MARC GUTTESMAN

This campaign was voted "One of The Year's Best" by Advertising Age Magazine. Beautifully art directed and fun to look at. I'm very proud of the distinction, but at the end of the day they really just make me hungry.

I was fortunate to be one of the few writers to work on this iconic campaign while at Bozell. I had to write dozens of lines to be considered for each ad. Only after careful scrutiny was a headline deemed good enough to grace the page for the final version. Thanks for pushing me, Bernie.

If you want to keep your precious pet free from danger, you're going to have to get tough on fleas and ticks. Before we produced this spot, I wrote 6 different scripts all based on our "tough love" concept. Testing proved that our biker gang scenario resonated best with our audience, so it was off to LA to find our perfect cast. To see the award-winning TV spot, just click on my "TV & Video" tab below.

These are two of my favorite ads. I love the clean, contemporary look and the boldness of the headlines. It was a challenging assignment because I wanted to balance the serious subject matter of children and adults who aren't eating well with something aspirational and motivating. It took me a while to uncover the voice of the campaign, but it eventually all came together after a late night snack.

This was one of those rare times when the final creative product matched the original concept. My partner and I spent hours with the digital production team working on how we wanted the wolf to appear. How much fur? What is she wearing? Do we show teeth? Of course I wanted to show more cleavage, but was told we didn't have the budget to manufacture that much additional hair.

This was one of my first print ads and it continues to be one of the most controversial pieces in my portfolio. There's no easy way to talk about incest and the impact and devastation it leaves behind. So for me, the ads had to be just as impactful as the subject matter to cut through the clutter. No hard feelings to the "Uncle Jacks" out there.

This was an important campaign for Crestor because they received a new indication for atherosclerosis, the build up of dangerous plaque in the arteries. So my challenge was to find a way to make the information both relevant and compelling to our naive target audience. The campaign made a big splash.

How do you urge doctors to do a better job of convincing parents to protect their daughters with a vaccination now from sexual diseases they may have in the future? It’s a tricky conversation to have, especially when the daughters are just 12 years old and the risks of actually contracting HPV are relatively low. But when cervical cancer is a possibility, it’s a conversation that needs to happen.

Almost everything today comes with a set of instructions for care. Underwear. Outerwear. Even patio furniture. But not our bodies. So I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like if our bodies came with instructions on how to relieve dry skin.

Keller Jewelers asked me to create a print campaign targeted to men shopping for uniquely designed engagement rings. The kind you won't find in the mall jewelry stores. I found their rings to be stunning and dramatic, so I crafted headlines and a look that was just as dramatic. Not for nothing, but I think I married the two quite well. 

How do you differentiate a psoriasis brand that’s the 8th one to market with no clear clinical benefit? Well, you start by striking an emotional chord with sufferers by showing them you understand what they’re going through. Most other brands show people with barely noticeable red patches and smiles. There is no conflict, no drama, and no emotion. There’s also no reason to watch. That’s why we decided to show the inflamed skin and the flakes. By showing the flakes, and the sufferers’ reaction to them, we were able to immediately create a feeling of empathy and trust with viewers. This feeling contributed to a strong urgency to learn more about ILUMYA from their doctor.

LYCOS was one of the early search engines before Google swallowed everything up. Loved the graphic nature of this campaign and the simplistic design. The radio and TV spots that followed were just as fun. This ad was designed to attract new users to the site via a scratch-off sweepstakes. From what I remember it was quite effective.

Award-winning self-promotion piece that helped me land my first job in New York. I printed out 15 of these oversize posters, wrapped them in holiday paper, and hand-delivered them to a list of top agencies the week before Christmas. Every one got opened. I mean who else gets a 100% open rate on Direct Mail? 

If you're a fan of advertising, you'll notice this was a parody (or tribute?) of the iconic Wall Street Journal Creative Leaders campaign. 

This campaign was exactly what was needed to tell woman with dyspareunia (painful intercourse) that there is hope: Sex after menopause doesn't have to hurt. All of the competitive brands were using dried flowers and sandpaper as a metaphor for how dry a woman's vagina becomes after menopause, and in doing so, completely turned off women to their message. If you ask me, that's what really hurts.

Astellas is a very unique kind of company. They are committed to helping improve the future for patients all over the world by focusing on diseases that are the most diabolical, not the most profitable. That was the first headline I wrote for this campaign. The other two lines came easily.

How do you launch the third erectile dysfunction treatment in an already crowded field? With a bang. This was the idea that helped us win the Levitra account. The client was so enthralled by the simplicity and the fun of the campaign that they started writing lines themselves. Fortunately we weren't forced to use them :)

Utibron wanted a different way to speak to COPD sufferers. It's a serious disease with serious consequences, so they didn't want to be flip or lighthearted about it like their competitors. They wanted to let sufferers know that despite being smokers, they are still entitled to treatment that treats them like human beings. I love it when a pharma company actually gets it. To me, that's a breath of fresh air.

Heartland suffered from a lack of awareness even though they were one of the biggest payment processors in the country. So I paired strong photography with authentic testimonials and benefit-driven headlines to help propel them ahead of their competition. The other ads address specific needs within the company. I'm a big fan of clean, simple and elegant, and that's how I now think of Heartland. I just hope they can continue on that path.

The One Show asked my partner and I to come up with a "Call For Entires" idea for their prestigious Rx Award Show. That was the good part. The bad part was we only had a few hours to come up with a concept. This was the first idea we had and we were thrilled they decided to go with it. In addition to not having much time, they didn't have much money to spend on models, so that's me on the right working for free. The guy in the middle got fifty bucks, but I later learned he would've done it for free. 

Novartis was looking for a big idea to help communicate that the medical community hasn't been doing enough to fight heart failure. Every other disease state has made major significant advances in care, but heart failure continues to lack the innovations needed to save lives. So what better way to bring awareness to this topic than by highlighting some of our most treasured failures.

Ovation Payroll was looking for a way to differentiate themselves from their many competitors. After interviewing the CMO and many sales people, I learned Ovation offered two great benefits: a 100% satisfaction guaranteed pledge and incredible customer service. I decided to focus the headlines on the high level of customer service and called out the pledge in the subhead. The client loved the sophisticated new look of their brand and said I unveiled a point of differentiation that helped them close multiple contracts.

Every year, thousands of kids get misdiagnosed with ADHD (and put on drugs) by doctors who only base their decision on anecdotal evidence rather than a more accurate measure. With the Quotient system, we now have an objective way to tell if they're just being kids or if they're really in need of treatment.

Trojan was introducing their newest condoms with the claim that they're so thin you won't even know that you're wearing one. I thought it would be interesting to see how that played out from the female perspective.

Words are wonderful, but for those times when you need an illustration to tell the story, I always enjoying getting out the old tools to craft something unique. Plus the whole process of doodling and sketching is highly cathartic for me. It gives me a chance to employ some of the other brain cells for a while. 

To me, there's nothing more pleasing than a stunning logo that truthfully represents its brand. The really good ones take time to build. Typefaces must be explored. Font weights weighed. Colors tested. Character spacing noodled. While I enjoyed the challenge of creating these, I'm no match for the real geniuses like Herb Lublin and my friend, Bill Healey. Maybe Bill will let me watch him work some day.

In addition to traditional media, we leveraged a variety of experiential tactics to target COPD sufferers where they live and socialize in an effort to drive them to seek answers.

The average household credit card debt in the U.S. is over $16,000. When you consider most people only make the minimum monthly payment, it's no wonder their financial burden continues to grow exponentially. I wanted to provide a compelling wake-up call for these individuals, while offering them some much needed hope.

Just because an idea doesn't get produced doesn't make it any less compelling. Good ideas die every day, for all different reasons. But it's the ability to come back the next day with even better ideas that separate the good creatives from the great ones. These are just some of those ideas.

I have been fortunate to be recognized for my work over the years in TV, radio, print, digital and photography. But I could not have done it without the help of the many talented art directors and designers I've had the pleasure of working with. 

There has always been a heated debate about the need for awards in our industry. Are they merely just self-serving displays of recognition for the creators, or can they be tied somehow to effectiveness? The debate will certainly continue to rage on, but there's no denying that the most awarded ads have also been the most effective. It's true. But in approaching new work I'm reminded of what Lee Garfinkel once said: "First be smart and relevant. Then push the envelope of creativity." Great words to live by.

I was hired to create a personal site for a CMO with a very broad range of skills. Her extensive background encompasses all aspects of the marketing process from branding to creative to strategy. So we needed a smart and simple idea to convey that to CEOs in the position to hire her. By using an inviting headline, a custom logo, and crafting her own brand of paint cans to represent her skills, we had an incredible response to the site.