The Campaign a Client Axed Because Nostalgia Might Not Last

Above (L-R): Perrin Anderson and Hobart Birmingham

Little Black Book is the official media partner of the Dead Ad Society, the hungryman-founded award show that resurrects killed ideas.

Launched in 2024, this revival of hibernating concepts sees entered scripts being performed live by an improv group at the awards show. This year it will take place on September 18th at The Mint in Los Angeles after kicking off in New York City last year. A panel of judges crowns a winner, which is then brought to life by hungryman and a collection of companies – including Work Editorial, Sonic Union, ARC, Synapse and the Screen Actors Guild – that support the show with funding, time and resources. Last year's winning script was recently launched as a finished production for KUL MOCKS, a non-alcoholic beverage brand.

“We called it an anti-award show,” says Caleb Dewart, managing partner of hungryman. “It’s supposed to be wild. The scripts were performed live - a glorified table read. It was messy, imperfect, and that was the point. That’s the heart of it.”

Entries for this year’s show are open until August 15th, 2025 at 4pm PDT.

Little Black Book is catching up with this year’s jurors for honest conversations about the ideas that got away – the ones that died, came back, and the ones that stayed dead.

Today we’re speaking with RPA group creative director Perrin Anderson, who will be judging alongside his creative partner Hobart Birmingham.

​​Check out previous entries to the interview series here.

LBB> Let's start with the obvious question: Is there an idea you’re still emotionally attached to, even years later?

Perrin> We have many ad spirits still with us.

One that comes to mind is a script we wrote for Honda promoting how a remarkably high percentage of Honda buyers still own and drive them after five years or whatever. The premise of our idea was, what happened to the others? Why aren’t they still driving this car everybody loves? The script was a really beautiful series of vignettes with Hondas parked in settings that implied the owner had just met some humorous yet untimely demise.

It's not a script, but we once pitched a Vegas hotel this idea to show voyeur live streams of their surveillance footage from different parts of the hotel on all the screens throughout the building, but also then plant all this surreal, Twin Peaks sort of stuff happening throughout the hotel. Always loved that one.

LBB> What did the death of those teach you about the business? Or about yourself?

Perrin> A great idea is not enough.

LBB> What do you look for in a dead ad that makes you say, ‘This deserves to live’?

Perrin> Same as any ad really. Not just something provocative and attention-getting, but with a really smart, relatable or honest insight to it. Or just plain damn entertaining.

LBB> How are you feeling about judging scripts in real time, in front of a live audience?

Perrin> We aren’t really sure what to expect. But it’s such a great premise for an award show and way to get great, funny material. And we love how they’ve turned it into a really entertaining live show. Imagining Point Break Live crossed with Night at the Apollo. It’s sure to be a good time.

LBB> How will you approach judging a script that’s being performed live? Do you think the crowd will sway you?

Perrin> I guess just try to see the merit of the script, and not let a particularly good performance sway us over a better script that isn’t acted out as well. But yeah, the crowd will probably sway us a bit. When presenting to a room you can usually tell in the moment what’s good and resonates, there’s a truth to that – just receiving and reacting to an ad like a person, not an ‘expert’.

LBB> Dead Ad Society is part award show, part séance. What’s your mindset heading into the room?

Perrin> Everyone has a trove of cherished ideas they’ve left behind. We’ll just try to honour and celebrate people sharing theirs with us. Respect the dead.

LBB> What’s the most ridiculous reason an idea of yours was killed?

Perrin> Once a client questioned whether ‘nostalgia’ would ‘still be a thing’ by the time the ad would have run. Or more common, but always baffling, when they love an idea and are confident it will work well in real life, but kill it because it won’t work in the testing they want to do.

LBB> What’s your theory on why great ideas often don’t survive the process?

Perrin> In the words of Jan from the Office: “There’s always a million reasons not to do something.” Timing, budget, legal, production challenges, politics, agendas, group think, fear, insecurity, etc., etc., etc. It’s a lot harder for everyone to recognise the merit of a great idea. It takes conviction and often a tremendous effort to champion it through the gauntlet. That’s the great thing about this show, it hopefully gives these ideas a second chance on merit alone.

Usually great ideas have a lot of impact, they’re really putting it out there one way or another, and that’s against most people’s natural instinct.

Great ideas are also often different, and it’s sometimes hard to understand or have faith in something new or that sticks out. Especially these days with so much focus inward or backward at data. Great ideas are also often challenging to pull off right, and people often don’t want a challenge, they want the easy, certain path.

LBB> Outside of this award show, have you ever seen a killed idea come back to life and succeed later?

Perrin> Not yet, but we’re still hopeful. We’ve pitched an account, had them choose another agency, then come back and say never mind we should have chosen you.

We’ve certainly tried to bring back great dead ideas more times than we should have. But there’s always something about presenting an idea again, especially to the same people - it loses some luster or novelty and just never goes down as well. Also, how often do people admit they made the wrong call?

We will say that we had one client who wanted to start a file of ideas that were great, but for some reason or another didn’t work out at the time. That just makes sense, it’s dumb to waste great thinking.

LBB> Have you ever been the one to kill an idea - and regretted it?

Perrin> Surely it’s happened, and if you asked the creatives working for us they’d probably have plenty of examples, but I can’t remember a specific case. More often it’s regret for not fighting hard enough for them. That hindsight of why didn’t we push harder for this, or better explain that, or fight harder to bring it to life the way it should have been.

LBB> If you had to hold a funeral for a dead idea, what song would play?

Perrin> We’ll give you a whole playlist for the occasion, in stages:

‘Turtles All The Way Down’ by Sturgill Simpson – because you’ll never find a satisfying reason behind it all.

‘The End by The Doors’ – you really need to convince yourself it’s the end.

‘Ring of Fire’ by Johnny Cash – loving an idea that dies burns.

‘Everybody Hurts’ by REM – it happens to everybody, a lot.

‘I’ll Be Missing You’ by Diddy – there was never a more moving goodbye ballad.

‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston – you can never let go of a great idea.

‘Vesti La Giubba’ performed by Pavarotti – you have to put on the clown suit and go back out there.

‘Tears of a Clown’ by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – you have to put on a brave face and perform again.

‘See You In The Next One (Have A Good Time)’ by The Verve – there’s always our next go round in life.

‘Bro Hymn’ by Pennywise – to close the show with a good mosh pit for the dead.