There's a unique sort of excitement that comes with doing the advertising for a new business; rather than inheriting a brand personality, you get to help create one.

Enter Main Street Tire, a tire and auto service shop in Bismarck, North Dakota. Since every other shop in the region was doing the same-old-same-old, we didn't. 

The Mankind (no relation to pro wrestler Mick Foley) campaign started out as three radio spots, but a fourth was soon requested that extolled their above-the-norm waiting room and clean bathrooms. As David Ogilvy once said, "Never pass on an opportunity to write a radio commercial about bathrooms."

So four it was, and it was good.

Grand Opening — Main Street Tire — Pre-Mankind Spot

Waiting — Main Street Tire — Mankind Campaign

Woman Things — Main Street Tire — Mankind Campaign

Survival — Main Street Tire — Mankind Campaign

Downtown — Main Street Tire — Mankind Campaign

This was radio done on a microbudget, but that didn't mean I couldn't put several fun bits into the script. This was also one of the very few times I allowed the voice talent to do a "knowing chuckle" — I prefer humor to be served straight and dry.

Lewis & Clark Riverboat — Group Paddle Radio Ad

For the second year of advertising with my "Go to town." tagline for North Dakota's Town &  Country Credit Union, we decided to liven things up a bit. The modern world can get a bit crazy, especially with work and a family, so we positioned TCCU as a financial institution that understands that and won't slow you down.

Secret Weapon — Town & Country Credit Union — Go to town.

Stuff Done — Town & Country Credit Union — Go to town.

This is a radio campaign for Bismarck State College, a community college in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

Several challenges had to be overcome: Target a different specified audience in each spot, deliver multiple points in each spot, somehow make the spots all work together, and remember that the budget is tight. And since the local radio group was offering to run 60-second ads for the same price as 30-second ads at the time, they were all to be 60-second ads.

Thus Limbo was born, the personification of, well, Limbo (the state of existence between heaven and hell, not the party game involving people bending backwards to get under low-hanging sticks). I like to think that Limbo was friends with the Grim Reaper but wasn’t quite as intense or final as Death; Limbo would probably be the seventeenth Horseman of the Apocalypse. With Limbo, there was still hope.

Limbo visited different people as both tormenter and guide, informing them that BSC would get them on the way to a better life. I also gave Limbo several very human imperfections, just to keep things interesting.


Bismarck State College — Limbo — Mint (0:60)

Bismarck State College — Limbo — Computer (0:60)

Bismarck State College — Limbo — Door (0:60)

Bismarck State College — Limbo — Faint (0:60)

Bismarck State College — Limbo — Game (0:60)

This is a spec radio ad I wrote for our pitch with the North Dakota Lottery. 

We won the account.

North Dakota Lottery — Mountain — Spec Radio

This is the original radio component of our first multimedia campaign for the North Dakota Lottery using their existing "Imagine the possibilities!" tagline.

My concept was simple and allows for great flexibility down the road for additional spots: List some things that North Dakotans might buy if they won with the North Dakota Lottery. Some big. Some small. Some sensible. Some showy.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

North Dakota Lottery — Up To You 2

North Dakota Lottery — Up To You 1

Left-handed & brown-eyed ad agency creative director & concept cowboy. Also a fervent firebrand for vivid imaginations, sharp humor & the awesomely anomalous.

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