I'll never forget the moment my partner and I came up with the first color chips spot, at a coffeeshop in Durham. What started out as a single cinema ad has become the client's flagship campaign, adding color to the reel of tons of McKinney's creatives.
Of everything I've done, this is the one I want to tell my grandchildren about. It took a leap of faith for our client to let us make a game about poverty, but that leap paid off. We've helped over 50 million people around the world understand how impossibly hard it is to live on the edge of poverty.
This is a gorgeous spot. It's also a feat of engineering. Shot entirely in-camera using a first-of-its-kind robot arm, it's the most beautiful demonstration of paint being shot through water you'll ever see.
Props to David Sloan & Jordan Eakin for their creative vision. Being their CD is a pretty sweet gig.
The things homeless people need most are so basic most of us don't even think about what life would be like without them.
So we decided to give those things the star treatment they deserve.
How? By using the same strategy stadiums employ to make billions. We sold the naming rights to everything in the building.
Free shipping sounds like a good deal. But when you think about it, you're stuck at home while the stuff you buy gets an all-expenses-paid trip across the globe.
That's just wrong. So we worked with Norwegian Air to make it right, by launching the Best Free Shipping Sale on Earth. It's the only sale where YOU get shipped for free.
Our sale featured 20 items, sourced from 20 European destinations. You snag the item, you get a free trip to go pick it up.
My first OOH campaign and it was a doozy: Dozens of distinct executions, covering most of NYC. We wrote love letters from Virgin Mobile to boroughs, neighborhoods, intersections, bike messengers, hot dog vendors, and even specific buildings. We pissed off some people, but that was part of the plan.
It's always nice to work on a brand whose business promise you genuinely believe.
It's even better when you get to give that brand a bit more polish than they've had in the past.
Especially when that polish is made with two parts gorgeous visuals and one part Frances McDormand sass.
By far the most ridiculous thing I've ever worked on, Let's Have Txt was our Valentine's Day campaign for Virgin Mobile.
We celebrated their unlimited texting promotion with help from gallons of baby oil, tons of PG-13 sexual innuendo, and live operators texting 16 hrs/day for two weeks straight.
(Hopefully the freshness of the concept shines through the shitty resolution of the videos.)
I was curious about how Twitter bots work. So I decided to make one of my own.
Tweet an idea to @yourfavecd and get the validation your human creative directors insist on denying you.
A 50-level game about Century Link's voice and data solutions that's nearly impossible to beat? My team said I was crazy. Until hundreds of thousands played it and tens of thousands made it all the way to the end.
The first pitch I ever worked on, the first pitch I ever won and my first real production. I remember standing on set the first day of the shoot, flabbergasted that all these people running around were there to turn my goofy idea into reality.
I've done a lot of work I'm proud of, but this campaign will always be my first baby.
How many times have you walked past a homeless person on the street with your eyes resolutely fixed forward, trying your best to pretend they're not there?
We dramatized that insight in an unexpected way. This campaign kicked off my work with UMD, the most meaningful of my career.
How do you make Steelers fans lose their minds on Twitter? You take an old ceiling fan and a wooden hand holding their beloved Terrible Towel and you connect them so every #steelersnation hashtag gives it a spin. Oh and you do it six days before Super Bowl XLV.
Everyone got in on the towel twirling action (ed. note: In what other industry would I get to write that phrase in my resume? I love this business), from CNN to Deadspin to the head coach of the Steelers himself.
Name Your Tale was a super-fun experiment in micro-fiction. We invited visitors to the site to submit any title they'd like. We then turned select titles into 100-word pieces of fiction.
The site is long gone, but it remains my most beloved side project. I've included some of my favorite stories here. And hey, if you've got a title, send it my way. I'll send you back a story. Promise.
When I was pregnant, I wanted desperately for someone to tell me that I could be both a mother and a successful creative. Instead, I found dozens of articles bemoaning how impossible it was. So I launched Mama Needs a Big Idea. That way, when some future pregnant creative goes looking for someone who's been there, she'll find me.
A Twitter account detailing all the things that are sadder than things people on Twitter think nothing's sadder than.
