About this user
I was born in the Ukraine, and my family moved to New York City in 1979. Much to the chagrin of the Communist regime back in the USSR I decided to devote my working life to Capitalist boosterism, aka advertising.
My interest in the field began when "Where's the Beef" exploded into pop culture, and I realized there was a career where I could have fun, wear jeans to work and still get paid while meeting lots of really interesting people along the way.
For instance, a previous Creative Director of mine was a reformed pill-popping drag queen who was nearly murdered by his crack-addict male-escort boyfriend.
Perhaps foolishly, I envy him his incredibly interesting life, a life worth writing a book about (which he did). I have no such drama to delight readers, no harrowing tales of derring-do or emotional turmoil. Unless wearing the Crunch Bunny costume while being dry-humped on national television by a lingerie-clad model counts (which it should).
What success I have had is thanks to the mentors, friends, and partners I was fortunate enough to know. Like Bryan Houlette, my AD at Goodby Silverstein & Partners with whom I came up with work for Adobe that was recognized by every major advertising award show. The opportunity to work with Steve Simpson on HP, Guy Seese on Saturn, and Seth Weisfeld on Doritos at the same time was too good to be true.
Another great learning experience was working for Marty Cooke, ECD at SS+K, with Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Maya Frey as CDs, who believed enough in me and my AD, Brian Murphy, to let us pitch and win new accounts for the agency like Qwest, CTAM and Oral B. We also had the opportunity to shepherd campaigns through TV, print, interactive, radio and ambient media for flagship accounts like Time Warner Cable, Unicef, and Qwest. Our efforts were rewarded with One Show Pencils, Clios, ads in the #1 spot on Adcritic for two weeks straight and a place in the Top 20 most-viewed ads of 2005.
I have also been lucky enough to have work written up in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Communication Arts, Archive, Creativity, Shoot, Adweek, Ad Age, Boards, Print Regional Design Annual, CMYK, and One. A Magazine.
I learned the art of the pitch freelancing at Crispin Porter + Bogusky LA for Sally Hogshead, working with Rob Strasberg and Tony Calcao. Those sleepless nights were as close as I'll ever get to feeling like a pill-popping drag queen on the morning after. My years at Mad Dogs & Englishmen were pitch-free, as the internet bubble ensured a steady stream of clients. There I swam the warm and weird creative waters under the watchful eye of Dave Cook, and worked with uber-talented people like James and Jaime Robinson, Michel Edens, and Travis Britton.
Delving deeply into the interactive and non-traditional advertising areas while freelancing on every possible product category, I delivered pitch-winning campaigns and ideas for VO5, Nike, Zecco.com, CTAM, DirectBuy, Verizon, Century 21, Gevalia, Virgin Mobile, and HP for agencies across the country.
I have had the pleasure of working with the greatest advertising luminaries, like Rich Silverstein, Jamie Barrett, and Ari Merkin. At Toy, we produced a 6-spot TV campaign for J&R (two were picked for BestAdsonTV.com, and another was a Finalist at the 2009 Cannes Festival) and a re-branding campaign for Virgin Mobile which was so well received that the client awarded Toy the bulk of the business.
I've been fortunate enough to see my work on billboards and screens from Times Square to Piccadilly Circus and Seoul Public Square. Yet my quest to birth a "Where's the beef?" catchphrase of my own eludes me for now.
What I have found is a great deal of satisfaction in leading my teams through the arduous pitch process, over the icy crags and crevasses of capricious client feedback to a place where everyone involved felt rewarded and proud of the resulting work.
A perfect example occurred after a fantastically innovative campaign (already approved by the client) was garroted to death by a group of Atlanta housewives in a room with a one-way mirror. I had to break the news to my teams and then rally them once more into the breach.
When the teams reporting to me began calling me "Captain" I like to believe it was with only a small measure of sarcasm.
Of course the resulting work was even better, and when the client high-fives you after a presentation, you know something was done right.
My love for creating ideas that build brands by getting traditional and non-traditional media to play well together continues to this day. Even after 12 years, I find the thrill of coming up with new ways to achieve unprecedented levels of engagement with the audience mind-blowing. No pill-popping required.
Companies
Goodby Silverstein, TBWA Chiat\Day, AKQA, Ogilvy, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, SS+K, Y&R, BrandBuzz, Cutwater, EVB, Creature, Agency.com, McCann, Anamoly, Concept Farm,
Interests
The Holographic Universe Theory.
Myers-Briggs personality types.
Ekman's Facial Action Coding System and Graphology.
Libertarianism, free markets, free thought.
Religion, politics, philosophy.
Real Estate, investing, entrepreneurship.
The Selfish Gene/Societal evolution, futurism.
Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica, The Office, Best Week Ever.
Comic books & video games.
Snowboarding, paintball, golf, weightlifting.
Architecture and interior design.
Oh yeah and Advertising.
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