Bob Merlotti, group creative director at J. Walter Thompson (JWT), Chicago, is eminently qualified for SHOOT’s round-up of Midwestern creative talent, though he believes that the influence of geography is often overestimated when it comes to matters of advertising philosophy. Born and bred in St. Louis, Merlotti graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1982, with a degree in business. After a brief stint as a tax consultant—"I was the worst," he says—Merlotti moved to Chicago to get his MBA at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. He graduated from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management there in ’87.
Though he hails from the Central time zone, Merlotti doesn’t think that monikers like "Midwest" mean too much. When asked about how agencies in cities like Chicago or St. Louis differ from shops in other areas, Merlotti simply points out that "Chicago has a lot of packaged-goods accounts.
"I think differences are greater between individual shops," he continues. "For me it’s less, ‘New York does this and Chicago does that,’ than a shop-by-shop difference."
Merlotti joined DDB Needham, Chicago (now DDB Chicago), in ’87, as an assistant account executive—or the less-exalted "peon," according to Merlotti. Though he was working on the account side, writing intrigued him. For years he had kept notes in the hopes of becoming a comedy scribe. "I had this crazy idea that I could be a writer for David Letterman," says Merlotti.
At DDB, he became friends with then-DDB copywriter dennis Ryan, whom he met when both worked on the Wheaties cereal account. Merlotti was awed by Ryan’s work: "His stuff was actually read by the writers at Late Night with David Letterman." Ryan read Merlotti’s work, and suggested that the account exec try his hand at copywriting. In early ’93, Merlotti, who had by then been promoted to account supervisor, switched sides. Merlotti was assigned to work under Ryan, who was then DDB’s group creative director for the Bud Light account. Merlotti’s Bud Light spot "Larry" was shown during the Super Bowl in ’95. Directed by Rob Pritts, of Backyard Productions, Santa Monica, the ad featured a canine bribing the judges at a dog show with a six-pack of Bud Light.
Over the next few years, Merlotti moved up the ranks to become creative director, a title he earned when DDB won the McDonald’s account in ’97. As Merlotti recalls, "They had asked a bunch of people to work on the pitch, but [my idea] was the only idea that was presented to the client." As it was Merlotti who came up with the now-ubiquitous slogan "Did somebody say McDonald’s?," he was the natural choice to oversee the campaign.
The Move
Merlotti shifted to JWT, Chicago, in March ’99, where Ryan has served as executive VP/executive creative director since ’97. At JWT, Merlotti is again working on a beer account. For Miller Genuine Draft (MGD), Merlotti was the group creative director/copywriter on "Dot Kom," and the co-copywriter (with David Kantor) on "Laundry"—both directed by Frank Todaro of bicoastal/international @radical.media. He served in the same capacity on two more Miller spots that were helmed by @radical.media’s Tarsem: "On the Lam" and "Love Thy Neighbor." (The latter earned Top Spot recognition—SHOOT, 12/08/ 00, p. 14.)
"Dot Kom" shows an increasingly desperate entrepreneur seeking venture capital for what he thinks will be a winnerflan all-bean Web site. "Laundry" shows the unexpectedly sexy benefits of doing chores. In "On the Lam," a man in a motel room watches a TV news bulletin about the "bombshell bandit." Glancing up from the TV at a scantily clad woman, he realizes she is the object of a police manhunt. But she has a couple of bottles of Miller, so he just turns off the set. And in "Love Thy Neighbor," a bouncing bottle capflthe side effect of a noisy party in the next apartmentflopens up a range of possibilities for an enterprising couple. All four ads carry the tagline "Never miss a genuine opportunity."
In addition to his work on Miller, Merlotti has created ads for the Kraft account, and was group creative director on Kraft Miracle Whip’s "Globetrotters," directed by Jeff Gorman of JGF, Hollywood. In the spot, the Harlem Globetrotters pass the ingredients of a sandwich along in an elegant parody of their on-the-court antics, until it is discovered that there is no Miracle Whip for the hero they’ve prepared, at which point the players abandon the sandwich.
At press time, Merlotti was on location in Louisiana for MGD’s "Road Trip," which will translate the "Never miss a genuine opportunity" slogan into a warning against drunk driving. "The campaign is flexible enough to do something like that," notes Merlotti. Although he’s afraid of meeting an alligator, Merlotti is pleased with the shoot and with helmer Johan Renck of bicoastal HSI/PAR.
While Merlotti’s background is firmly in the world of beer, the approaches he’s taken have varied. "Bud Light is a very popular brand, and [emphasizing] the brand’s popularity was part of the strategy," he explains. "The light beer category has always been a funny category. A lot of it is really broad humor, which is not a bad thing. Except that DDB had been doing it for so long and so successfully that you had to do something else [with Miller]. … It was well-mined territory."
With MGD, Merlotti focused on the beer’s aesthetic. "It’s a great-looking bottle—the black label," he says, "and it’s a sexy, mysterious brand."
The recent MGD spots depart from the comedy/dialogue slant so pervasive in many recent beer ads. But in reviving the "sexy" approach to advertising a brew, JWT was careful in its portrayal of men and women. "We wanted the women to be playing on the same level as the men," he states. Merlotti, pointing to the sex-sells-beer approach popular about a decade ago, notes that "its fantasy element has become really dated. … And sometimes, the guys were predatory, and the girls were treated as sex objects." In the new MGD ads, "It’s sexy, but both [male and female characters] are in on it now."
The Tarsem-helmed spots are dialogue free, but Merlotti says that writing scripts without speech was not that difficult. "We decided before we went into creative development that there would be no dialogue. … People smarter than me told me quite a while ago, ‘It is television, you have to show things every time you can.’ " Merlotti observes, "It takes a while to realize that you want to tell the story with as little dialogue as possible."
Merlotti gives credit to everyone he works with: He notes that "Dot Kom" was actually based on director Todaro’s own idea. When Kraft Miracle Whip’s "Globetrotters" is mentioned, Merlotti is equally eager to give accolades: "The campaign was established already. There’s a great strategyflthe whole idea of Miracle Whip is just indispensability, " he says. "And the spot was made fun of by Jay Leno, so we were all very excited."
Merlotti is pleased with the response to the ads—as is Miller. "Miller Genuine Draft wants us to keep cranking these spots out," he reports. "They’re going to be on air more this year."e
