble or humorous statement like, "The world would be a better place if _____ did _____."

The best example I saw in his many commercials was the "Real Women" Dove campaign. With a noble purpose attached to a generic product, consumers became evangelists of the campaign and it spread like wildfire. I forget the actual line, but it was something like "The world would be a better place if the Dove Real Women campaign helped women feel beautiful about themselves."

Thank you Steve Miller of NetNewsDesk.com for asking me to shot some snapshots of the talk. Hayden was a real gentleman. I took a quick portrait, above, on a deck outside the conference room.

NDAC Super Ad Suday

The New Denver Ad Club is hosting an event where Denver Creatives are invited to come judge the Super Bowl commercials. It's going to be a great party.

I had the pleasure of collaborating with some of Denver's best to create a series of humorous referee calls to illustrate calling "foul" on the commercials. Here is the first in the series with more to come. See the link above if you would like to join us at the event!


Copy: "You had to have it your way. The client was nervous. The director baffled. Your partner jumped ship. But hey, this is the Super Bowl baby. Screw compromise... right?

Wrong dimwit. Even David Lynch is scratching his head. You’re a true auteur. Too bad you’re in advertising. Or at least you were until you shot your career in the face with that big fat double-barrel ego."

This one is super dark... others will be more light hearted.

Art Direction:
Jeff Mason, Hero Design Studio
Greg Ryan, Juice Communications
Steve Miller, NetNewsdesk
Copywriter: Brian Wilkens, The Integer Group