Dream Teams: How Gabrielle Turcotte and Christian O’Brien Prove the Power of Opposites

When it comes to relationships, the phrase ‘opposites attract’ is often tossed around, and for a valid reason. Sure, it’s nice to have commonalities, shared viewpoints and interests - you need those - but it’s also good to have someone who challenges you to think a little differently and step out of your day-to-day comfort zone. 

But, can the same be said for advertising partnerships? Does it work nearly as effectively in an industry that’s all about aligning on great creativity? While mileage may vary, in the case of LG2’s Gabrielle ‘Gab’ Turcotte and Christian ‘Chris’ O’Brien, the answer is a resounding yes. 

It’s funny really. On the one hand, you’ve got the French copywriter named Christian, and the English art director named Gabrielle. She has a background in design and classical music, while he has an obsession with classic movies and stand-up comedy. Oh, and of course, Chris is now a suburban dad, while Gab enjoys the inner-city life… the list goes on and on. 

“On some stuff, it feels like we’ll never agree. Ever,” Chris explains. “But what we do share is a common love for strategic thinking – a deeper understanding of a problem and questioning what everyone else seems to agree on.”

There’s a lot to be said for this. Great debates and differing viewpoints lead to tighter end results, and considering the diverse makeup that is the Canadian advertising industry (due to the existence of both English and French-speaking markets), their unique pairing allows them to create national campaigns that not only resonate on a different level, but are honed into top quality creative by the time they go live. 

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While there’ll be ample time to discuss Gab and Chris’ work, you probably want to know how an unlikely duo such as them got brought together in the first place. 

Their story starts back in 2015 at Tam-Tam\TBWA, when Chris was still a young copywriter focusing on ad and branding opportunities, and Gab was working at the internal studio as a production designer. 

“Oh man. Like most people who meet Chris for the first time, I was a little intimidated,” recalls Gab, thinking back to their first encounter. “He's got impressive charisma and an outgoing personality - always quick with a joke - but also very imposing eyebrows!”

On the other hand, Chris’ first impression of Gab involved observing both her stubbornness, but also her intelligence – something that was abundantly clear on their first projects: a rebrand/merger that turned three office supply companies into one (now known as Hamster), as well as a rebrand and launch campaign for the City of Laval. “Her first words to me were, ‘The client will never buy that line’. (She was sooooo wrong hahaha),” he jokes. 

And, from there, all the pieces just fell into place. After two years of working together on and off, Chris’ art director partner left the agency and he immediately reached out to Gab to see if a team up was in the cards. “I was very surprised, seeing as I wasn’t even an art director really, but since we’d worked well together on long projects before, I thought, ‘Well, at least we’ve proven that we won’t strangle each other if locked in a room. How bad could it be?’,” she says. “Turns out, actually, not bad at all.”

That might be a slight understatement, to be fair. If there was a ever a testament to the byproduct of opposites being something exceptional, it’d be the rap video/recycling instruction guide, ‘Mets du respect dans ton bac’ (Put some respect on your bins) which the pair would go on to make while once again working for the City of Laval. 

Here, they once again did what they do best – bringing together sheer creative force of will (and in this case, lots of rapping) to realise the vision they both had early on, while convincing the city to make art that would quite literally go on to change people’s lives. 

“People outside the advertising business talked about it, and to us, that meant it was a great success,” Chris notes, to which Gab adds, “You know an ad is good when Alaclair Ensemble, the rap group behind the song, plays it at their shows on tour, and teachers show the video in schools!”

The portfolio of achievement doesn’t end there either. Notable among their accomplishments are the ‘Look Iconic’ platform which LG2 launched for the glasses retailer New Look this year, and the ‘Don’t Play with Death’ spot they created for the Lifesaving Society. Both challenges in their own rights, each pushed the partners to their creative zeniths, resulting in exemplary work.

In the case of the former, specifically, Gab recalls that the ask was to create something completely fresh and new which would stand the test of time as a platform… all while the ad buys on TV, web and radio would be limited to 15-second spots. 

“The universe we came up with blends famous movie genres and quotes with situations where the outcome is different when people can’t see, which is the perfect example of how Chris and I work together,” she continues. “The spots look and sound like nothing else on the market, while still managing to bring the funny (Chris) and the fashion (me).”

And, with regard to the latter, Chris explains that after several years of solid creative built on a foundation of dark and serious tones, it proved a chance to really shake things up, ideate, and find a new way to reinforce the message that while on water, you need a life jacket. 

Of course, with creative differences comes room for creative disagreement – especially when, as Chris notes, one or both parties can be a little stubborn in their ways. Truly, a setup like theirs can be a double-edged sword, which is probably only further exacerbated by the fact that in a city like Montreal - one that’s divided by language, pop culture, history and politics - it’s very easy to end up on opposite sides of a canyon. 

“Here in Quebec, we call it the ‘two solitudes’: English and French,” Gab confirms. “Chris and I live on either side of that divide, and it can lead to some frustration. I kid you not, I had to explain the ‘Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?’ joke to Chris yesterday because, to my surprise, it doesn’t exist in French! Along with that divide, we also both have strong personalities and high standards, so it takes a while for either of us to come around to another way of thinking.”

However, in the end, the pair are consistently able to get there without any blood drawn – usually by virtue of debates and grumbles, although according to Chris, he probably grumbles more between the two. 

“We never explicitly set any rules, but we seem to know when it’s best to give each other a bit of room for a few hours,” the copywriter adds. “Once things cool down, we’re often able to express our perspective more clearly. When we still don’t agree, we let go and let the creative director be the judge.”

So, if that’s as bad as it ever gets, then clearly the partnership is growing upon healthy roots. But even with all the talk of good work product, both Gab and Chris agree there’s far more in the way of benefits to working with each other than might meet the eye. 

“For me, bouncing ideas and moulding them with someone else is a critical part of any project,” Gab says. “I fully subscribe to the idea that teamwork makes the dream work. Good ideas are made excellent with more brains trying to make them better. Having someone who you know is always working in the same direction as you, and will be there when things go sideways, takes a lot of the pressure off and turns the creativity on.

Chris agrees, adding that their relationship is established enough to do away with hidden meanings and useless politeness, capitalising on the mutual understanding. As he puts it, “Once you get to know the other person, it’s easier to work closely with them since you sometimes don’t even have to speak to be understood.”  

And, equally so, there is a mutual understanding between the pair that outside of work and events, they’ve got their own separate lives to enjoy and refuel with – something which Chris jokes he hopes Gab doesn’t take personally, and according to Gab, proves very beneficial. 

“Roll the tape on how I said earlier that we’re very different people! We don’t have the same lifestyle or friend circles, and I think that’s a good thing! With so much working time together every week, I think our families would have to stage an intervention to ever see us again if we also hung out outside of work. Hockey isn’t my thing, just as opera isn’t Chris’s thing, and it gives us so much to talk about while we’re procrastinating on a project.”

Plus, there’s also just the fact that when you allow partners the space to have their differences, there ends up being more for each to learn from the other. Sure, as both have pointed out, their relationship is like a Venn diagram that almost doesn’t overlap yet actually enables a broader wellspring of ideas, but there’s more to it than that. Just who Gab and Chris fundamentally are as people has served as a catalyst for improvement and growth – a reward reaped mutually by both parties.

“I like to take my time with ideas and see where a nugget can be found, but that sometimes means asking myself too many questions,” Chris reflects. “However, Gab has taught me to push myself (and my work) a little bit more.”

Returning the praise, Gab attributes Chris as helping make her a better presenter, shouts out the fact that through him, she’s learned more about French folksongs and brands than she ever expected to know, and proclaims that if you’ve never heard or seen Jacques Brel before, “you’re missing out!”

Finishing and reflecting on all that their relationship is, she sums it up as this. “We’re still very different people (although I’d like to think my eyebrows are probably more of a match for his these days), but it’s all emblematic of how we’re the perfect opposites. “Being a yin and yang duo means we probably end up where others wouldn’t have thought to go.”