The Work That Made Me: Doug Hanshaw
Doug Hanshaw is an award-winning creative director based out of Nashville, TN. He most recently led the creative direction for NASCAR's 75th Anniversary award-winning campaign. He's also worked on ESPN, ACC Network, SEC Network, United Airlines, Google, Walmart, and Time Warner Cable, amongst others.
Doug received his Masters in Art Direction from the University of Texas at Austin then headed north to NY with a very heavy, slightly good student portfolio and a roster of friend's couches to sleep on. Today he proudly owns his own couch. Two, in fact.
LBB>The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Doug> You’re talking to a guy who used to tape infomercials on TV when he was younger. Something about the ridiculous scenarios they would invent, followed by the immediate solutions, just scratched an itch in my brain. Ron Popeil curing baldness with a can of spray on hair will never not amaze me.
LBB> The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Doug> I was obsessed with the band Weezer in high school (don’t get me started on their post-Pinkerton phase, though). Spike Jonze’s video for “Buddy Holly” just blew me away at the time. He turned a song I loved into a video that turned tons of new people onto the band. The same goes for what he did for the Beastie Boys and their song “Sabotage.” Really, anything Spike Jonze did for music videos back in the day, now that I think of it.
LBB> The creative work (film/album/game/ad/album/book/poem etc) that I keep revisiting…
Doug> Music is one of those things that instantly transports me into a certain mindset. One album that I can always turn back to is Air’s album Talkie Walkie. It was during this really special time in my life during college when I was working at the college radio station and did a six-week summer semester in Rome. Around this time, I also began to think maybe I should take a crack at creative advertising. That period of curiosity and discovery is nice to return to when I need a little mental push.
LBB> My first professional project…
Doug> I was a junior AD at Ogilvy in NY, and somehow, my partner and I managed to wrangle away this project for Time Warner Cable for this massive outdoor campaign around the city. My first ads were in subways, bus shelters, kiosks, and on one of the buildings in Times Square. The work wasn’t revolutionary by any means, but it taught me a lot about setting mechanicals and how InDesign worked.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Doug> While the production manager at my college radio station, I was in charge of concepting and making the PSAs, underwriting, and show promos. I thought I could parlay this skill into the lucrative (or so I thought) world of commercial radio. So I interned at Clear Channel one summer in the production department and got to sit in with a small ragtag crew of folks who created most of the local ads you’d hear on the radio.
What I thought would be a fun, creative experience quickly turned into the realisation that the salespeople wrote the ads and, most of the time, you were just given a clunky script for some housing development or local dentist and had to make it work. I also realised that smoking a pack a day gets you the gig of doing strip club and country jamboree ads. It goes without saying that I chose not to pursue this line of work.
LBB> The piece of work (ad/music video/ platform…) that still makes me jealous…
Doug> I would love to have been the crew that came up with the Progressive Insurance ads about not turning into your parents. It’s such a simple idea and a strong insight…one of those campaigns that you know will be fun to concept, shoot, and edit.
LBB> The creative project that changed my career…
Doug> My career, and really my life, was changed during the two years that I worked on United Airlines. It was what I signed up for when moving to New York – sleepless nights, working weekends, client dinners, and travel. But it was also when I realised that my physical and mental health should be a priority going forward. On the flipside, I did meet my wonderful wife, who was, and still is, a flight attendant, so I’d say I came out on top of that whole deal.
LBB> The work that I’m proudest of…
Doug> Our recent work for NASCAR’s 75th Anniversary has to be at the top. It was one of those projects where everyone was excited about the work, trusted each other, and went the extra mile to make it something very special.
LBB> I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Doug> Sizzle videos. When starting out, I cut my teeth on sizzle video after sizzle video, and man, one of those almost ruined the George Harrison song “What is Life?” for me.
LBB> The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Doug> I love typography, and the current use of kinetic type for our NASCAR campaign has been really fun to work on. Just taking something that I have sourced, mocked up, sold, and then brought to life is the full circle of the creative process. Well, I didn’t really bring it to life - the graphics house did. But I said “approved,” so that feels important. Well, actually, the client said, “Approved.” OK, now that’s the full circle.
