Joinery has added director Alex Grossman to its roster. A former agency creative who plied his trade as copywriter and creative director at Butler, Shine & Stern and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners before veering off from agency life to direct, Grossman made an initial splash by earning inclusion into SHOOT’s 2011 New Directors Showcase. He has since gone on to direct campaigns for the likes of Nike, Nissan, Speed Stick, Clorox, Copper Mountain and Bicycle Financial.
Grossman also has the distinction of winning Cannes Lions as both writer and director, the latter coming for the comedic “The Woman Who Can’t Watch Movies” for Canal+ out of FCB Madrid. The mockumentary, which tells the almost true story of the Wilhelm Scream, collected a pair of Bronze Lions in 2014–one in the Cannes Cyber Lions competition, the other in Promo & Activation.
The Canal+ work, which also came up a winner at the London International Awards and Eurobest, was produced by HeLo, Grossman’s production house roost at the time. He then joined Fancy Content before coming over to Joinery.
Grossman’s latest work includes a comedy campaign from NFL Films for Gatorade through TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, which includes hidden camera-style spots showing unsuspecting college students try to get a Gatorade out of a vending machine. But when it doesn’t dispense, a custodian (played by Rob Belushi, son of Jim Belushi) tips them off that they have to “sweat it to get it.” In one of the spots, titled “Tip,” NFL superstar JJ Watt, a massive physical specimen, then enters the scene and tips over the vending machine which falls to its side on the ground. A semi-mortified college student hopeful of getting a Gatorade is speechless. The custodian suggests to the student that if he can pick up the vending machine and work up a sweat, he might get a Gatorade. Watt then returns for another bit of not so subtle intimidation.
Grossman brings years of experience as an agency creative, realizing that flashy directorial work doesn’t always serve the idea. “As a director your vision should always be dependent on the idea because everything flows from that,” he said. “The look is obviously important, but it has to support the concept. It’s about researching and figuring out an appropriate style. Every job is different, and I may borrow from other commercials and movies or works of art, but the real challenge is creating something uniquely suited to the job at hand.”
