(the not so) daily dingers: [17] Matt Heath and KP:MFCEO

I got a last minute email a few days back that announced a guest speaker was in town to talk about his background in advertising. Come to find out this former Duck alumni happened to work at 72andSunny before getting picked up as a writer for HBO's hit series Eastbound and Down, in just four short years. Oh yeah, he almost got arrested by the FBI for baby trafficking (fake Craigslist ad gone wrong, no worries no babies were hurt in the making of it). I had to go see him. Only about 7 of us showed up, the other 20,000+ here at the University of Oregon really missed out.

The speakers name is Matt Heath, and he is a legend. His message was simply go out, have fun and make sh*t. The theme he kept coming back to about his creative process was "what is the dumbest way I can solve this problem that will make people laugh?" Sure enough, Matt made people laugh, a lot of people. See his blog at http://mattheath.typepad.com/feeding_friendsy.

Matt was always messing around while going through school and this paid off for him, big time. He and another buddy created a stop motion video of a couple yoked out Ken type dolls. It spread around the ad industry and sure enough jobs came calling. Shortly after joining 72andSunny, K-Swiss knocked down 72's door with one goal in mind - "innovate or die." 72andSunny won the account and Matt was to be an integral part of it. Matt and the rest of the creatives were challenged with bring K-Swiss back to life. His strategy? Break off the Nike path of superstar athlete spokespersons and bring on the most out of shape, lazy and misogynistic professional athlete known to man; HBO's character Kenny Powers, played by Danny McBride. After a lot of negotiation and planning with HBO, K-Swiss and Danny McBride himself, the campaign was approved and they hit the ground running.

Matts writing is reflected in all the YouTube ads they produced. They are hilarious and fitting of the Kenny Powers mantra. It helped re-establish K-Swiss as a brand; a brand that doesn't just attract old fuddy-duddies anymore. Matt's work has plenty of recognition but I felt the need to share it anyway. K-Swiss needed innovation and Matt gave it to them. He did so well in fact that he was brought on to help write on the HBO show, Eastbound and Down. Without Matt's pen, Danny wouldn't be Kenny.