Samsung loved to take the gloves off against Apple. From buying kiosks in front of their stores to wrapping the train that goes to Cupertino, their home. The work always drew great attention, from both consumers and the media. One of our jabs even ignited an international outcry from Fanboys on both sides. Imitation is definitely flattering.

TFO has long been known in fly fishing circles for crafting rods with incredible touch. To break into conventional fishing, they told us they used that expertise to create rods which basically mind meld with the fish. We took it from there.

There’s a place every athlete—from weekend warriors to the pros—goes to find inspiration and motivation. How they get there is different for each of them.But their journey always starts in a pair of Reeboks.

Fans hate the people who officiate the sports they love. It just seems to be part of the game. And of all the officials on the planet, the most hated were NBA refs. Fans regularly skewer them on social media, and most of the refs had no idea how it even worked.

So we overhauled their image. New logo, new website and plenty of social media presence, especially on Twitter. All designed to remind people refs are human and humans aren’t perfect. From infographics outlining how often the refs get it right—amazingly often—to a video featuring the refs reading and responding to actual tweets directed at them.

Our positioning for Texas Health is simple: we’re making health care human again. The ads reflect their humanity. Connecting with people on an emotional level. Mostly through humor. It took some convincing to get Texas Health to embrace being humorous. But they did and went all in. Now, they own it in the North Texas health care market.

That was pre-pandemic. Our two latest ads still connect with people on an emotional level, albeit different emotions. We’re looking forward to moving beyond the pandemic and being funny again.

North Texas Public Broadcasting wants to be an organization worthy of major philanthropic investment. Our approach—don’t work to build philanthropy, build a brand.

We brought their various properties—KERA 90.1, KERA TV, KERA.org, KERA Kids Art & Seek and KXT 91.7—together under a logo convention that’s a conversation spark. Gave them a contemporary look and feel. And created a tagline that’s part rallying cry, part call-to-action, Go Public.

As I writer, I’ve always loved the newspaper. We moved to Texas when I was 11 and got both Dallas papers—the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald—delivered every day. The Times Herald is long gone. And the DMN, like many papers, has struggled.

They came to us to rebuild their app. To bring in a new, younger audience. I was ecstatic. I’d never been part of developing an app before.

We completely rebuilt it, creating an app people can’t put down – especially Millennials. In reality, they’d never started reading the paper, and have always consumed news differently. We designed an app to appeal to their idea of news. A shared, two-way conversation, not a one-way discourse.

Known for its gaming computers, ASUS was looking to bolster their place in the mobile market with a new, unlocked phone—you can buy it and pick whichever carrier you want.

The Zenfone 5 offers a great feature set at a reasonable price, aimed at Millennials. With this in mind, we helped them launch with a purely social strategy. Led by video.

A 2-minute long-form, driven by hip-hop artist Tyrone Briggs’ track, “Alive,” and a VO from Dallas rapper Sam Lao, did the heavy lifting on YouTube. Edited versions, from :60 down to :10, led the way on other social platforms.

I love golf. I suck at golf. Working on Palmer was a dream. Getting to go to Bay Hill and spend time with the man himself, that was surreal. And trying to capture his spirit in ads was like trying to get it in tight with a 40-yard bunker shot.

Palmer really liked them, said they sounded like him. Felt like him. Of course, he thought they were better when the heads/quotes still included the expletives they were originally written with. I did too. He approved those. His agent, however, did not.

Often, the greatest compliment paid in advertising is someone saying, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.” Those are my exact sentiments about “Life Comes at You Fast” for Nationwide Insurance. What a simple, yet brilliant way to tap into the angst, anxiety and human truth that drive the need for insurance. So, to Wade Alger and Jay Russell and your original LCAYF team—damn you.

While I did not originate the campaign idea, I did concept, write and creative direct on it. Proving that it’s also an infinitely extendable idea. Double damn you. And thanks.

Two pieces for American. One, a digital video with an opening and closing art card and not one word of dialogue or voice-over. The second, a :60 TV spot with a couple of dialogue lines and exactly 15 words of voice-over. With American, storytelling is crucial. As a writer, I consider these a couple of my best stories.

A few additional pieces I love. Some are travelers from the way-back machine, others orphans looking for a comfortable place to call home.