Writing & Print
Founded by Joseph Pulitzer, the Post-Dispatch has a long history of being St. Louis’ touchstone and a common meeting ground for its citizens.
But even in the late 90s, the industry as a whole was starting to lose readership on a large scale.
The Post-Dispatch asked us to remind the community how a more thoughtful and thorough news source remained relevant in their lives. Each of these ads is based on different insights into the role of the newspaper in people’s lives.
This campaign came before the years of Stella McCartney designing for Adidas; when women were relegated to wearing their boyfriend’s Señor Frog’s t-shirt and baggy, butt-hating shorts. The time had come, and Lucy of Portland was a sweaty sister’s savior.
Lucy was a new women’s athletic retailer, featuring cute and well-designed workout wear. And Lucy of Portland was the frank and foxy savior who talked about the realities of women’s workout wear that we didn’t even realize were falling short. She was a fresh and unexpected voice at the time, and was unapologetic in letting women know they shouldn’t settle for less.
Women loved it. They wrote to Lucy, to the agency, and even to the magazines who ran the ads to tell them how much they loved reading about Uniboobs, Creased Crotches, and Knotted Nipples. But not Martha Stewart. She had her magazine yank them as soon as she saw them.
After years of licensing its name to various products and companies around the world, O'Neill was buying back the rights to its name and relaunching its brand under one company. Our recommendation and mission was to reclaim its primacy as a leader in board sports by going back to its roots - the inventor of the wetsuit, Jack O'Neill - and turning its heritage into a compelling and motivating mindset shared by modern enthusiasts.
To capture the hearts and heads of the consumer and align it with the heritage of the brand - we proposed First In, Last Out as the relaunch for a newly focused and committed O'Neill.
Browning is a brand of finely-crafted, hand-tooled fishing rods for gentlemen who know about such things.
I, on the other hand, do not like fishing. But I loved the intensity, time, knowledge and persnickety-ness that each of the rod makers brought to the endeavor. And was honored to step into their shoes and share their code of craft and honor with the world.
I can even vaguely recall the process of making a fishing rod.
Zebco is the affordable, meant-for-the-masses fishing rod. If you're serious about fishing - this is not the rod for you.
Zebco asked me to create a "marketing statement" for them. They weren't expecting what I gave them. But it spoke to them. And they adopted it as their brand promise, produced an unscheduled ad and a slew of posters, and included the text on all of their packaging.
These are a few excerpted pages of a Brand DNA that my partner Rodrigo Butori and I masterminded for the matchmaking start up, Let Us Kiss.
I wrote the deck to walk, talk, and act like the DNA we envisioned.
