Directors LeMoine/Miller—Rick and Steve, respectively—of bicoastal/international @radical.media are funny guys, and the team’s spots are often humor based. Their comedy, though, has a basic requirement: "The situation," says LeMoine, "has to have an element of truth to be really funny to us. Something that’s true, about which you can say, ‘Yeah, that’s happened to me; I understand that.’ "
"It comes down to a real simple question: ‘Does it happen in the real world?’ " adds Miller. "You still see so many advertising ideas come through that are just—let’s face it—just dumb. The really smart stuff comes from somebody saying, ‘This is true; this is what people do; this is what our lives are like.’ "
An example would be their three-spot package for Volkswagen—which is comprised of "Carriage," "Sand" and "Parking Lot"—out of Arnold Communications, Boston. In "Carriage," a VW owner parks his silver Jetta in front of a supermarket and walks away. As happens in supermarket parking lots everywhere, an empty shopping cart starts rolling through the area, seemingly targeting the Jetta. The owner runs back to his car. Making a desperate flying tackle on the cart, he knocks it out of the way and leaves the Jetta in pristine condition. Truism illustrated: People in general value their automobiles, and VW owners really care about their cars.
Or take Monster.com’s "Shadow Day," out of Mullen, Wenham, Mass., which shows kids acompanying adults to work for the day. (The account recently shifted to Arnold.)
Lemoine and Miller have been friends since the early 1980s. They even worked together as agency creatives—but it was not until ’96 that they joined forces as a directing team. The two met at Syracuse University when they both essentially stumbled onto some advertising classes—LeMoine as an aspiring writer thought that advertising might be a way to keep writing and not simultaneously starve to death. And Miller thought he was entering graphic design, but found himself in an advertising design class and appreciated its emphasis on "writing and ideas."
After college—Miller finished in ’84, LeMoine in ’85—the two met again at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now part of Saatchi & Saatchi, New York). When Cliff Freeman left DFS in ’87 to form Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, LeMoine and Miller went with him; Rick as a copywriter, Steve as an art director.
LeMoine continued there until ’93, but Miller hopscotched the globe, working at Saatchi & Saatchi, London; Chiat/Day/Mojo (now TBWA/Chiat/Day), New York; and Chiat/Day/Mojo (now Mojo) Auckland, New Zealand. Miller enjoyed the experience: "It was great, but I missed New York and I had to come back."
the switch
By the time Miller returned to New York from New Zealand, LeMoine had been freelancing for a couple of years as a creative director/copywriter. The two joined forces to freelance as a team, and in late ’96 were asked to create a 10-spot NASCAR promo campaign for ESPN. "They needed somebody," relates Miller, "to take over the whole project. We said that we would write it if they would let us direct it."
ESPN assented, and helping the two engineer the project was @radical.media; they joined that company for representation in ’97. "I think we realized that we needed to move onto the next step," LeMoine recalls, of their decision to start directing. "We always enjoyed the shooting of the commercials—it was the most fun part of our job and the most interesting."
And how is it working as a di-
