In June of 2000, Jim Jenkins, then a creative director, left the security of Ogilvy and Mather (O&M), New York, to direct full-time. Since then, he has stopped traffic on New York City’s busy Upper East Side, corralled 26 vintage Corvettes, faced off with a vicious kangaroo—and loved every minute of it. "It’s been great, I’ve got to say," reports Jenkins, who directs commercials out of bicoastal/international hungry man. "I’d have been very happy if, a year ago, I’d known my reel would be where it is."
Indeed, Jenkins’ reel is filled with uniquely funny work for such clients as the Hallmark Channel, eBay and PBS. And, if some of the concepts have posed directorial challenges, Jenkins has only himself to blame. He served as his own creative on several of the more ambitious spots—including Animal Planet’s "Emergencies," starring the aforementioned kangaroo. (When Jenkins creative directs the spots he helms, he does so through nicebigbrain, New York, which is his freelance creative shop; Kenny Herzog was the copywriter on the Animal Planet spots.)
In the commercial, which is part of a four-spot campaign, a man calls out to his pet kangaroo from the bathroom. After the animal responds, the grateful master reaches into her pouch and takes out a magazine to read. Like the other spots in the campaign, "Emergencies" closes with the tag, "Life is better with animals."
"The thing we didn’t know about kangaroos is, they like to disembowel you," relates Jenkins. "It’s a funny quirk they have. Supposedly, they like to grab you with their arms and kick you in the gut with their claws."
While the powerful-looking beast in "Emergencies" "was actually kind of a baby," still Jenkins says that five trainers were needed to keep her under control: "That wasn’t in the original [concept]."
"Nights," which features pets fending off a prowler, required an even larger animal entourage. "In one house we had two dogs, three cobras, an alligator, a bull, a vulture and a mandrel," Jenkins remembers. "There were a lot of handlers for that one—and a lot of shovels."
Though shooting the four spots was difficult and time consuming, coming up with the initial concept was not. "It really is a lot easier to do advertising when it starts with the truth," explains Jenkins, who created the Animal Planet commercials with Herzog. "The fact is, if you like animals, then life is better with animals. Then it just became a matter of finding scenarios to bring that out."
The innovative campaign also includes "Living Alone," in which a ram gives his choking owner the Heimlich maneuver by butting him in the stomach; and "Growing Up," in which a gorilla proves an ideal babysitter. "We couldn’t sell the client the one with the constipated man who gets helped by his anaconda," Jenkins laughs. "But it did make the ram spot seem OK by comparison."
ADMAN
While Jenkins’ directing career has been relatively brief, he’s been in the advertising business for over a decade. Two years after graduating from the University of Florida, Gainesville, he joined the staff at O&M as a junior copywriter. After rising through the ranks to creative director, he oversaw such high-profile accounts as Miller Lite and GTE Wireless.
But Jenkins always preferred making spots to selling ideas. Two years ago, he began directing commercials on a freelance basis. "As soon as I did it, I loved it," he states. "I had a few clients on the side, including the Discovery Channel. What I liked about directing was that it was all production. You didn’t have to sell and define everything."
When Jenkins decided to devote all of his time to directing, some of his colleagues warned him against it. "Everyone was saying to me, ‘There are a lot of directors out there,’ "relates Jenkins. "But the fact is, there are a lot of everyone out there—there are a lot of copywriters; there are a lot of art directors."
Jenkins helmed projects like the Animal Planet campaign (which began airing earlier this year) and "The Dogfather," a PSA for Companion Animal Placement via Suburban Advertising, New York, before signing with hungry man in February. "Back when I was at Ogilvy, I happened to work with [hungry man executive producer/partner] Steve Orent and [partner/director] Bryan Buckley," he relates. "Bryan was shooting something for me for Miller, and I really hit it off with those two. They’re great guys, and they love the work."
Jenkins loves the work he’s been getting through hungry man. "The best was shooting the twenty-six vintage Corvettes for eBay," he says of the online auction’s "Corvette" spot, done via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. In the ad, a man discovers that his street is lined with the stunning vehicles, all of them for sale, demonstrating the availability of specialty items on the auction site. "[The cars] were beautiful," Jenkins muses. "I was hoping I’d be able to take one, but …"
He also enjoyed working with the creatives from GS&P. "It really is true that they only care about what’s going to make the work better" he says. "Nobody was clinging to anything. Everyone was throwing out ideas. That’s the way I tried to be when I was on the creative side, and I liked directors who were that way, too."
A highly collaborative director himself, Jenkins also likes to play an active role in postproduction. "I think, if you come from an agency, the main thing you bring to a job is being able to edit in your head as you go," he relates. "It’s the result of having spent a lot of time in edit rooms and knowing what you need in terms of coverage.
"On the Animal Planet spots, I edited with the editor, Chris Franklin [of Big Sky Editorial, New York]," he continues. "I try to be as involved as an agency wants me to be. If they want me to be at the edit, I will make every effort to be there."
Jenkins collaborated with copywriter Herzog and his art director partner Jim Larmon to create the Hallmark Channel’s humorous new campaign, which shows people in different walks of life obsessively discussing events from Hallmark’s made-for-TV movies. (Larmon and Herzog also collaborated with Jenkins on the Floor Superstore ad "Accident," which he helmed.) In "Date," for instance, a nervous young man tells his girlfriend’s dad that he’s a "former housewife-turned-activist" whose son suffers from a rare disease.
In "Taxi," the Hallmark movie fan is a crazed New York cabbie—which made for a particularly challenging shoot. "We had a process trailer and a huge crew, and we were driving around on the Upper East Side of Manhattan," Jenkins remembers. "Stunts in Manhattan are hard. You get a very limited window to shoot them, and you better be right. We could block the streets for a little longer, but we only had an hour to do the stunts."
As stressful as the situation was, Jenkins says it went smoothly, thanks to freelance line producer Ralph Laucella, who often works with hungry man. "If you have the right producer and you’re prepped, you’ll be fine," notes Jenkins. "Unless you have a kangaroo who wants to disembowel you."
Though he probably won’t be working with any more marsupials, Jenkins is happy with his new career path. "I’m not saying absolutely ‘no’ to [feature film work], but that’s not why I got into directing," he declares. "I plan on sticking with commercials. They’re so much fun."
