Jim Haight: Inside a Career Inspired by “Epic Scale, Ambition, and Storytelling”

The best way to understand a person’s career is to look at the work that made them. Their first campaign. The campaign that someone else did that made them jealous. The campaign that taught them some painful but useful lessons. And the work that they’re proudest of. 

In partnership with Create This, LBB’s The Work That Made Me channel celebrates the work that shaped the lives and careers of some of the industry’s most well-known faces.

In this interview, LBB speaks with Jim Haight, Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ head of production. With almost two decades of diverse production experience, it’s hard to think of a more knowledgeable voice from which to glean industry perspectives than Jim. That career has, to date, included head-turning work for brands such as adidas, Target, Truth, Google and Volkswagen (including their now-iconic 2011 Super Bowl ad The Force).

Here, Jim reflects on the work that made him want to stick around in the world of advertising having “stumbled” through the door out of film school, and why he loves figuring out how the most jaw-dropping ads got made… 

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

Jim> The two ads that immediately come to mind are Time to Make the Donuts for Dunkin Donuts, and Where’s The Beef from Wendy’s. But more than anything else, that probably just dates me! 

When it comes to music videos, I was growing up in what felt like this perfect era where MTV was hitting its stride. So many stand out: Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing really struck a chord, and performance-centric videos like Pour Some Sugar On Me and Paradise City felt like these wonderfully epic moments.

The one that has truly stuck with me, however, is Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. To this day I’m not quite sure how they made that - it was a piece of film that made me wonder how it was even possible. I didn’t understand what I was seeing. And I love that feeling. 

The ad that made me want to get into the industry…

Jim> The thing is, I never wanted to “get into the industry” so to speak. Like most producers, I stumbled into it. 

I went to film school with the intent to become the half-Filipino Coen Brother that nobody knew about. And I got my start as an associate producer at Fallon in Minneapolis with very little understanding of what advertising was, or even what a producer does at an agency. 

Fortunately for me, however, Fallon was doing some crazy shit at that time, like Evil Beaver for Miller. BMW Films had come out a couple years before I got there, and I remember being blown away the first time I saw that. So I would say it was those films that really got me hooked into what's possible in this industry: Epic scale, ambition, and storytelling. 

So even though I stumbled into the industry, the level of talent that was involved in making content like that made me want to stick around and be part of it. 

Oh, and a special Shout Out to Quiznos’ hamsters. I always loved those weird, weird things.

The creative work that I keep coming back to…

Jim> Fargo is a perfect film. End of Story. It was robbed of Best Picture (sorry English Patient, but, c’mon). And William H. Macy was robbed of a supporting actor Oscar, too - although I’m not sure why he wasn’t up for the Lead instead. The writing is perfect, the performances are so dialled in, and that score is so ominous. 

I don’t know if there is a film that straddles humour and absolute tragedy better than that one.

My first professional project…

Jim> Aside from arranging the DVD library of director reels, I was fresh out of film school when I joined Fallon. So, I knew how to shoot and edit - and I was cheap labour.

So I got sent out to shoot ‘behind the scenes’ footage for a few campaigns the agency was working on. In hindsight, it was a great experience in terms of getting on to some big sets and seeing the process immediately instead of waiting my turn as the lowest rung on the producer ladder. 

I was able to get exposure on some big projects and get some firsthand experience. And it didn’t hurt that I got to travel all over the place – Prague, the Bahamas, London – whilst shooting these films. 

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

Jim> I don’t want to make a habit out of slamming anyone’s work. But generally speaking, I’m not a fan of stuff that feels inauthentic. It’s the instances where a brand doesn’t really have any business talking about a certain topic - or anything interesting to say on it - that tend to rile me up. 

The piece of work that still makes me jealous…

Jim> Nike’s Write the Future is, to this day, an incredible achievement in both creativity and production. Simply put, it slaps. 

Having said that, honourable mentions need to go to the Cadbury Gorilla, and all of Ringan’s work (RIP). 

If we were looking for a more up-to-date example of work that made me jealous, I’d have to say Apple. It’s simple storytelling, beautifully executed. Another example of creative and production working in tandem. 

The creative project that changed my career…

Jim> VW’s The Force. It was such a moment, and a crazy thing to be part of at the time. 

As a flagship Super Bowl spot, there was lots of debate about whether we should release it early or not. We knew that we had something good, but pre-releasing ads wasn’t the done thing at all in 2011. There was still a powerful argument that we should save ourselves and protect the ad for the day of the big game.

But when it was released early it just became this moment and took off. It felt like we’d really become part of pop culture, which is surely the best thing an ad can be. 

The work that I’m proudest of…

Jim> The Force could be my answer for this one as well. That era of VW at Deutsch was just tremendous fun. We had great clients, great relationships, and trust between us and VW. 

On which note, there is a spot that Noam Murro did for us called “Mask” that I still love to this day. I had always wanted to use that insane and iconic Eduard Khil song/meme “Trolololo” in an ad, and we finally got to licence it on that spot. It still makes me smile.

And then one that was more impactful in terms of social causes: Treatment Box for Truth. It tackled the opioid epidemic head-on by documenting someone going through a real detox. 

Our prep - the process of discovery and research - involved dealing with medical ethicists about how to tell this story in a humane way. I learned a lot, and it felt good to be part of that team.

I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…

Jim> Not a single piece of work, but I sometimes cringe at the old behaviours or expectations we had of each other in this industry. 

How many hours, nights, and weekends did we clock when it probably wasn’t necessary? Of course it can be part of the process - learning your craft and making connections with the wonderful people around you. 

So I guess I feel a bit torn about it. I’m also just older and have kids, and I can’t operate like that anymore. 

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

Jim> Honestly, it’s landing here at GSP to run production. It’s a place I have admired from afar and had an opportunity to join earlier in my career. It’s one of the truly big creative shops - home to legends of the game who are still in the game (Jeff and Rich), and getting to work with Margaret Johnson. I feel like I’m exactly where I should be. It feels like home. 

We have a long track record of making some iconic Super Bowl work here, and we have a handful of spots in this year’s game. So the back half of 2023 is going to be crazy, but being able to continue that tradition of making memorable Super Bowl work is exciting.