e.l.f. beauty — “So Many Dicks”

While other companies were turning their backs on DEI, e.l.f. Beauty doubled down. They took aim at corporate boards, which are still largely white and male.

We took over NYC’s financial district with over 100 different digital assets and “So Many Dicks” became one of the most viral campaigns of the year, and was shortlisted for 10 Cannes Lions including Glass & Titanium.

Plus, it made real change. As part of the effort, e.l.f. sponsored a group of diverse candidates through the National Association of Corporate Directors. So far, 10% of them have been placed on real boards. 

Cannes Lions
Silver Winner: Creative Data
10 Shortlists including Glass + Titanium

One Show
Fusion Pencil Winner

Effies
Silver Winner: Social Good / Positive Change

Andys
Gold Winner: Idea
Gold Winner: Bravery

OBIE Awards
Gold Winner: Buzzworthy + Transit

Clio Awards
Silver Winner: Creative Use of Data

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: Oberland

COLLABORATORS: esteban izquierdo, lisa topol, carina cain, adriene vento, monica taylor & many others.

MakerPlace by Michaels

Michaels, the nation’s largest retailer of craft supplies, was launching an online marketplace for handmade goods. But how could they distinguish themselves from the Etsys of the world?

We focused on what makes MakerPlace unique: respect for both buyers and sellers. Buyers don’t have to look through dozens of knockoffs, and sellers are paid fairly.

We followed up our launch video with “interviews” of our crafty characters.

Our “crafty characters” became the voices of the brand, distinguishing it from sites that claim to be handmade, but really aren’t. (Cough cough… Etsy).

role: Cd, writer

agency: oberland

production: nexus

collaborators: LISA TOPOL, ESTEBAN IZQUIERDO, BILL OBERLANDER, KRISTEN BARNARD.

DIETZ NUTS

Dietz & Watson is a meat & cheese company based in Philadelphia. For the 2019 Super Bowl, we helped them launch a new product. They’re savory meat bites, but based on a joke from Dr. Dre’s 1992 album “The Chronic” we named them “Dietz Nuts.”

We created a spot featuring Craig Robinson and his brother Chris. The ad was featured on several “Best of the Super Bowl” lists. Dietz Nuts are now the company’s best-selling snack.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: RTO+P

COLLABORATORS: STEVE O’CONNELL, STEVE RED, TODD TAYLOR, JUSTIN RENTZEL

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: RTO+P

COLLABORATORS: TODD TAYLOR, STEVE O’CONNELL, STEVE RED, CASEY STORM

Michaels Holidays

For Michaels, the nation’s largest retailer of arts and craft supplies, holidays are a big deal. 30% of their sales come from seasonal items, or from craft supplies purchased for holidays.

So in 2024, they wanted to position Michaels as the holiday decorating authority for both Halloween and Christmas.

My team helped Michaels create a new campaign in which “holiday experts” like vampires, spooky twins, and a giant yeti head to the store to take their holiday game to the next level.

Michaels Halloween “Twins” :15

Michaels Halloween “DRAC JR” :15

Michaels HOLIDAY “UNBELIEVABLE” :15

Michaels HOLIDAY “ONE-UPPING” :15

Michaels HOLIDAY “CRAFTER” :15

We also made the yeti a star on TikTok. Here’s a clip of one of his behind-the-scenes posts.

Role: cD, writer, yeti-wrangler

Agency: Oberland

Production: Gifted Youth

Collaborators: Esteban Izquierdo, Lisa Topol, Monica Taylor, Bella Hardt, Alec Samuelson, Kristen Barnard, Molly RagU

ACLU “We Show Up”

The ACLU fights for immigrants’ rights, reproductive freedom, criminal justice, voting rights, free speech, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and more.

But when you do so many different things, how do you talk about yourself?

We created the brand platform “We Show Up” which unified ACLU’s wide-ranging activism. It came to life in a series of 8 documentaries. and spots for YouTube and social media, each focusing on a different issue.

Here are the :30 spots created from the documentary content, each designed to introduce one ACLU issue.

Watch the full criminal justice documentary here.

Watch the full trans rights documentary here

Watch the full free speech documentary here.

Watch the full immigrants’ rights documentary here.

Watch the full voting rights documentary here.

Watch the full reproductive rights documentary here.

The final project was especially powerful, as we interviewed Leona Tate, one of the first Black students to integrate a formerly all-White school in 1960. That’s her in the photo. Watch the full racial justice documentary here.

ROLE: CD, WRITER

AGENCY: OBERLAND

PRODUCTION: VERSUS

COLLABORATORS: Lisa Topol, Ronni Chow, Adriene Vento and Carina Cain. Directed by Damien Drake.

Climate Voice

Tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon often have great climate intentions. But they enable bad policy by joining trade associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports fossil fuels.

Activist organization Climate Voice wanted to get tech employees to call out this hypocrisy. Super simple brief, right? 

We framed the issue as a game, and with help from longtime climate activist Bill McKibben, we made a complicated issue urgent and even kind of fun.

It was such a pleasure to meet and direct Bill. He was willing to do silly stuff, and even let me take a picture.

The campaign resulted in thousands of petition signatures and 5.4M views via coverage in the Washington Post. 

ROLE: CD, WRITER, DIRECTOR

AGENCY: OBERLAND

PRODUCTION: PARODY

COLLABORATORS: Arnau bosc, esteban izquierdo, & emma ryan

Brady “Gunboxing”

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wanted help to end “family fire,” injury or death caused by an improperly stored gun in the home.

Playing off the online trend unboxing we created gunboxing, a video format in which someone shows how to safely store a gun by placing it in a safe.

Featuring influential athletes, the campaign bridged the gap between gun owners and safety advocates, taking a non-judgmental approach to gun storage.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: Oberland

COLLABORATORS: bill oberlander, lisa topol, & carina cain. directed by damien drake.

THE GABAGHOUL

Sometimes ideas appear where you least expect them. Philly-based meat and cheese company Dietz & Watson asked, “What should we do in October?”

We created the Gabaghoul, a ghastly gourmand with a Halloween cooking show. The character was played by Vincent Pastore, aka Big Pussy from The Sopranos.

The campaign was picked up by film and culture sites across the Internet, and even inspired fan art. AdAge named it one of its “Best Halloween Campaigns” which makes me happier than any other award I’ve won.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: RTO+P

COLLABORATORS: ROMAN MANNING & TODD TAYLOR. DIRECTED BY MICHAEL FAGAN.

Reyka Vodka

Reyka is a small-batch vodka from Iceland, with a small marketing budget. To help grow its US presence, my team and I created a surreal Icelandic world populated by puffins, narwhals, and a bearded weirdo named Frikki.

This was pre-AI, so every detail of our ads was crafted by hand. Also, I got to direct most of these spots, which is one of the great joys of my career.

Our “spokesman” is a real Icelander named Fridrik Ingvar Ingimundarson. He has no acting experience.

ADOPT A PUFFIN

Iceland is home to Atlantic Puffins, which are endangered. So in 2019 we encouraged vodka drinkers to “Adopt a Puffin” which provided Audubon’s Project Puffin with money and lots of people with puffin swag.

OTHER DUMB STUFF

I love this client so much. One April Fool’s Day, we introduced vodka flavored like things Icelanders enjoy.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: RTO+P

COLLABORATORS: TODD TAYLOR, STEVE O’CONNELL, DAVE WIEST, MICHELLE MABEN AND MANY OTHERS.

The Shit Show

WaterAid provides clean water, toilets, and hygiene education to communities around the world. In 2015, my team at co:collective created a social campaign around a cultural icon: the poop emoji.

We built an app that let anyone share a customized poop emoji to raise awareness of sanitation issues. Dozens of social media celebrities joined the campaign. Then we opened an art gallery of poop-themed art as an additional fundraiser.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: CO:COLLECTIVE

COLLABORATORS: TIFFANY ROLFE, Caitlin Bradley, Mary Turpin, Mike Hasinoff & Tania Staykova.

Yes, Virginia

In 1897 an eight-year-old girl named Virginia wrote to The New York Sun with a question.

"Is there a Santa Claus?" 

The answer became one of the most famous editorials in history, and inspired a long-running campaign for Macy’s. I wrote the script for and helped produce a 30 minute animated special called “Yes, Virginia.”

The special airs annually on CBS and is available on DVD and Netflix.

YES VIRGINIA STORYBOOK

After the success of the Yes, Virginia tv special, Harper Collins asked if we'd be interested in doing a picture book. 

I wrote the text and the talented James Bernardin illustrated. The book is available in bookstores nationwide.

PARADE BALLOON

In 2010, Virginia became a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

It's a weird feeling to see your character float down Broadway next to Shrek and Kermit the Frog.

ROLE: COPYWRITER & SCREENWRITER

AGENCY: JWT

COLLABORATORS: Matt MacDonald, Wayne Best, Kate Schwerin, Kallan Kagan, Robin Feldman, and lots of other magical people.

YouTube Beacons

Remember when everyone thought YouTube was just animal videos?

While working at co:collective, I helped create the YouTube "Beacons" campaign. Our goal was to show the real YouTube: a place where creators and fans come together to do amazing things. 

We created 14 separate campaigns across the US and UK, brining YouTube to the attention of worldwide media.

If you’d like to dive deeper into any of these campaigns, go for it.

It’s a LOT.

Epic Rap Battles of History
Video Game High School
Grace Helbig
Hannah Hart
Tyler Oakley
Lilly Singh
SORTEDfood
Copa90
DudePerfect

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: CO:COLLECTIVE

COLLABORATORS: TIAGO VEIGA, ANDREW MAY, KRISTEN BARNARD, LAURA DUNN AND MANY OTHERS.

Emotional Support Dogs

Nobody likes losing. Especially during the Super Bowl. But there’s nothing so sad, a hot dog can’t make it better.

In February 2022, my team helped Dietz & Watson launch “Emotional Support Dogs.” If your team lost the big game, all you had to do was tweet #DietzSupportDogs and we delivered a warm, comforting hot dog right to your door.

The Bengals lost to the Rams, and we delivered thousands of hot dogs to fans around the country.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: RTO+P

COLLABORATORS: STEVE O’CONNELL, TODD TAYLOR, NIALL SEGUNDO, DAVE WIEST

"Your First Time"

You never forget your first time at the polls.

For Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, we needed to get young, first-time voters into the voting booth.

Naturally, we turned to sex. We created a video starring Lena Dunham. It was viewed 2.5 million times during the campaign.

#3 commercial of 2012
-Time Magazine

"[It] appears to have won the presidential election."
-LA Times

It also pissed a lot of people off.

Print Campaign

We also create a print campaign for colleges. We didn’t let up with the sex jokes.

Spurred on by these efforts, the Obama campaign got 1.25 million more youth votes than it did in 2008.

Fun fact! The tagline for this campaign was originally "Swipe Your V-Card" but Obama wasn't into it.

Dot-to-Dot Poster

We also created this poster that featured each of Obama’s campaign promises as a dot in a portrait. As promises were kept, you could cross off the dots.

ROLE: copywriter

AGENCY: ss+K

COLLABORATORS: nathan phillips, paul spellman, jessica stewart, mike yang, kash sree.

Oscar

Health insurance doesn't have to suck.

That's what we set out to prove with Oscar, a new health insurance company created by the minds behind Instagram, Kickstarter and Warby Parker. 

The goal was to create a company that didn't feel like a health company.

ROLE: copywriter

AGENCY: design & acquisition (now untitled worldwide)

COLLABORATORS: steve peck

THE BALVENIE

The Balvenie is a single-malt scotch whisky. Its brand is all about craft — taking time to do things right, even if it’s harder, or takes years.

Anthony Bourdain also believed in craft. He lent his insatiable curiosity to the Balvenie for a long-running content series called “Raw Craft.” In each episode, Tony visited expert craftsmen and women to learn their trade and share a dram of whisky.

When Bourdain died suddenly in 2018, we created a tribute ad, which ran during the final episodes of “Parts Unknown.”

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: rto+P

COLLABORATORS: todd taylor, ari garber, dave wiest, steve o’connell, steve red.

ROLE: CD & writer

AGENCY: rto+P

COLLABORATORS: steve o’connell, dave wiest, roman manning, todd taylor & steve red.

Brisk Half & Half

This is the dumbest ad campaign I've ever done.

Brisk Half & Half is half iced tea, half lemonade.

It's ok, I guess.

In Spanish, it basically translates to “It’s not terrible.”

ROLE: copywriter

AGENCY: mekanism

COLLABORATORS: david horowitz, alberto ignacio & jason harris.

Keggy the Keg

Dartmouth College doesn't have a proper mascot. First there was the un-PC "Dartmouth Indian" and then the overly-PC "Big Green," but since 1970, nothing has stuck.

In 2001, my friend Nic and I decided to create a mascot that wasn't racist or sexist, yet entirely unacceptable. Dartmouth has a reputation for hard drinking, so booze was the logical choice.

We created "Keggy the Keg" and snuck him into the homecoming game. To this day, Keggy remains Dartmouth's "official unofficial" mascot. He’s also my only credit on Wikipedia.

ROLE: co-creator

COLLABORATORS: nic duquette & the dartmouth jack o’lantern

YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids is an app designed to help kids safely explore the world of YouTube.

To launch the app, we had real kids make up stories, then illustrated those stories with content found in the app. The result was a whole day of smiling and a whole lot of stories.

ROLE: copywriter

AGENCY: CO:COLLECTIVE

COLLABORATORS: TIAGO VEIGA, JEFF BLITZ AND LOTS OF KIDS.

Lord of the Rings: Quarantine Edition

During quarantine, some people baked bread. Others grew plants. I recreated all of The Lord of the Rings using LEGOs and random objects.

I posted the videos on Instagram, and they became a viral hit in the world of Tolkien fandom. But with COVID-19 raging, I wanted to do my part to help out. So I made the project a fundraiser for Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare to vulnerable communities.

Strangers from all around the world donated to help fight COVID (and the forces of Mordor).

Tyler Oakley

It's hard to be weird. 

But Tyler Oakley has become one of the world's top YouTube creators by daring to be himself, and inspiring others to do the same.

Fan-Generated Ads

We had Tyler ask his community of over 7M fans to share videos about what makes them strange and unique, using the hashtag #DareToBeYou. 

Thousands of brave fans shared their most intimate moments, which became part of Tyler's national TV campaign.

To thank his fans for participating, Tyler posted a longer video on his channel.

It gets pretty emotional.

Dare Tyler

We had fans write dares for Tyler, then filmed him answering them for this interactive ad. Each time you spin the wheel, Tyler does a different dare. (Don't do it though, this is just a GIF).

And of course, we put Tyler's face all over town.

Lilly Singh

Lilly Singh is an Indian-Canadian comedian who plays multiple characters: herself, her overbearing mom, her showboating dad, and her self-obsessed friends.

Her 6 million fans love her because she shows the weirdness of everyday family life (especially Indian families).

Around the same time as the campaign, Lilly won a streamy award. In her acceptance speech, she thanked YouTube for "not being afraid to put a brown girl on a billboard."

"Inception" Masthead

On the YouTube homepage, we introduced the world to Lilly. And Lilly. And Lilly.

To see it in context, click here.

Pre-roll Videos

We made a ton of these short introductions to Lilly and peppered them throughout YouTube. Some were general, and some were specific to the type of video you were about to watch. 

Out of Home

We put her face everywhere. 

Created with Tiago Veiga, Paul Fix, Jamie Overkamp, and Lilly Singh.

Grace Helbig

Grace Helbig is a comedian who has mastered the art of awkwardness. 

Our challenge was to show the world why 2.7 million fans love her... without making it seem like just another blonde girl on a billboard.

Basically, Grace helped us make fun of our own campaign.

Visual Style

We spent a lot of time making Grace look really weird. 

And she messed around with our other, more "normal" beacons.

Digital

Our digital ads featured Grace giving you "options." This series was one of the best performing mastheads YouTube has ever done. 

TrueViews

TrueViews are those short ads that play before YouTube videos. Grace finds them annoying.

Digital Outdoor

Grace is so sorry.

Socially-Powered Mural

We needed a way to let Grace's fans mess with the campaign a little. So we created a painted wall that her fans could affect via Twitter. Grace tweeted a series of choices, and the fans picked what was painted next.

Here's a full case-study video of the campaign featuring Grace, Hannah Hart, & Dude Perfect.

Hannah Hart

You might know Hannah Hart from the viral hit series "My Drunk Kitchen."

She's a great example of a weird, creative person who took a one-off video success and, with the help of her fans, grew it into a massive multimedia network.

We tried to capture Hannah's spirit of relentless optimism, even though legal wouldn't let us show much booze.

"Spill Wall"

This was one of my favorite outdoor things we did. We recreated windows to match the nearby buildings, then painted spilled pancake batter overtop of everything. It caught your eye from 20 blocks away.

We even hid other creators, the Dude Perfect Panda and Grace Helbig, in the wall as easter eggs.

Outdoor

Each outdoor poster referenced a particular episode from Hannah's weirdo channel.

Video

In Hannah's tv campaign, we focused on how her fans have helped her grow her channel from a drunken lark into an optimistic empire. 

"No Kid Hungry" Trivia Night

To support the campaign efforts, Hannah hosted a pub trivia night for fans. Proceeds went to benefit No Kid Hungry, a nonprofit dedicated to ending child hunger in America.

And here is the full case-study video featuring Hannah, Grace Helbig, and Dude Perfect.

Epic Rap Battles of History

Epic Rap Battles of history is two dudes, Lloyd "Epic Lloyd" Ahlquist and Pete "Nice Peter" Shukoff, who create video battle raps between historical characters. 

Fans suggest the match-ups, and the guys bring them to life in ridiculous ways.

We helped introduce the channel to a whole new audience with massive outdoor billboards, interactive ads, and films on tv and in theaters.

Banner Ad Battle

Inspired by the battle theme, we created a video game inside a banner ad.

You could choose your character and use a series of taunts and attacks against the other guy.

Mini-Documentary

We created a mini documentary that showed how these weird videos get made.

Out of Home

For a while, you couldn't walk around New York without seeing historical characters looking angry.

There was also a whole campaign about Mozart vs. Skrillex, but Skrillex's people killed it.

I can't really blame them.

Video Game High School

Sometimes, YouTube is a place where your crazy fantasies can come true. Especially if that fantasy is a high school where all your classes are video games. 

Director Freddie Wong tapped his community of nearly 7 million fans to crowdfund Video Game High School, a YouTube series full of awesome special effects.

ComicCon Takeover

To show VGHS to the world, we did a massive takeover of New York ComicCon 2014.

Fan-Focused TV

Our TV spots highlighted the fact that this show wasn't made by Hollywood execs.

It was created with the help of real fans on YouTube.

In every ad we made, we hid secret links to behind-the-scenes clips:

One of the most fun things is watching fans get excited about "their" channel getting major attention.

Fun fact! One of the lead actors couldn't make it to the photo shoot, so I stood in as a body double until we could replace his head. 

SORTEDfood

SORTEDfood are four charming lads from London.

One is a chef.

The rest are... not.

To introduce SORTEDfood (along with fellow UK channel Copa90) to a wider audience, we created YouTube's biggest, most ambitious campaign ever. It was 100% digital: video, digital billboards, and interactive — not a scrap of paper involved.

To do this, we filmed 89 unique videos and GIFs, and placed them in hyper-specific media locations throughout London.

Dozens of Videos & GIFs

To pull off the campaign, we needed a LOT of video assets. We started by introducing the guys.

Then we created a whole series of "kitchen hacks" of questionable usefulness. Here's just one:

And then there were recipes. We use a technique called retargeting to tell a continuing story over three separate ads. First the guys show you how to make monkey bread. Later, you see them eating it. And if you haven't tried it by third time, they're kind of pissed.

 The UK's Biggest All-Digital Campaign

SORTEDfood was part of the largest all-digital media campaign ever done in the UK. We used DoubleClick, Google's banner serving software, to target REALLY specific ads thorough London, based on factors like:

• your device

• your location

• the time of day

• sports schedules

• which ads you'd seen before

It's complicated stuff. Check out this video to see how we did it:

GIFs

The videos were supported by lots of GIFs. These were super fun to shoot.

Big Night In

To get fans involved in the campaign, we created "recipe boxes" filled with all the ingredients to make a SORTEDfood meal. (If you're wondering, it was a calzone.)

On Instagram and Twitter, the SORTEDfood guys invited fans to come pick up a box in person.

We set up trucks at Covent Garden and Spitalfields Market, where the four lads handed out recipe boxes to hundreds of fans.

Here's a video recap of the event:

Fans cooked the recipe along with a special SORTEDfood video, then posted their pictures online.

Blooper Reel

We shot so much for SORTEDfood, we even made a blooper reel. It's pretty dumb.

Created with Tiago Veiga, Bonnie Lutz, Leanne Amann, and SORTEDfood.

Dude Perfect

Dude Perfect is a team of five guys from Texas who love sports.

Like, REALLY love sports.

They're famous for their crazy trick shots, but we realized what makes them so popular is their ability to turn anything into a game. 

So for their Beacon campaign, we decided to bring that spirit of play to real kids.

"The Perfect Court" — Community Event & Restoration

The tagline for the campaign was "You make every day gameday." So we thought, why not actually improve a place where real kids play? We called New York City officials and discovered that Tompkins Square Park was in dire need of repair.

Tompkins Square Park: Before

Timed with the kickoff of the campaign, we turned the court into a trick shot playground.

We invited kids from all over the city, the borough president of Manhattan, and of course, the dudes themselves.

Here's a video recap:

After the event, we closed down the court for a few weeks and got to work.

And about a month later, the court was reopened, just in time for the summer basketball season.

The World's Largest Slingshot

For our video ads, we couldn't work with these guys and NOT do something epic. So we helped them build the world's largest slingshot and fire basketballs toward a net on a moving ATV.

Out of Home

And like always, we took over the city with crazy billboards.

Created with Tiago Veiga, Tim Stettner & Dude Perfect.

Copa90

Copa90 is a channel about soccer.

Sorry, football.

Fans-turned-presenters travel all over the world to find untold stories of tiny teams and passionate supporters. 

To introduce Copa90 (along with fellow UK channel SORTEDfood) to a wider audience, we created YouTube's biggest, most ambitious campaign ever. It was 100% digital  — video, digital billboards, and interactive — not a scrap of paper involved.

To do this, we filmed 89 unique videos and GIFs, and placed them in hyper-specific media locations throughout London.

Dozens of Videos & GIFs

To pull off the campaign, we needed a LOT of video assets. We started by introducing the channel itself.

Then we introduced the presenters, like Eli Mengem, a diehard football fan who was plucked from obscurity to become one of Copa90's star voices.

GIFs were used in out of home and digital media in place of print.

The UK's Biggest All-Digital Campaign

Copa90 was part of the largest all-digital media campaign ever done in the UK. We used DoubleClick, Google's banner serving software, to target REALLY specific ads thorough London, based on factors like:

• your device

• your location

• the time of day

• sports schedules

• which ads you'd seen before

It's complicated stuff. Check out this video to see how we did it:

Copalab 360 Event

To get fans involved, we created a 360 video experience called CopaLab. Anyone could step inside, show off their badass footy skills, and walk away with a GIF to share on social media.

Here's a video that shows the full scale of the event.

Created with Tiago Veiga, Rory Hanrahan, Roberto Lastra, and Copa90.