Director Wayne Gibson, a comedy/dialogue specialist, has signed with The Story Companies for exclusive national representation. Gibson has been freelancing since last July, when he left now defunct Populuxe Pictures. He will be based out of The Story Companies’ New York office. The house also maintains operations in Chicago, Santa Monica and Dallas.
"Wayne brings to the company a great comedy reel with terrific art direction," said Mark Androw, Chicago-based executive producer of The Story Companies. "I became very aggressive about signing Wayne when I was in a hotel with The Today Show on the TV and saw the Federal Express spot with the Japanese businessmen. All day long, I walked around with a smile on my face, thinking about that spot, and I had an even bigger smile after Wayne agreed to come aboard. He has a reel that will be relevant to a lot of com-edy projects."
Gibson has been directing for more than five years following a career as an agency art director and creative director. His recent directorial credits include the earlier-alluded-to FedEx spot, "Beef Jerky," for BBDO New York, in which a group of Japanese executives calls a Texan to thank him for a gift of tasty dried beef—only to discover that he had actually sent them filet mignons, and had done so months ago.
"Beef Jerky" was followed by another FedEx commercial, "Hollywood," about a chance meeting between an agent and a screenwriter in which the banal pleasantries of their dialogue belie their true thoughts—expressed in subtitles—of mutual loathing. The spot underscores Gibson’s talent for performance driven comedy.
Among Gibson’s other recent work is a campaign for Switchboard.com, the CBS-owned online telephone directory service, out of Garfield Group, Trenton, N.J. In two spots, "Sky Is Falling" and "Suburbia," Gibson follows a harried deli-veryman as he tries to deliver phone books to people who no longer have a use for them—in some cases getting them hurled back in his face. Another example of Gibson’s ad wit can be found in a spec piece he directed for online supermarket Netmarket. com, about a couple trying to remove a package of broccoli from their freezer—with an ice axe.
Gibson said that drawing him to The Story Companies were its presence in four prime advertising markets, and Androw’s pragmatic approach to marketing directors. "I spoke with several companies, and I really liked what Mark had to say," related Gibson. "I like his philosophy of serving national clients through regional companies. I also received great recommendations for him from other executive producers."
Gibson began his career as an art director, working for a couple of small agencies in Virginia, before landing at The Martin Agency, Richmond. His tenure there spanned seven years on such accounts as Mobil Oil and Mazarati. At The Martin Agency he also earned his first credits as a director. Gibson worked, too, for Earle Palmer Brown, Bethesda, Md.; and with Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston. During his stay at the latter, Gibson directed numerous spots, including several for the Massachusetts Lottery.
In 1994, Gibson departed Hill, Holliday to pursue directing full time, signing with bicoastal HSI Productions. He later went freelance, and in ’99 joined Populuxe Pictures, a New York that was closed last year by Minneapolis-based, publicly traded parent company iNTELEFILM (SHOOT, 8/18/ 00, p. 1). As a director, Gibson has won two Gold Awards at the New York Festivals and a Gold Award at Worldfest Houston. During his agency career, he was the recipient of more than 200 regional, national and international advertising awards, including six Gold, three Silver and two Bronze Pencils from the One Show.
The Story Companies’ sales force consists of Benson/Schafler Artists Management on the East Coast, Kathy Aronstam in the Midwest, Alyson Griffith in the South, Connie Mellors on the West Coast and Polly Richardson in the Ohio Valley.
