Creative Consultants Inc.

05/24/2023

You can see beautiful color and imagery in the art by Adrienne Anbinder in the Chatt Hills Gallery and Enzo Restaurant at Trilith.

03/04/2021

March madness comes to the Gallery! This work by Adrienne Anbinder is titled "Mad Hatter." It's a daring new work that evolves out of her floral imagery and looks you in the eye with an air of crazy fun. The gallery is open this Sat. from 1:00-3:00.

08/12/2019

So pleased Gallery 104 will be exhibiting my Rainbow Flower!

06/21/2013

Students Without Mothers provides college scholarships, mentoring, and indispensable emotional support to graduating high school students whose mothers have ...

06/19/2013

If you have anything to do with ANY nonprofit organization, you must see this video. It's a real eye opener.

Activist and fundraiser Dan Pallotta calls out the double standard that drives our broken relationship to charities. Too many nonprofits, he says, are rewarded for how little they spend -- not for what they get done. Instead of equating frugality with morality, he asks us to start rewarding charitie...

06/06/2013

We just watched the final episode of the first season of "Rectify" on The Sundance Channel. Stellar, amazing, unpredictable, beautifully acted, written, directed, and produced, one of the best shows ever on TV - and it was made in Georgia! If you've got On Demand or iTunes, please see it, and please let me know what you think of it.

05/03/2013

GREAT PRINT ADVERTISING IS SIMPLE...
AND DIFFICULT.

A significant influence on my career was the amazing creative work done in the early 1980s by a small Minneapolis agency called Fallon McElligott Rice. Formed in 1981 by Art Director Nancy Rice, Copywriter Tim McElligott, and Account Executive Pat Fallon, the agency ran away with a mountain of advertising awards during their four-year partnership.

As you can see from the samples I’ve included in this blog, their advertising was so simple, it hardly needed any body copy. It was so clever, it gave all of their clients a halo of supreme intelligence – even a beauty parlor. Even people who were sold by their ads, who bought or used the products and services they advertised, felt more intelligent for being persuaded. One look at their ads and you’ll understand why.

One reason for their success was Nancy Rice’s stubborn refusal to accept anything less than brilliant ideas from her writers. People who were partnered with Ms. Rice, including Mr. McElligott, would become extremely frustrated. They’d come up with what they thought was a great idea and she would just lean back in her chair and wait without saying a word. It was this refusal to produce anything but brilliance that helped FMR steal clients like Rolling Stone Magazine and Porsche from their Madison Avenue agencies.

My partner is the same way with me, and I’m the same way with her. We never hesitate to let each other know when we’ve come up with a lousy idea (which we often do). It helps that we’ve been married for a while. We’re used to saying “no” and bringing out the best in each other.

Coming up with a great idea can be exhausting and frustrating, but, for some reason, its usually right after hitting bottom that our ideas hit the top.

04/28/2013

Such an amazing story. Such amazing photographs!

We are very happy to officially announce the feature documentary Finding Vivian Maier which tells the incredible true story behind the mystery of her hidden

04/26/2013

THE MEANING WITHIN THE WORD

Shakespeare wrote, "hear the meaning within the word." I love that quote. I try to apply it to all my interactions with friends, family, clients and even casual conversations with strangers.

I was recently at the supermarket and I met a cashier that I have seen several times before. I remembered her because one time I saw her crying. What made the greatest impression on me, however, was not that she was crying, but that I didn't properly reach out to her. Of course, I asked if she was okay. She said she was "just fine," and at the time, I was happy to leave it at that. I had a meeting to get to, and she was, after all, a stranger.

I never forgot that I did not present my best self that day. I vowed to do better. The next time I saw her, I looked into her eyes and asked "How are you? Really?" I truly believed that this time I was presenting my better, higher self. Yet, again, she said, "Just fine."

I began thinking about how many times a day we greet people with the words, "Hi, how are you?" We never really expect (or care) to hear anything other than something positive. How little we know one another. How often we orbit one another's space while not leaving anything of value in our wake. Again, I vowed to make a difference, to let people know that they matter, and that everyone on our path is important and valued.

A few weeks after that, we had a client lunch. This particular client is an amazing woman, and an incredibly caring doctor. She makes me want to be a better person. The time we spent over lunch was so much more than business. I left the restaurant with an emotional gift. One that I wanted to share. Therefore, to honor her as well as myself, I wrote an ad for her – an ad she did not request, an ad that would not work for most other doctors. It was perfect for her (see below). We gave it to her as an Easter present. She loved it almost as much as I loved giving it to her.

The next time I went back to the supermarket I was determined to bring my own inner candle with me. I looked for, and found, the same cashier and stood on a long line to get to her. She rung me up and told me, as she told countless other shoppers that day, to "have a blessed day." I smiled as I reached into my cloth sack of groceries, gave her my plastic-wrapped flowers, and wished her the same. I think she heard "the meaning within the word." I know I did.

04/17/2013

OUR MOST REWARDING WORK

Some years ago, although we were extremely busy, we decided that we really wanted to do some pro bono work to give back to the community that helped us grow. We met with the women at the DeKalb R**e Crisis Center and volunteered to do a promotional film for them. They used the ten-minute film to present to corporations for donations. We also cut a thirty-second television spot from the film that ran for a while on Atlanta TV. They’re still using the film today. It works.

Later on, we were introduced to the people at The Women’s Resource Center To End Domestic Violence. They had seen our work for the DRCC and wanted a film of their own. We produced a film for them in 2000, and another one in 2010. Both have been extremely successful.

We have also written, directed, edited, and produced three successful fundraising films for Students Without Mothers and one for Growing Up Without A Father.

As you can surmise from TV shows like Mad Men, advertising can be quite an egocentric business. Nothing is more important than MY talent, MY ideas, MY power, MY raise, MY promotion, MY profits, my, my, my!

It doesn’t have to be that way.

We’re delighted that, as we get older, we can focus more and more of our time and energy to those service organizations that are devoted to service and not to profits.

Sure, you can rationalize that selling deodorant, or cars, or beer, or furniture, helps people, and, in a way, it does. Nothing, however, can compare to the feeling we get when we’re told that we helped to change, or even save, someone’s life.

Click on the link below and watch our most recent film for the Women’s Resource Center. It really is “advertising from the heart.”

http://youtu.be/Fb1isRg_12c

04/16/2013

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Boston.

04/12/2013

MY FIRST (AND FAVORITE) AD

It was the 1970s in New York, just a decade or so after Mad Men filled Madison Avenue with whiskey, smoke, and imagination. My high school teaching job was swept away by budget cuts. I pounded the pavement for nine months trying to get a job as an advertising copywriter. It was exhausting.

Finally, I landed an interview with George Newell, Creative Director at McCaffrey & McCall, Inc., then the agency of record for Exxon Corp., Mercedes-Benz, Canadian Club, JCPenney, Norelco, Avis...the list goes on and on.

When I was ushered into Mr. Newell’s handsome, but very messy corner office, he was in the midst of packing his awards into a cardboard box. “Hey. Sit. I’m moving, so pardon the mess.” He was about to leave the agency to preside over an animation company. “Too bad you’re a junior. The agency needs a seventy-thousand-dollar copywriter.”

“I’ll take it,” I said. He laughed, sat down, took the portfolio of spec ads that I had created at the School of Visual Arts, and quickly rummaged through it. Then he threw it on his cluttered desk and stared at me. “I was gonna ask for eighty-thousand,” I said, “but I’ll accept seventy if the benefits are exceptional.” He didn’t laugh. He just kept staring at me.

“I want you to meet Ted Shaw. He’ll be Copy Chief when I leave. Come with me.” He scooped up my book and hurried down the hall as I ran after him. He stopped at a much smaller office and introduced me to Ted. “This is Barry. He thinks he’s a copywriter and he’s dying to meet you. Too bad you can’t hire him. He’s good.” Then he threw the portfolio on Ted’s desk and he was gone.

With a cigarette in his mouth and a Rolex on his wrist, Ted Shaw looked at my portfolio. “Well, we have nothing for you now, but I’ll definitely keep your resume on file and I’ll call you if anything –”

“Just give me an assignment. I’ll do it for free. If you don’t like it, I’ll have to take a job somewhere else, but if you like it, I might accept an offer.”

“Really, we have nothing –”

“Just give me an assignment. You have nothing to lose.”

He stared at me as he flicked ashes into a Canadian Club ashtray. “Okay. Exxon is sponsoring another free concert in Central Park this summer. New York Philharmonic. Ever been to one of those?”

“Oh, of course. We go every year.” Sometimes you have to lie to create an opportunity.

“Do a poster, come back in two days, 3 p.m. Wednesday, but we don’t have a job for you.”

I had less than two days to create an ad that probably wouldn’t put any food on my family’s table. On the other hand, if it was good enough, it just might change our lives.

I bought a full pad of 18 x 24 sketch paper and a brand new black marker. At least thirty of the fifty sheets of paper were torn, crumpled, and tossed in the waste basket of bad ideas. Then I drew two curved, horizontal lines as a meadow and sketched what almost looked like a piano on one of the lines. The headline came immediately. “You bring your blanket. We’ll bring our musicians.” I loved it, and so did Adrienne.

At 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29, I showed up in Ted Shaw’s office and unfurled my poster. He stared at it. Then he chuckled. “Okay. Give me a minute.” He took the ad and left me sitting in his office for half an hour. When he returned, he threw the ad on his desk, sat down, and stared at me (ad people do lots of heavy thinking, so we do lots of staring). “Well, I showed it to David McCall and my partner, Jack Sidebotham, and they want to use it, so we have to hire you. You start on Monday.”

My daughter, Tricia, was born the very next day, Thursday, June 30. On Friday, David McCall sent a gorgeous, huge bouquet of flowers to new mom Adrienne. When I reported for work that Monday, there was a bottle of champagne and a celebration to introduce me to all of my teammates.

Two weeks later, my poster was hanging in bus shelters virtually all over the city with beautiful art by Francis Cunningham. My very first ad became an icon of summers in New York. It was posted every summer for years.