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I like making stuff. Stuff that makes other people famous. However, a healthy amount of Jewish guilt precludes me from doing the same for myself. So I’ll be brief. I’ve worked in advertising for 9 years. Worked at TAXI in Toronto for five. Was ACD for the last two. Work at CP+B, where I’m the ACD Interactive for Burger King.This is a sample of the work I’ve done over the last few years.
Hope you enjoy. And if you don’t enjoy, hope you don’t know how to post a comment. Thanks, Ryan. ryanscottwagman@gmail.com
MINI / Turbovision
If you have 3-D glasses lying around, this will be the coolest site ever. And you’re a dork. Though I’m guessing you’ve been told that already.
http://bit.ly/hI9tK
Nike / Steve Nash
Hands down, my favorite piece of work. In two laborious years, it was the only piece I was able to sell to Nike Canada. We made it for about twenty grand, in less than three weeks. It is, to date, the only Canadian basketball spot Nike ever ran across North America. And it’s Steve Nash’s favorite spot, according to Steve Nash, who quoted it back to me verbatim at a bar in Toronto.
http://bit.ly/MtgVo
Burger King / Tony Stewart
1) People enjoyed this spot so much that we’re actually selling Estrada Glasses. Glasses. That you can’t see through. 2) On October 20th, Tony Stewart is taking a live polygraph test at TruthAboutTony.com to prove he loves the Whopper. Seriously. How can you not love advertising?
http://bit.ly/2vj2XN / http://bit.ly/4vfobb / http://bit.ly/3SUxQ1
Burger King / Late Night
Malcolm Gladwell changed me. Before I started reading his books, the word “sticky” rarely popped into my head. And, certainly, never to describe work. Now it’s all I think about. In a time where nearly everything you see is can be thought of as “content,” your “content” has to be really, really “sticky” to stand out. Sticky. Content. Let’s just move on.
http://bit.ly/135jRr
Burger King / Late Night
This banner, and the Sharpie above, were featured on BannerBlog and met with very positive reviews. If you’re not familiar with BannerBlog, you should be. It’s a great resource. Anyone who thinks you can’t do something really exciting in a banner isn’t really trying. Am I only blathering on about BannerBlog to get you to forget about that Sticky Content debacle above? No. Not only.
http://bit.ly/FJ8qA
MINI / Dream Car
Do cars dream? I don’t know. I’m not G-d. But I like to think they, like me, dream about being cooler versions of themselves. “Dream Car” screened in parking lots across Canada in 2007, and MINIs moved in record numbers.
http://bit.ly/oeJVa
Jack Astor's / Italian Festival
Jack Astor’s is a Canadian restaurant chain. If you’ve never tried their Buffalo Chicken Fingers, I highly recommend. They’re served mild or spicy by a college freshman in a shirt two sizes too small. http://bit.ly/1KWrEh
Jack Astor's / Italian Festival
With a tiny marketing budget, Jack’s needed to create work that would get talked about in the mainstream press. Mission accomplished. This campaign was all over the Italian news station. Someone actually pulled this ad out of a magazine and burned it during an interview. Which I took as a compliment. Because I don’t speak Italian.
http://bit.ly/2z0YhP
MINI / Let there be Xenon
Funny story. I think the Canadian government had to give us special permission to do this due to protestations from a small nearby airport. Did I say “funny”? I meant dry. Dry story.
http://bit.ly/jO7CY
Jack Astor's / Facelift
This was the first thing I wrote for Jack Astor’s when they came in as a client. They wanted to rebrand themselves. Reinvent. And they did. They reinvented themselves into a restaurant that does advertising that moms and dads think is kiiiiind of offensive. But they had the courage to stick with work of this ilk, and they saw an immediate spike in their business because of it.
http://bit.ly/hsMsO
Jack Astor's / Crayons
Actually, they didn’t stick with this one. If there’s one thing the religious fundamentalists and me can’t seem to agree upon, it’s that describing children as “spawn of Satan” is funny. I still say it isn’t.
http://bit.ly/3CrD35
MINI / Parking Reminders
MINI competes with one-twentieth of the budget of their competition. Pretty amazing. And in large part, their success is easy to explain – it’s just a cool car. But some of it has to do with the fact that they know how to make their messages relatable on a very personal level. And that they hire attractive-at-least-by-Semitic-standards creative types.
http://bit.ly/acsue
Burger King / Star Trek
Less than three weeks before this site launched, we had nothing. We had something else in development for almost four months. Then, as things so often do, it went away. Watch Talaxian Limb Paralysis. I mean, watch all of them. But if you’re busy, just watch that one.
http://bit.ly/JDZe8
National Advertising Awards / Ad Generator
I’m generally not a fan of work that’s overtly self-referential or precious. And this campaign for the NAA is both, so I was tempted to take it out. But then I went back and played with it again. And it was fun. So I left it in. It’s not good to think too much.
http://bit.ly/1T43ac
MINI / Trackster
How much is too much to include from a single client? I don’t really know. It’s just that so much of my career has been defined by a handful of clients. And MINI, more than any other, helped me to discover how much I enjoyed working in the interactive space. And it’s my site.
http://bit.ly/fyc3e
Covenant House / Listening
I’m really proud of this work. It was the first project my longtime partner and I worked on together at TAXI. Executed beautifully, sparsely written, it was one of the best uses of media I’ve been a part of.
http://bit.ly/uWWOo
ihaveanidea.org / Grandma
Remember a few blurbs back when I said I don’t like work that’s too self-referential? I guess I lied, as evidenced by this spot – and this blurb.
http://bit.ly/eztGN
Telus / Gifts
I can’t bring myself to take this off my reel. It’s not cool. It’s just kind of…nice. Warm. Sappy.
Like the last scene in Field of Dreams.
“Dad, wanna have a catch?”
“I’d like that.”
Oh come on, you know you cried, too. I’m not made of stone.
http://bit.ly/2nY5RI
Burger King / bk.com
This is all mine. MINE. I thought of it, wrote it, designed it and programmed it. No one else helped. Thanks for nothing, Crispin. No seriously, I was just a cog on this one. I’m including it because it was such a massive and collaborative undertaking. Coming from Toronto, it was pretty amazing to find myself on a project that critically involved no less than 30 or so people from across the agency. Amazing to be a part of.
http://bit.ly/HFE9n
McCain / Smootheez
McCain isn’t exactly known for groundbreaking creative work. But they wanted to change, and we wanted to help. The only other thing of note I can recall about this work is that my client and I had a very long, very convoluted story about Mike Tyson in common.
http://bit.ly/sGTnO
McCain / Smootheez
You’re curious about the Tyson story, aren’t you? It’s too long to share here. But I will tell you this. Mike Tyson likes the ladies. Mike Tyson likes Neil Diamond. Mike Tyson likes pigeons. Pigeons.
http://bit.ly/3JUMiZ
Radio Marketing Bureau / Days of the Week
This was the second radio spot I ever wrote. I included it because I’m psychotically nostalgic. It’s kind of funny, but not FUNNY funny. And I’m pretty sure another writer came up with my favorite line in it. God, I miss summer camp.
http://bit.ly/2JO7yj
MINI / Sexy
I have nothing to say about this spot. Nothing mature, anyway.
http://bit.ly/adyGJ
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