In addition to dreaming up ad campaigns, some creative teams are also comedy duos. Such is the case with copywriter Steve Zumwinkel and art director Wayne Best of Cliff Freeman and Partners (CFP), New York. The two are a veritable vaudeville act, insulting each other with a good humor borne of long association. But during the course of their ad-libbed routine, it emerges that the pair is splitting: Best has joined Dweck!, New York, as a creative director, while Zumwinkel remains at CFP.
"It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do, because I love this place," says Best about his move. According to his partner, Best fended off many offers before capitulating to Dweck! "Wayne has been getting calls constantly for the last year," says Zumwinkel.
"Mostly from my mom," Best quickly amends.
While Best’s departure could be problematic at an agency where the art director/copywriter pairing is the cornerstone of working life, Best says that CFP is more flexible. "We don’t really work as partners as much as some [agencies]," he explains. "Steve and I worked together for a year, for seventy-five to eighty-five percent of the timeawhich is a lotabut [the agency] right now tends to be not as team oriented. There’s a lot of floating creatives."
Best and Zumwinkel recently completed a campaign for Hollywood Video, which includes the spots "Boxer," "Shakespeare," "Chase," "Interrogation," and "Documentary." (That last ad earned recognition as "Top Spot of The Week," SHOOT, 6/2). All of the commercials incorporate different film stylesaranging from a black-and-white war movie to a coming of age dramaaas an unseen renter hovers between choices.
The two had previously worked on print and radio campaigns for Hollywood Video and its Game Crazy video game rental division. They have also collaborated on print and radio ads for Office.com.
Best and Zumwinkel spent five months working on the Hollywood Video spots, which were all helmed by Baker Smith of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica. "We had a few directors that we thought were very good for it," says Best, "but Baker was really enthusiastic about the spots, and we felt like he really understood the genres."
Genres, of course, are the gist of the campaign, as in each spot the "movie" changesafrom documentary to teen drama to family fantasy in "Documentary"aas the unseen renter attempts to select a film. In "Boxer," the action depicted includes a fight scene a l Raging Bull, which segues into dialogue from a drama, and finally, a scene from a horror movie. The humor in the package lies in the actors’ unexaggerated performances and in the spots’ deadpan representation of varying movie styles.
"Our DP on the spots was Oscar-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall," says Best. (Hall was the cinematographer on American Beauty. He received an Academy Award for that film as well as for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.) "He was amazing to work with. That’s something I won’t forgetathe great opportunity to work with one of the best DPs in the business."
If the spots’ "movies" encompass a broad range of styles, Best says that the ads themselves developed from a single idea: "People walk into a video store and they don’t know what they want to watch. I think everybody relates to that feeling," he says. "We tapped into that, hopefully in a unique way."
Their way included humor, and Best says that one of the reasons they took that approach was "when you’ve made somebody laugh, you’ve kind of won them over. It’s toughaa product is not going to change [the viewers’] lives, so I think humor is a better way to appeal to people."
Zumwinkel offered a more practical consideration: "I think it’s easier to work on humor. You know right from the start what you’re shooting for, so it narrows the focus quite a bit: It’s either funny or it’s not."
Best, a Los Angeles native, decided to become an art director after "considering photography, film and design, because [in advertising] you get to do all those things." He graduated from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif., with a bachelor of arts degree in advertising in ’91. Shortly after graduating, he relocated to New York, becoming an art director at N.W. Ayer & Partners. He was only at the shop for five months before falling victim to a massive lay off. "I found out in the men’s room when someone said to me, ‘Sorry to hear about [your job].’ I said, ‘What?,’ " Best laughs. He then freelanced until he landed a position at Ammirati & Puris (now Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York) as an art director in ’93. Eventually, he and Ian Reichenthal, his copywriter partner at Ammirati & Puris, came over to CFP in early ’96. Reichenthal moved over to Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore., in ’98. "I floated around with different writers, until against my will, I had to work with Steve," Best says, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Zumwinkel, who hails from St. Louis, also worked in various agencies before coming aboard CFP in January ’99. Zumwinkel, who graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., in ’91, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, enrolled in Atlanta’s Portfolio Center art direction program in ’93. "The Portfolio Center needed art directors, not writers. So I said, ‘I’ll become an art director!’ " explains Zumwinkel. "I thought I had some clue, which I didn’t." After graduating in ’95, Zumwinkel moved north to become an art director at Korey Kay & Partners, New York. He made the switch to copywriter when he joined Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, in ’97, and then returned to New York where he started working in the same capacity at CFP.
Zumwinkel says the transition from art director to copywriter wasn’t too difficult because of his writing background, adding that he just didn’t have the patience for art direction: "I couldn’t stand kerning," he says, referring to the space adjustments between letters. "I’m not anal enough to be an art director. That’s the problem." This explanation provokes a snicker from Best: "Read: lazy," he says.
Best will do more print work at Dweck!, which is fine with him. "It’s good. I like print," he says. "Cliff Freeman is very broadcast oriented."
But the agency has aided his creative evolution. "I think I’ve become more of a writer myself. The agency does that; it’s a lot about comedy writing here. I think your job description at Cliff Freeman is a little more ‘creative’ than it is ‘art director’ or ‘writer.’ As for Zumwinkel, he is staying put: "I like TV, he explains, "and Cliff Freeman is a fun place to work."
