Dr. Martens Footwear
This campaign was named one of the top 25 print campaigns of the 1990’s. It’s nice to see that it still holds up today. One of the interesting things about this work is that even though it’s a long copy campaign, and even though the call to action is at the very end of copy, the ads were generating over 50,000 phone calls a month. This proves Howard Gossage’s assertion, once and for all, that people don’t read ads, they read things their interested in.
One of our philosophies about long copy, in fact, is that even though people may not always read copy, consumers appreciate that a company has something to say about their products and their brand. In essence, a long copy ad works much the same as a short copy ad as long as people understand the message. They don’t have to read the whole ad to understand it. This is from David’s time at Cole & Weber, Portland, OR.
This last one is a trade ad for Dr. Marten’s distributor, our client, London Underground.
London Underground Trade ads
This is a trade campaign David did at Cole & Weber for London Underground. At the time they were only one of the distributors of the shoes in the USA and this campaign helped them become the official US distributor.
It’s a good example of our philosophy on Trade advertising. Most companies seem to forget that their audience are human beings when composing messages for their industry or category. They tend to speak in jargon thinking that because it’s the industry’s lingo. Our feeling is that you should always treat your customers and clients like the people they are. They still like to laugh. They still respond to emotion. They don’t cease to be dynamic living human beings when thinking about their jobs.
These ads were part of an effort that propelled LU into becoming the number one US distributor and overwhelmed their offices with phone calls and product requests.
Polaroid
Back in the day, Polaroid was an incredibly important tool for all kinds of businesses from photographers to cops, not to mention the victims of crime. Here are just a few of David’s favorite Polaroid pieces. All of the Polaroid work was B-to-B and is a great example of our philosophy on doing trade work. Never forget that people working in any category or channel are human beings first and customers of the category second. They will always react to messages of emotion and understanding in the same way they would in their ‘civilian’ lives. Most companies seem to forget this.
These were aimed at Professional photographers and artists to let them know that Polaroid film was an amazing experimental medium. They actually outperformed a direct marketing campaign that ran alongside them because they hit a nerve with creative people.
These next pieces are aimed at law enforcement. Turns out you have a better chance of getting a conviction if you capture the evidence immediately.
The Oregonian, New and Improved campaign
The paper had just undergone a complete face lift, new and improved, if you will. So the idea was to take old commercials and give them the new and Improved treatment by making them for the Oregonian. One of the reasons we love this is it’s all about being resourceful. These commercials cost about $5,000 clams a piece to make. We knew we didn’t have a big budget so we worked within that box. If you look closely at the Dancer spot, you’ll see a pre-famous Burt Convy hoofing it up. The agency was Cole & Weber.
The Oregonian, Misery from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
The Oregonian, Kitchen from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
The Oregonian, Secret from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
The Oregonian, Dancers from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
Group Health Cooperative
Breast Cancer, Smoking and the Flu have killed millions of people. The very simple idea here was to treat them as serial killers. These commercials were shot by one of our favorite artists, the legendary Matt Mahern. He doesn’t really do advertising so this was a pretty special project. The agency was Cole & Weber.
Group Health Cooperative, Breast Cancer from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
Group Health Cooperative, Flu from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
IKEA Hicksville Launch
This is a spot David worked on when he worked at Deutsch in NY. It ran as a roadblock on 5 channels in the NY area the evening before the grand opening. It only ran once and was part of a campaign that led to the biggest US store opening at the time.
Ikea Hicksville Store Launch from Baldwin& on Vimeo.
