Blind Melon, Honda and Lacoste: The Work That Made Rob Lewis

Rob Lewis is the co-founder and executive creative director of Good Conduct, a creative agency based in Denver, Colorado whose clients have included Lumin Skincare, Voodoo Ranger, The Honest Kitchen and The Long Drink.

Born and raised in the Motor City (Detroit), Rob launched his advertising career working in the automotive and powersports sector, before moving to Denver, where he’s spent the last 20 years creating award-winning work for clients ranging from Time Warner Cable, to Vitamin Water, to JCPenney and Voodoo Ranger.

Rob calls on his diverse experience to run the creative department for Good Conduct, bringing world-class strategic and entertainment-first ideas to bolster challenger brands and modernise heritage companies trying to reinvent themselves.

Rob recently sat down with LBB to look back on his work for cancer research, a campaign with Michelle Obama, and a project for The Honest Kitchen.

LBB> The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…

Rob> I’ll never forget Blind Melon’s ‘No Rain’ video with the little girl in the bumblebee outfit. She’s made fun of, misunderstood, and ultimately fearless. It has storytelling, emotion and quirk – the makings of a great ad!

LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…

Rob> In the early 2000s, Honda was on a tear making work that would make any creative person salivate. From the Rube Goldberg-esque ‘Cog’ to Garrison Keillor voicing ‘Hate Something’, it felt like every ad that it was putting out was a masterpiece. Those ads made me want to abandon ‘graphic design’ and go all in on conceptual filmmaking and TV advertising.

LBB> The creative work that I keep revisiting…

Rob> I’ll give some props to the Highdive guys here a little. For whatever reason, the Cars.com ‘Lifetime of Confidence’ ad is one that I’ve gone back and watched again and again over the years. I loved the voiceover, the art direction, and the storytelling… probably also because it gives major Wes Anderson vibes, and I’m a fan.

LBB> My first professional project…

Rob> My first real work was with JWT for Ford Motor company. I distinctly remember my first job being a suite of web banners. I went full art school grad on it, developing a colour palette and visual system – making sure to explain all of my painstaking methodology to the ECD. He must’ve thought it was so cute.

LBB> The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…

Rob> Wow, are we going to go here?! Haha. You asked for it: the Burger King work just leaves me completely incensed.

It’s a good example of why people really should hate advertising. Conceptless, irritating, lazy. And yes, it’s an earworm, which I’m sure some could claim makes you remember the brand, but it makes me remember the brand negatively. And it certainly won’t get me to consider ordering a Whopper.

It’s sad that Burger King’s ad work has historically been so great with ’The King’, ‘Whopper Freakout’, ‘Subservient Chicken’... and now it’s reduced to an off-key jingle that lists off menu items.

LBB> The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Rob> There are so many. Lacoste’s ‘Life is a Beautiful Sport’– it has tension, emotion, surprising visual storytelling, and requires very little explanation. ‘Mr. Wind’. ‘World’s Biggest Asshole’. The aforementioned Cars.com ‘Lifetime of Confidence’. Skittles’ ‘Larry the Klepto’. I could go on.

LBB> The creative project that changed my career…

Rob> I was freelancing on a project for The New York Times and Bolthouse farms. It was a spec project to see if advertising could get people to eat more broccoli. It ended up making the cover of the NYT magazine and became a bit of a cultural phenomenon. That project paved the way for me to get into better agencies, meet some of my longtime collaborators, and get my hands on more conceptual projects.

LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…

Rob> There are a lot of reasons to be proud of work. I’m proud to have raised money for cancer research. I’m proud to have worked on a campaign for Michelle Obama. And I’m proud of campaigns where I personally put in the extra effort to make them sing.

But the one that makes me the proudest is our Lumin skincare campaign, ‘Mansplained for Men’. It was the first conceptual TV creative we made after launching our own agency, Good Conduct, in 2021.

It was a smart, funny and culturally relevant campaign that landed with consumers and press. It proved our agency was legitimate and could make lovely film-based creative. It’s well written, well art directed, and has elements of truth and surprise that are mainstays of other people’s campaigns that make me jealous.

It is still one of my favourite campaigns I’ve been a part of, and is a good example of the work we make as an agency.

LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Rob> Ooh, probably dangerous to name names here. But, I was working at an agency that hadn’t been producing commercial work for a bit, so we were really hungry to make something happen. We ended up creating a campaign for an agriculture trade organisation. As part of the campaign, we attempted to make a satirical weather man series with almost zero production dollars. It did not turn out like we hoped, and I hope I never see it again.

LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…

Rob> We recently created a campaign for The Honest Kitchen pet food called, ‘Feed them the Best, whether they deserve it or not’.

Instead of another campaign about how good our dogs are, we made one about how bad they can be. It’s a relatable idea that connects pet owners with a real truth, versus a lot of the sugarcoating you see in the category.

It turned out really nicely, and is different from any other pet food campaign out there.