James Hale

Iceland Spring

2011-12-27T20:19:00.000-08:00

In 2010, I worked on a print campaign for a brand called Iceland Spring, which is bottled from a natural source in a nature reserve called "Heiðmörk" near Reykjavik. Research showed that Iceland Spring is among the purest water in the world. Its mineral content is low, and it has one on the lowest levels of undesirable chemicals ever recorded, leaving it with a perfectly neutral 8.8 pH balance. No treatment of it is necessary; nothing is added and nothing is taken away. So, using the pristine, awe-inspiring imagery of Iceland itself with bold headlines made the most sense in communicating the perfection of the water.

Florida Hospital

2011-12-17T22:16:00.000-08:00

One of the country's largest hospitals needed a campaign to tout to their unique makoplasty partial knee resufacing procedure. We conceived a print campaign showing active adults participating in the types of activities they wish they could enjoy again. The copy written in a first-person aspirational tone. ADs/CD: James Hale, Vince DeMarinis. Copywriters/CD: John Huggins, Ward Parker.

Museum of Contemporary Art

2009-03-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

One sees a little bit of everything on bus shelters these days – from a sexy model drinking a martini to an ad for wart removal. So when we approached designing an outdoor campaign for Miami's hip, contemporary art museum, we wanted to stick out in an unexpected way. So we took the typical types of headlines one would see on outdoor but gave them an extremely low price. The shock of seeing an oil change service for a mere five bucks definitely turned heads. And copy explains "Experience what contemporary art does for one's mind, admission $5." AD/Illustration: Chris Patir, CD/Copywriter: me.

Knight-Ridder

2009-03-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

While at the BS&P agency, I was assigned to publisher Knight-Ridder (now McClatchey) and asked to sell their subscription-based service called 'Dialog.' An online tool for finding articles, abstracts and citations. Upon further research, I found the service could query upwards of 330 million different documents. I thought, "Wow, that's really pounding it out"– thus my jackhammer plugged into a computer idea. The print ad ran full spread in Fortune and BusinessWeek for several months. John Cohen was the photographer and Steve Horowitz wrote the copy.

The Exchange

2009-03-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

A loft conversion in a landmark building in downtown a Fort Lauderdale, FL needed to make a hip statement for their young urban professional demographic, so my team at S/A came up with the 'Anti-Condo' campaign. We started by designing the identity based on a badge we found from researching the original, 80 year-old history of the building. We then engaged in full-blown guerrilla tactics that included a sidewalk picketing demonstration, condo commando models wearing blue wigs and wielding semi-automatic weapons, taxicab toppers, beer coasters strategically positioned at nearby bars, microsites – any 'anti' ploy to help reinforce our campaign. The work was so effective, sales records were even set in a slow economy. Creative team included Chris Pastir, Manny Prieres and Fred Adkins.

f.y.e / Spec's Music

2009-03-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

We needed to inform Spec's Music's (now FYE) young customer base of the variety of benefits offered in their customer loyalty program called 'Payback.' Instead of talking about the specifics of the program in a coupon-like tone we found the more interesting aspects and handled them in a more fun, fashionable and educational way. Not only did my campaign dramatically increase membership, but it got existing cardholders to use their cards 25O% more. The print portion of the campaign ran full page in magazines throughout Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Puerto Rico. A few from the campaign are shown below. Miguel Caballero and I wrote copy.

Hardee's

2009-02-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

I was part of the creative team that created a campaign called 'Real Food. Real People.' for Hardee's, the nation's the third-largest burger chain. Reporting directly to Rick Boyko at Ogilvy & Mather/NY, I was responsible for designing such things as in-store displays, billboards, print ads and tv spots. We filmed folks at franchises all across the country enjoying their meals and telling their stories.

Soccer Madness

2009-02-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

At one time, I handled the work for Soccer Madness owned by Sam Zighelboim. It was one of the nation's largest direct mail catalogs of soccer apparel and equipment based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We designed ads, brochures, apparel graphics, bus graphics, and even created brands such as Balistica – which became one of his more popular. The company was later sold to Star Struck / ProTeam and the very popular company no longer exists in its original form. One of my Soccer Madness logos was honored in the Communication Arts Design Annual, a juried competition that receives some 26,000 entrants each year.

American Express

2009-02-27T09:39:00.000-08:00

When I was at Ogilvy & Mather - New York, I worked with Ray Johnson and Marsha Murray on the American Express 'Charge Against Hunger' campaign. The program in which American Express donated three cents from every transaction to fight hunger. The tv spots featured Bill Shore, founder and executive director of Share Our Strength (SOS), and aired on NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX networks raising $21 million. The campaign has been recognized as a leading example of effective cause-related marketing by industry and opinion leaders including the Harvard Business Review and BusinessWeek.

Capital Bank - Classic Checking

2009-02-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Most bank advertising is instantly forgettable, so when asked to do a newspaper campaign for checking accounts, I wanted to do something that would stick out and be noticed.

What's funny about checkbooks is that they're always handy and easy to grab and be used for things other than a banking instrument – like a windshield scraper or a doorstop. My partner Mitch Koch and I thought about these funny uses and made our campaign around them. We then took the mandatory hard-sell account information and subtly inserted one funny in the middle of it. The campaign ran in The Miami Herald and various newspapers throughout South Florida.

Agency: BS&P. Photographer: Andrew Kaufmann.

American City Business Journals

2009-02-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

When American City Business Journals was headquartered in Kansas City, my company proposed a national billboard campaign in which individual markets could snipe in their individual paper's masthead into an outdoor campaign. Although the corporate marketing director Bob Silvy loved the creative very much, his budget for the year had already been spent. Nonetheless, the creative is still for sale and while some publishing companies are having a tough go at it lately, I hope to have these ACBJ boards lovingly posted in your city someday soon. • Copywriting credit goes to Jim Houck.

Florida Gold Orange Juice

2009-02-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

When you get an assignment for fresh squeezed orange juice, you know you're in Florida. Such was the case at the BS&P when we we're asked to do some tv commercials for Florida Gold Premium Select. Our first thought was to avoid the breakfast table drink n' smile clichés that you see in most cereal and juice ads. Next was the limited budget, which meant not using a high-priced director and a bunch of actors. So, we came up with an idea to do an affordable tabletop shoot with title cards. Our tongue-n-cheek execution was called 'Lick The Screen' and it was shot in Brooklyn with director Dominick Rossetti. We ended up cutting up some 70 different oranges to get the perfect slice shot. The music was done by Zen Music/NYC and the voice-over talent was the smooth and sexy voice of ex-NFL Films great, Earl Mann.

Credits include Jim Houck, Sherri Fritzson, Joe Perz and myself.

Flower Trading Corporation

2009-02-26T11:19:00.000-08:00

Our client needed to identify the reason why their branded flowers (a type of distribution that goes directly to the florist) are superior to the flowers hand-picked at the wholesaler. So we arrived at an 'untouchable quality' strategy and used the headline, "How many people handle your flowers before you do?" The spread ad ran in flower trade publications and had a record number on inquiries for the company. The ad was featured in the 'Exhibit' section of Communication Arts magazine and won a National Addy award.

Credits include Steve Horowitz, Joe Perz, Steve Kupinsky and myself.

St. Regis Resorts

2009-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

While at S/A, I completed a 6-minute video for St. Regis Resort & Residences, Bal Harbour. Phillip Ruesch's team at Canvas Films shot and edited the video starring Alicia Cervera Lamadrid showing Bal Harbour, Florida's premier address for couture living. We used several locations throughout the city – including some time at the world-renowned Bal Harbour Shops.

The pristine, oceanfront setting in Bal Harbour is St. Regis' newest addition since the hotelier began some 104 years ago at their Beaux Arts landmark in midtown Manhattan.

The creative team included T. Martin, D. Mereoff, J. Robertson and myself. The video can be viewed here.

Tri Rail

2009-02-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

Tri Rail runs commuter trains in South Florida serving West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and the Miami area. The organization hired the BS&P agency to stimulate ridership with an advertising campaign.

For the television commercials we hired ex-SNL alum, parody director Matthew Meshekov to produce a series of funny spots. After looking at most of the available real people talent in Miami, we settled on a cast of 9 to act in our various spots.

The creative team included Rob Stewart, Joe Perz, Robert Maya, Sherri Fritzon and myself. The campaign received 'Best of Show' at the Show South advertising competition.

Miami Ad School

2009-02-25T13:23:00.000-08:00

I was an instructor at the Miami Ad School the first 6 years it was open. It was an exciting time full of extremely talented students. Most of my students now have great careers at the top agencies around the country including – Bobby Appleby at Fallon, Lynn Sarnow-Born at CP+B, and Miguel Caballero at DDB.

Today the Miami Ad School has new partners and has branched out all over the world. It now boasts having schools in Berlin, Hamburg, Minneapolis, San Francisco, San Paulo and Madrid.

One year, I talked the owners Ron and Pippa Seichrist into letting me create some ads for the school. The campaign was a conceptual parody of the art school ads one might find in the back of a 50's magazine. The ads ran Miami's New Times and got quite a response. They also cleaned up at the award shows that year. Rob Stewart and myself shared the writing duty.

New Design Miami

2009-02-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

My company was one of twenty featured in a chapter of Rockport Publishing's New Design Miami: The Edge of Graphic Design. The hardcover book captures the vibrant work and international flavor of the city's top creative firms. Eight pages of our work is displayed including advertising, logos, brochures, posters, illustration, title sequences and custom-designed typefaces.

New Design Miami can be purchased online at Amazon.com, or at any Barnes & Noble or Border's Booksellers. Rockport's series includes other cities like Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and Berlin.

The Park Central Hotel

2009-02-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

One of the original re-inventors of South Beach, Tony Goldman asked the TS&P agency to help their company (Goldman Properties) revitalize their logo and collateral materials for The Park Central Hotel. Having feel in love with the art deco beauty that is South Beach myself, this was a dream assignment – especially since The Park Central is one of the Art Deco Preservation League's more noted buildings on Ocean Drive.

Goldman Properties had used heavyweight designers like Todd Oldham for their other South Beach properties like the T, so the bar was set pretty high. I began by studying authentic art deco alphabets and type from the 1920's. I then began sketching and putting letterforms together. After awhile I found solutions that made everyone happy.

Next was the brochure, it had to be contemporary and hip without losing the original art deco integrity. We hired Bruce Weber's one-time assistant Lynda Churilla to do some sexy lifestyle and property shots. The result was 18-page duotone and full-color beauty that showcased the history and luxury of the hotel. In the end, our team (Greg Wheeler and Soren Thielemann) received the ultimate compliment when the notably tough Mr. Goldman gave the team a grade of "A+."

Helmsley Hotels

2009-02-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

While at the BS&P agency, the owner was close personal friends with the 'Queen of Mean' herself, Leona Helmsley and took on the Helmsley Hotels account right after her release from prison. So, we decided to turn this almost surreal moment in time into something that would help us by using her persona in the ad campaign. I guess this is what you call making lemonade out of lemons.

I started by rebranding the identity with a badge I found on a gate while photographing the six different hotels in New York City. This badge would serve as kind of a new look for the dated-looking existing logos. I then worked with photographer Bill Sumner to shoot detail shots of all the properties as well. One of the better shots was when we used the reflection of The Park Lane from a lake in Central Park (see lower left corner of ad).

The work was well received and got various mentions in USA Today, The New York Post and The New York Observer. In fact, some of the ads are still posted in Grand Central Station today. Talk about a woman with staying power...

Nickelodeon Latin America

2009-02-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

My company competed against several Miami agencies to win the Nickelodeon Latin American account. Our first trade campaign targeted cable executives in Argentina and consisted of print and direct mail. One print execution featured actual Nickelodeon executives wearing masks from characters of their #1 show The Rugrats in a conference room and read, "Successful cable operators connect with kids, do you?"

Our trade campaign competed against some 3,600 entries from around the world to win the "World-Class Award" at the 21-st annual BDA Awards held in New York City. AD/CD: Me. Copy: Piper Hickman and Debbie Reznik-Meija. Photog: Louis Jay

MTV Networks, Inc.

2009-02-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

My first job in New York was at an agency owned by a couple ex-MTV creators named Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman. We handled all the advertising for MTV Networks, Inc. including; VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick At Nite, and even introduced Comedy Central. The creatives were Noel Frankel, Tom Godici, Norm Magnusson, Bill Horvath, Bill Burnett and myself. I couldn't have asked for a hipper place and a nicer group of people. On most days, we'd have anyone from John Leguizamo, Drew Carey, Paulie Shore, The B-52s, Harry Connick, Jr. to Sting in our offices.

We worked with many of NYC's hottest artists like Lou Brooks, Jenny Holzer, Janet Woolley, Chip Simons, Al Jaffe and Charlex. In addition to MTV, we also did the advertising for Barq's Root Beer and put then unknowns like John Leguizamo and Drew Carey in their first-ever, tv commercial.

I worked mostly on logos, trade ads, billboards and direct mail for MTV. Above and below are a few samples of some of my work and a photo of some of the crew being weird.

Michele Watches

2009-02-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Michele Watches is a sophisticated fashion watch brand that I helped launch in Miami. It was named after the daughter of Jack Barouh, the company's founder. Barouh learned the watch trade from his father, Maurice, who owned watchmaker Tempus International in Belgium. Watch giant Fossil bought Michele Watches in 2004, but Barouh still runs the company, and his daughter, Michele, is now creative director.

While at BS&P, I was asked to redesign their logo and do a print campaign for Ocean Drive magazine. We did stark fisheye shots using some of Miami's top models – including Heather Davis who had her acting debut in Bad Boys. Below is a couple of the print executions that appeared in the publication.

Persol Sunglasses

2009-02-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

A brand of fine Italian sunglasses that has been around since 1917. The brand was purchased by Luxottica who continues to make them in the historical factory in Lauriano (Turin).

While at BS&P, I was asked to do a campaign for an Academy Awards push in the Los Angeles market to promote their exclusive boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The magazine print portion to run in Vogue and GQ using their celebrity supermodel Carol Alt. For the radio, the campaign won gold in the local, district, and National Addy competition.

Below is one of our outdoor executions that was placed on Sunset Boulevard. I asked that the outdoor company to build a structure for the sunglass frame to make our photographic billboard wrap actually 3-D.

Havana Nines

2009-02-23T10:27:00.000-08:00

When Henry Leace opened the first Havana Shirt Store in 2001 in Bayside Marketplace, the Panama hats, cigar boxes and Cuban art were all meant as decorations. Quickly, customers started trying to buy them. That helped Leace realize he had an opportunity to sell more than just guayaberas and tropical sportswear. His focus then turned to creating a chain of stores and a private-label brand. Smartly, he employed the help of an advertising agency.

At S/A, my team (including Chris Pastir, Manny Prieres and Amanda Burrows) started by renaming the brand to 'Havana Nines' instead of 'The Havana Shirt Company.' We then decided on a modern interpretation of a retro Cuban theme for the brand look. This included a stylized pattern of the word 'Havana' that could give the brand a certain caché like Burberry and Louis Vuitton. This pattern was incorporated into the collateral materials, advertising and even into the garments themselves.

Today, Havana Nines has a dozen stores throughout Florida and with new financing is currently undergoing national expansion. The goal is to have 55 stores by 2013.

Miami Int'l Film Festival

2009-02-23T07:09:00.001-08:00

I had a blast creating and directing the Miami International Film Festival opening via the TS&P agency. This consisted of a 2-minute opening, a 4-spot tv campaign and newspaper ads. The cool thing about this assignment was the production value – as Miami's best film production houses donated their time and materials. We had 35mm film, a hot shot DP, top sound guy, a full lighting crew and the best editor in town.

The campaign was called 'How To Film Fest' and featured funny lessons on how to knowledgeable about film and participate. Producer Carol Eannace /Collaboration helped us find a casting agent who knew half of Miami's talent pool and we looked at over 300 people and settled on a cast of twelve.

The campaign was so well received by director Nicole Guillemet, formerly of the Sundance Film Institute, that merchandise was even produced and sold at The Festival supporting the campaign. Our lead actor even made an appearance at opening night to kick it all off. And MIFF's guest of honor Peter Coyote and other celebs got a good chuckle out of it which was all I needed. Some of the spots can be viewed at my showreel post.

Coconut Grove

2009-02-20T16:31:00.000-08:00

In the 1960s and '70s, it was a Bohemian mecca. In the '80s, it morphed into a clutch of trendy boutiques, and in the '90s it simply got eclipsed by the flash of South Beach. Our campaign aimed to get one of Miami's Coconut Grove district its groove back by featuring it as a hip, leafy nook, to well, just be yourself. Leave all pretentions on SOBE, please. We (at TS&P) decided the Grove is a place you can come and relax. A theme that hearkens back to it's art colony hippie years, when the area carried a quaint live-and-let-live village personality. Hence our tagline 'Get Laid Back.'

We chose long-time Grove resident and photographer Bill Sumner to do some portraiture of a few of the Grove's more interesting characters. We also did some atmospheric shots of the tree-lined streets and old wooden docks.

As for Greater Miami CV&B's $450,000 media budget, it was allocated to print ads, bus shelters and various guerilla executions. Our notorious 'Get Laid Back' campaign was also featured in a front page news story in The Miami Herald's business section.

Heineken Caribbean

2009-02-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

Last year, while Creative Director at S/A, we pitched against several other South Florida agencies and won a 6-spot radio assignment from Heineken Caribbean. To produce the spots we employed twelve, very diverse, voice-over talents to create the various characters in our scripts. The spots were translated and recorded in English, French, Spanish and Dutch for the various islands. Roxanne Drolet/Los Angeles helped us with the original music.

The spots are currently being playing throughout some 19 different islands in the Caribbean including; The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Aruba, Martinique, Haiti, Honduras, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Trinidad & Tobago. Heineken reports the spots are being extremely well received and have extended their media buy for another year.

Creative team included Doug Briscotti, Chris Pastir, Diego Mereoff and myself. The spots took home Local and District Addy Gold. You can play a couple of the spots below. One called 'Caribbean Stomp' which took a team of percussionists many takes of experimentation with various bottles and steel drums to pull off, and the other called 'Latin Groove.'

Advanta Business Credit Cards

2009-02-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

The 2nd largest business credit card company in the U.S., came to us (at bfw adv) wanting direct mail that was innovative and that would give them a likable brand personality. We first abandoned the 'ol-interest-rate-on-the-envelope schtick that they had resorted to in their past and gave them entertaining pieces instead. Microsites were also created to reinforce the campaign. Below is one sample of the many pieces I created along with Paul Amelchenko. We felt a somewhat humorous tone was needed to make the brand seem friendly, likable and human. Also to keep the brand competitive in the marketplace.

Florida Power & Light

2009-01-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

My partner Jim Houck and I, along with producer Sherri Fritzson created one of Florida's longest running televison ad campaigns through the BS&P agency. It's name was 'Bob From FPL,' and he was born in the 90's to Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility, who wanted to build a better image, consumer trust and, maybe, even affection – although it's monopoly status made that highly unlikely.

But our team proved that even the toughest marketing problem can be overcome with some creative culturesmithing – in this case, the gregarious and wise-cracking Bob, a friend who sort of represented all of FPL and conducted live, man-on-the street interviews featuring safety messages and energy conservation tips. We did some 240 different spots during our time on the campaign and sometimes edited a couple dozen new ones a month (Man, did we hone our editing skills).

The results were immediate and dramatic. Call volume and participation in conservation programs increased steadily for over a decade, and tracking studies showed that consumers developed markedly positive feelings about FPL. And over the years, Bob was invited to weddings, inspired kid's Halloween costumes, fan clubs and even got an Adweek cover acknowledging the 10-year run when the campaign retired. Thus we succeeded in transforming a dreaded corporate behemoth into a helpful and popular member of the community.

Greater Miami Convention & Visitor's Bureau

2009-01-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to get to work on TS&P's Greater Miami Convention & Visitor's Bureau 'Fashion' campaign for a little over a year. Originally created by Dan Hardie, the campaign uses the talents of top fashion shooter George Kamper (Ocean Drive, Italian Vogue) and superstar stylist Danny Santiago to make magazine spreads for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Maxim, InStyle and many other fashion publications.

For year two, we again got to choose from South Beach's top modeling talent and shot at various locations throughout the Fontainebleau (used for many famous shoots including Scarface and episodes of The Soprano's) on Miami Beach. In addition to the print campaign, we got to do a tv commercial using the animation/effects talents of the Freestyle Collective/NYC.

Borg

2009-01-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

The Jarden Corporation (owner of such great brands as Oster, Sunbeam and Coleman ) approached us at BFW to reintroduce the Borg brand originally started by George W. Borg in 1937. The brand had had some highs and lows over the years– including an award-winning scale design by famous designer Raymond Lowey in the 1950's, but during mid-80's it was sold and pretty much went away until the Jarden Corporation purchased it in 2008. So we started by researching and analyzing their brand equity over their four decades in business, and came to the conclusion that we should retool and modernize something we had found on their nomenclature during many decades – the chevron shape. We then designed sleek packaging to make the brand appear upscale against their competition in stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, Kmart and Target. Design director Pete Carrara and I developed dozens of design executions using experimental materials like wood, metal, leather and plastic. Jarden was so pleased with the work and branding, they now plan on putting other household items into the brand offering.

Melia Hotels & Resorts

2009-01-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

Melia is one of the largest hotel companies in the world. So, for their first ad campaign in the US market we wanted evoke the company's Spanish origins. A culture very proud and passionate, and that heritage is very inherent in every aspect of their offering. It's what differentiates their brand from the competition. Art Directed by my partner at TS&P, Hugo LaTorre, our print ads featured exquisite B&W portraiture of "hotel staff" (actually using real flamenco dancers as models) striking classic poses as they perform their duties. And then using my simple, minimalist tagline "Passion. It's In Everything We Do."

Logo Lounge 4 annual

2009-01-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

Two of my logo identities were selected for Rockport Publishing's 2009 LogoLounge4 annual. PGA Commons (a shopping mall in West Palm Beach, FL) and Hautie Pants (an apparel line based in Florida). A prestigious panel of jurors chose just 2,000 from the 27,000 entrants from around the world. Jurors of the contest included; Haley Johnson, Jeff Knowles, Christopher Campbell, Jason Schulte, Jerry Kuyper, Louis Lygo and Communication Art's Janet A. Martin. LogoLounge4 can be purchased online at Amazon.com, or at any Barnes & Noble or Border's Booksellers.