creative shop and production company rolled into one.
BY RICHARD LINNETT
The One Show at Alice Tully Hall in New York this year was a painfully long exercise. Introducing the ad industry’s latest best work, guest emcee Nick Clooney, the silver-haired host of cable’s American Movie Classics, rambled on about forgotten (and often forgettable) ads of the past, while also reminding viewers again and again that he was the brother of Rosemary and father of George. It was hard to tell if Clooney’s act was serious or some kind of pokerface put-on, like the deadpan Cliff Freeman spots that dominated the event’s short list.
During that long journey into night, there were occasional winning moments that roused the restive audience; perhaps the most memorable of these-and the one that nearly brought the house down(thorn)was the sight of Ben Stiller sucking on a baby bottle containing Madonna’s breast milk in an on-air promo for MTV’s Video Music Awards.
Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire, a creative team from MTV’s on-air promotions department, went up to the stage and received a Gold Pencil in the consumer television category for the :30 Stiller spot and two others in the campaign. The boys repeated their trip to spirit away a Bronze Pencil in the same category for an MTV Movie Awards campaign in which actor Samuel L. Jackson entertains impure thoughts about a hot-dog vendor, then does a turn as a porn star and finally, spews profanities on a movie studio lot.
And so, the One Show made history that night and few seemed to notice. The event, which recognizes excellence in advertising and is considered to be one of the most important of many ad award ceremonies, bestowed gold upon the MTV on-air promo department for the very first time.
The honor is a benchmark for the hybrid creative and production shop. Although it has won other advertising industry awards in its 18-year history, the One Show honor is, arguably, the promo division’s most prestigious industry kudo. In addition, the award opened a window on an organization that otherwise has been shut pretty tight. Indeed, the very credits for the winning MTV work shone a ray of light on some of the anonymous players who toil behind the scenes in the department, and read closely, they also indicate the different creative cultures at work there.
Creative Differences
Tim Abshire, who recently left on-air promos and signed with bicoastal Shelter Films, is credited as a co-director on the Stiller campaign and Lisa Rubisch, who also left the fold recently and is now represented by bicoastal Bob Industries, directed the Samuel Jackson series. Abshire and Rubisch are MTV graduates. They both joined the promo department fresh out of college in ’92, starting as interns and working their way up to directors in a department that has often been called a masters program in broadcast advertising. Their immediate superior, Christina Norman, a former freelance producer on the production side, arrived in ’91 and worked her way up from production manager, to director of on-air promotions.
"It’s better than any film school," says Brian Carmody, the West Coast rep for bicoastal/international Satellite, which has recruited MTV promo alumni Pam Thomas, Caitlin Felton and Brian Beletic for spots and clips. "They let people do their own thing and write their own stuff. It’s awesome from a creative standpoint."
Kuntz and Maguire are credited as the writers of the Samuel L. Jackson spots and as the co-directors, along with Abshire, of the Ben Stiller campaign. (They directed the Madonna spot; Abshire directed the other two, which feature the Wu Tang Clan). They are also credited as writers on the Stiller spots along with Alan Broce, senior VP/marketing at MTV. Kuntz and Maguire are former creatives from Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York, and Broce, who hired the team, is a former account executive who worked at Lintas New York (now Ammirati Puris Lintas) and J. Walter Thompson USA. Just prior to coming to MTV, Broce was the director of advertising and marketing at ESPN. These ad vets (Broce has been at MTV for two years, the others for less than one) represent, according to some observers, a different direction for the department, one in which advertising and marketing principles are displacing the artistic improvisational style of the past. The recent hiring of Jim Hosking, a copywriter from the London ad agency Mother, seems to reinforce this view.
Some on-air alumni feel that this new influx of agency creatives, including Broce, represents a professionalization of the department that goes against the original spirit and unofficial creative charter of the division. "We basically became more ratings oriented and cared more about the masses," alleges an on-air alumnus who requested anonymity. "Whereas before, we didn’t care and we just did what was cool. People followed us. And now it seems like, we’re following what is cool or hip or trendy in advertising, which makes us followers."
Broce, on the other hand, says that his department is becoming more eclectic. "Yes, I want to attract people from agencies," he says. "And from television, and magazine writers and artists. I’m always on the lookout for friends of mine in the ad business, of course, but I also keep an eye out for people from television shows that have been canceled. We try them too. It’s important to have a solid staff."
To Air Is Human
On-air promos started operations in ’81, when MTV first went on the air. (MTV or music television is now part of Viacom- owned MTV Networks, which owns and operates four additional cable TV services(thorn)M2, VH1, Nickelodeon/ Nick at Nite and Nick at Nite’s TV Land.). The department was originally headed by a former Cond Nast magazine writer who was "trying to get to Rolling Stone, that was my dream" and instead landed at MTV during its first year. Her name is Judy McGrath and she is now president of MTV.
"We were pioneering a new idea and it was anti-TV identity type stuff," says McGrath. "It wasn’t the static eyeball like CBS. Ours was a different kind of network."
In the first few years, the on-air promotions unit created slapdash tune-ins, including bumpers and station IDs largely with stock footage(thorn)including the famous man landing on the moon(thorn)cut quickly in time to music tracks.
"We were just re-editing pieces of videos," says McGrath. "And re-editing stock footage and writing copy. We always did the audio tracks first. I’ve never seen that in another network. We’d go into an audio room and mix some really great music and put some images on it. And I was always fighting for the stuff to be more writerly."
The department’s first live-action promo, according to McGrath, was created for a Video Music Awards show in the mid-’80s. "It was like some guy dressed in a moon man suit, getting on a subway," McGrath recalls. "It was pretty awful." The spot, however crude, signaled a turning point in the department, one in which the unit moved away from an emphasis on editors and towards a focus on directors. During the late ’80s, the department began employing people who wanted to direct films, including Mark Pellington, now represented by Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, Ted Demme, currently repped by CFM, New York, and Pam Thomas, now with bicoastal/ international Satellite.
"We were always a farm team for talent," says McGrath. "People always moved through here. Sometimes faster than you would like. Nonetheless, the great thing about it was that we were always attracting different people. To this day, in my mind, the department remains the identifier of the network, the blood and guts part. A lot of the wars are waged there."
Abby’s Road
A Saturday Night Live employee who created film parodies for the show was recruited in ’86 as the new director of on-air promotions after McGrath moved up to become co-president of MTV. His name is Abby Terkuhle and he is best known for having developed within the on-air unit a pair of obscure and obscene cartoon characters drawn by a Texan named Mike Judge. Under Terkuhle’s tutelage, Beavis and Butt-head grew from minor players to superstars with their very own program. Terkuhle also is known for having nurtured many young promo directors who went on to direct-as MTV grads refer to it-in "the real world." These would be Abshire, Beletic, Felton, Rubisch, Trez Bayer of Air Force One, New York, Kenan Moran, now with New York-based Compass Films, and Lloyd Stein, who works through bicoastal Epoch Films, to name a few. On the average, these directors matriculated from the department after five to seven years, very much like a college and graduate school course of study. Many of them entered as interns and left as highly sought-after directors.
"I felt very lucky," says Moran about his six years in the unit. "Where else was somebody going to pay me to succeed and fail and give me so much freedom?"
"It was a huge break," says Stein, who was recruited from TNT’s promo department in Atlanta in ’92 and stayed until ’97. Stein met his wife, Pam Thomas, while at MTV. "Abby changed my life in many ways and I’ll be forever grateful for that."
"It was like this little dysfunctional family," says Abshire. "Everyone’s got their own gig going on, but somehow we all got along."
According to on-air graduates with whom SHOOT spoke, Terkuhle ran the department like a creative workshop. Anyone, from the lowliest intern to a senior writer, could direct a spot as long as they had a good idea and a solid script. Terkuhle was the beginning and end of every job. He either put the brakes on a promo or gave it a green light. He seldom got involved in the actual production (everything was shot in-house) and only saw the project again when it was finished and unveiled at a staff meeting in which the work was criticized or praised. The budgets were low; the formats were usually Beta SP and 16mm. Some of the work never made it on the air, but a lot of it did. There were no official job titles in the department. Terkuhle was the only director; everyone else was a producer.
"You’re a P.A. for a couple of years," Rubisch recalls, "you’re an associate producer for a couple of years. And then you work your way up to producer, which is actually a director in the real world."
Terkuhle-who shifted over to another MTV province-remembers his on-air days fondly. "I had an incredibly talented creative pool and brain trust of writers and producers that were turning out stuff that had never been seen before anywhere," he says. "I give a lot of credit to them. Most of the time, I let them run with a good idea, and that’s not something you see very often. It’s always been important for me to have a nurturing environment where you encourage risk taking and you can succeed and fail and still get up and do it again."
The Real World
Inevitably, people on the outside took notice of the on-air promo work. Commercial production companies began calling the writers and producers, luring them away on freelance projects. On-air staffers began asking Terkuhle for more and more "vacation time" which became a code word for an outside job.
"We weren’t supposed to do it, but we all did it, and what we did was take many vacations," says Rubisch. "I was getting back from my vacations only to leave for my next vacation. I would say, "I’m not quite rested yet,’ with big black circles under my eyes from working 24 hours a day."
"Everyone was doing these little freelance jobs and thinking they were getting away with something, as if Abby didn’t know what was going on," says Stein. "It’s like when you’re a parent and you have a kid, and the kid thinks that he’s getting away with something. Abby knew what everyone was doing. He knew every freelance project that was going on."
These freelance assignments invariably were the first steps in an elaborate courting ritual that ultimately led to many on-air staff members signing up with production companies. This situation, of course, continues today. "People on the outside want to tap into our talent all the time," says Norman.
Besides production companies, ad agencies also attempted to tap into on-air promos. "I remember Dan Wieden [president, Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.] called once," Terkuhle recalls. "He said "Gosh, I love what you do.’ And he actually came by the offices and poked his head in and I showed him some stuff we were working on." According to Terkuhle, an exchange program was initiated between MTV and Wieden & Kennedy in which a group of agency creatives came to New York and sat in with the promo department, while a group of promo people traveled to Portland and mingled there. "We ended up kind of working on each other’s assignments," Terkhule relates. "It was more about the process than about any product that came out of it."
This, of course, was not the only encounter between MTV and an agency.
"At one point TBWA/Chiat/ Day [Los Angeles] came and they were pitching this huge campaign to us," recalls an alumnus who requested anonymity. "There were about 20 people around this table. All promo people, all young, creative, smart people. And they pitched this campaign and it was called "Worm.’ And it was about how a worm was going to be a new spokesperson for MTV. They showed us a picture of "Worm’ interviewing Madonna. … And there was dead silence. It was the worst thing you could ever imagine. But no one really knew: You either thought these people are so fucking smart that it’s beyond me, or it’s just mind-bogglingly dumb."
Another alumnus who also requested anonymity recalls the moment: "It was a room of complete silence," says the source. "Of course the ad world was the opposite world, it was the other world, so we were really excited sitting there. But then we felt bad for them. I believe they were wearing suits, and we were a tough crowd. We were sitting there staring at them and they said: "Worm. You know, a Worm. It will be really cool.’ "
According to these sources, the promo department rejected the "Worm" pitch and came up with some ideas of its own. "And we were like, "No, we’re the promo department, we make this stuff,’ " says the source." "We can be the in-house agency. We can do it.’ And the assignment finally came back to us."
Pass The Torch
After 11 years in the department, Terkuhle, whose official title became executive VP/creative director, left to spearhead MTV Animation, a division which he founded (see related SHOOT article, p. 1). Norman, his second in command, succeeded him as the director of on-air promotions (her official title now is VP/on-air promotions). Broce also was hired at this time, and for many alumni the new administration signaled a different approach.
"It wasn’t as experimental over the last couple of years," says Abshire. "I can’t necessarily say that it was straitlaced, but it did change." According to Abshire, the creative buck, which used to stop at Terkhule, now passes through Norman to Broce, who occupies a position that did not exist during Terkuhle’s tenure. "And that’s an extra step in the process," says Abshire. "Alan obviously wants the channel to have a particular look, and that’s, I think, the way it’s going."
"It changed a lot," says another alumnus who requested anonymity. "Abby was more of an intellectual and an artist and Alan is more of an ad guy. Abby was all about breaking new ground. Every single promo [under Broce] became pseudo-documentary-that’s because ESPN was pseudo-documentary. And that is very popular and very award-winning. And automatically when you’re concerned about winning the big ad awards, you’re not going to be a leader, you’re going to be a follower."
McGrath admits that she hired Broce after seeing the ESPN Sportscenter campaign that he helped develop. (The campaign was created by Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., and is now handled through the agency’s New York office.) "I was looking for a head of marketing that would come from that gene pool," McGrath says. "More of a client orientation. He had a consumer bias, and he had a good sense of humor. We were coming out of a dark period in music so it seemed like time to shake up the in-your-face attitude that we had."
And then, last year, Kuntz and Maguire were hired and brought with them the agency convention of a team that creates boards for directors to shoot. For many on-air people, it was the first time they had ever been asked to direct projects that they didn’t also write.
"When we did the Ben Stiller stuff , [Kuntz and Maguire] were there for the whole process, almost like the way it really works out in the commercial world," recalls Abshire. "It was the first time I was truly immersed in that world, and I wasn’t sure how to take it. It was kind of awkward. I didn’t have nearly as much creative control from the start. But they had great ideas, and as it went on, we all found out how to get along."
Why would an established team from a respected creative agency want to join MTV on-air promos and, as it were, go back to school?
"The process in advertising is usually so slow, if you’re trying to make commercials [at an agency], it’s a joke compared to here," says Kuntz. "We’ve made over 40 spots in the last year. And we write scripts that we love. There’s no client to freak out over content. The deadlines are so quick that we just turn stuff around so it’s ideal. The only thing that’s lacking compared to advertising is the million dollar budgets."
"There are no meetings to go to," Maguire chimes in. "There are no clients, there are no focus groups. You walk down the hall on any given day and everyone’s door is closed because they’re out shooting. They’re always out doing work. When you run into people, it’s a really good atmosphere, and we all go out together and what not, and it’s like an agency in that way. But there is no bureaucracy. The shows are going to be on TV and you have to do the ads for them, and they just get done."
Say What?
MTV’s on-air promotions department occupies the 24th floor of the Viacom building in New York’s Times Square. On the afternoon that SHOOT arrived to interview Norman and Broce, the doors were not closed, rather they were open and the place was buzzing.
"This is a tough place," says Broce. "It’s a floor full of really creative people."
"And there are all the ghosts of the people who have been here before," Norman adds, before explaining to SHOOT how the department works today.
"We have teams of writers and producers whom we smash together on everything from tune-in spots to image campaigns," says Norman, who estimates that there are currently 20 staffers, which includes people who work on graphics and print work. "And obviously there are people here of varying skill levels, from entry-level people who are starting to make little fixes on spots to senior people who get a lot of the choice assignments. I have two supervising producers who manage that process."
These supervisors, according to Norman, dole out assignments based on upcoming shows, such as the Movie and Video Music Awards. They work with the staff to generate ideas and scripts. "As you can imagine," says Norman, "it’s a pretty fluid process, and a fast one. Even stuff that is done for us on the outside, conception to air is often just a week."
Work that goes "outside" the department generally is the bigger-budget network image campaigns that appear "off-air," in other words, on other networks. This past March, there were the hilarious off-air spots "Warehouse," "Suburb" and "Snitch" which feature a Shaft-like character who rescues kids addicted to bad videos. The campaign was directed by John O’Hagan of bicoastal Hungry Man, via Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco, an MTV roster shop. And there is the currently airing "Jukka Brothers" campaign featuring a family of lug-headed MTV fans who live in the outback of Finland, and who pathetically attempt to mimic "cool" music video culture. This work was devised by Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, creatives Paul Malmström and Linus Karlsson (the braintrust behind Miller Lite’s "Dick" campaign), and was directed by the Traktor team from bicoastal/international Partizan Midi Minuit.
Reportedly, the on-air department made its own pitch for these campaigns but lost out to the ad agencies.
"On-air promotions does a lot of work that hopefully goes off the channel, beyond on-air promotion," explains Broce, who points out that on-air and off-air departments used to be different entities. "They’ve been fused over the last few years. Now there’s more of a creative department which consists of on-air and off-air promotions."
Is it true that the department is intentionally hiring ad agency creatives such as Kuntz and Maguire, and Hoskings of Mother in order to function more like an ad agency?
Broce shakes his head. "It just so happens that some of the people coming in here are coming from advertising," he says. "That’s not an intentional thing. We still recruit from places like RISDE [Rhode Island School of Design] and CalArts."
"Clearly, writers are an important lynchpin to the process here," adds Norman. "Especially when we have a staff that is inexperienced. And so, bringing in a higher level copywriter like Jim [Hosking] is a great thing for people here. He can collaborate with someone who can take their work to the next level. And he can start to achieve some of his own goals as well."
"Sometimes we need to fill needs," says Broce. "Yes, we needed a writer. And we needed a senior kind of writer. But then, the more ongoing search is for the creative talent who is going to be young and hungry and wanting to start out. And I don’t think they are necessarily defined as writers or producers at the get go; maybe they find their own way."
"When you work in advertising," Broce continues, "you tend to think of people as, "This is what they do, they’re good for this kind of thing.’ But here, it’s not even close to being as traditional as, "Well, I’m a copywriter and I work with an art director.’ Here it’s different every time. One of the great things for a creative person in this department is that relatively quickly you can be working on highly important things. Then of course, two weeks later you can be working on something that has a shelf life of three days."
Is there more structure in the department today, than in Terkuhle’s day?
"Probably," says Norman. "Now we have different challenges and we have to be a little bit smarter when we do things. Image messages are woven through everything we do. And we don’t want to do the same thing twice. We want to do stuff that is a little more challenging."
In Broce’s office, with a dizzying view of Broadway outside large plate glass windows, the final impression one gets of this managerial team is that they don’t appear to be a managerial team at all. They are casual and energetic, much like a team of creatives. It’s hard to imagine, at this huge corporation, that the buck stops here, as far as the promotion of the station’s image. Don’t Norman and Broce have to serve somebody? Doesn’t their work ultimately need approval from higher-ups at MTV, or indeed, at Viacom?
"No!" Norman shouts, and then laughs.
"We are fortunate, Christina and I," says Broce, soberly, "in that we do answer to people who share our sensibilities and goals in terms of wanting to do breakthrough creative that really connects with our audience. I would say that maybe we’re even more conservative than they are."
The MTV on-air promotion department is going through changes. It continues to evolve and adapt to an ever-fluctuating marketplace. But one thing is certain: the department is an extremely creative shop, and its recent One Show victory is just partial proof. The department is much talked about, and its work is much envied. It also is a preeminent model for the very few hybrid creative shops out there in "the real world"; shops such as New York-based Artustry, run by a partnership between spot director and former adman Bob Giraldi (bicoastal Giraldi Suarez), spot producer Bill Perna of bicoastal Voyeur Films, and David Sklaver, a former president of now defunct Wells Rich Greene BDDP. And Denver-based production company Celluloid Studios has an ownership interest in Chicago ad agency Fusion Idea Lab, a relationship which at times can lead to some creative collaborations (SHOOT, 4/23, p. 42). Although these hybrid ventures bid for clients in the competitive "real world" rather than in-house, they share with MTV a mix of creative and production cultures that is sometimes uneasy, but often fertile and perhaps well-worth the experiment.
As McGrath says, "One of the good things about the department is that it inspires a lot of debate and passion, and that’s good."7
