The videos for the Dallas ADDYs 2017 was a collaboration between three notable Dallas-based companies, ad agency, O&H Brand Design, top post-production facility, Charlie Uniform Tango(CUT), and talent agency Mary Collins Agency.
O&H Brand Design was chosen to concept this year’s theme, EgoADDY’s, drawing parallels between two worlds of advertising creatives and body builders. The main character, Mickey Goldman, a Rocky Balboa trainer-type character was played by Bob Hess from Mary Collins Agency. We talked with Brian McAdams, Creative Director with O&H Design, about how he came up with this year’s theme, and also with Jeff Elmore of CUT and Mary Collins of Mary Collins Agency. Here’s what they shared:
Brian McAdams – Creative Director with O&H Design
AdChat: How did you come up with the EgoAddys theme for this year’s show?
Brian: The idea sprang from the process of what ad agencies go through leading up to any award show. They spend a year building up a body of work and award season rolls around and then they cut out what’s not the best and focus polishing the rest to get it into presentation mode. Then you literally take the work to the show put it on stage and allow it to be judged. Thinking about the process in those terms, it sounds funny, but bodybuilding is very similar. Bodybuilders spend a year building up their bodies and when they get into “show” mode to compete, they cut down, polish up, tan, grease, get on stage, pose, show off and are judged.
It’s funny that these two weird subcultures are obsessed with perfection; bodybuilders with their bodies and advertisers with their creative work. Both have visual representations for their body of work. So thinking about the process in those terms, is how the idea got started. In advertising we are not building our bodies, we’re building our egos. It’s not about doing work for clients or making sure it’s a perfect solution, an award show is a good thing. It garners attention, it recognizes smart thinking and at the end of the day, you kind of feel good about giving yourself a pat on the back because something is recognized.
Taking it to an extreme and trying to make it funny, you start thinking about egos and egos are a natural thing when you think about ad people. Big egos! So that fun motif got the ball rolling to in terms of creating this theme.
AdChat: Who were the actors?
Brian: From a fair collection of agencies around town. We had one creative from The Richards Group, one from Johnson Sekin and a few other agencies. We tried to find a good variety of people not only who would be recognized in the industry but were good in front of the camera.
AdChat: Anything else?
Brian: I may add, while you have the rational for how we came up with the theme and why we did and how it relates to the videos. But when you do a video and show the situation, it was a bit of a challenge to marry the two worlds of advertisers and bodybuilder, and we needed a bridge. That bridge was a Rocky Balboa-styled trainer, who could come naturally in that world but also serve as a crazy creative director who groomed us along. That felt like a very natural bridge to connect both those worlds. So we focused on Mickey Goldman, the trainer, as the bridge. We found the perfect guy with Bob Hess of Mary Collins Agency.
AdChat: What about the role of CharlieUniformTango?
Brian: We work with those guys all the time. We couldn’t have done it without them, they were our biggest partner in the effort.
Jeff Elmore – Executive Producer at CUT
” We have always been very proud of the work that we have done with O&H thru the years, so when they asked us to collaborate with them on this years ADDY’s videos, it was an easy answer. We had already committed to them before seeing the creative, but once they shared the scripts with us, we knew these were going to be a blast to make and that we could create something that everyone would enjoy. Kevin Howard generously donated his time to cast for us. We truly found “Mickey Goldman” in Bob Hess from the Mary Collins Agency. He was perfect for the part. Four of the spots have O & H Creatives acting in the videos. CUT’s Director Lan Freedman put a lot of thought on who to reach out to in the Dallas agency world to pull this off. He also worked very closely with DP, Mark Fisher, to create the look and feel out how to accomplish shooting 5 videos in one day. We are really looking forward to the ADDY’s and being able to share the rest of the videos.
Mary Collins – Mary Collins Agency
“Bob Hess had a wonderful time bringing the character of Mickey Goldman to life. He loved stretching himself to play a cocky, ego-filled 30Rock-esque character. The location, Doug’s Gym, was perfect and the copy was spot on. ”
Credits:
Charlie Uniform Tango
Executive Producer – Jeff Elmore
Director- Lan Freedman
DP – Mark Fisher
Editor – Dean Pelton
Online/Color – Joey Waldrip
Graphics – Tony Wann
Music Composition & Mix – Nick Patronella
Casting – Kevin Howard
Camera and Equipment – 4:4:4
Actor – Bob Hess
Agency Actors – Greg Hunter, Krista McCrimmon, Dean Oram, Cody Tidmore
Mark Fisher (DP), Kevin Howard (casting) donated their time while 4:4:4 donated equipment and camera
Watch Videos
Teaser
Training Session
Leg Day
