Dave Damman, the Carmichael Lynch chief creative officer/managing partner who most recently worked on today’s touching man-and-his-dog campaign for Subaru, is no longer with the agency as of this week.
The departing CCO began his career as an art director at shops as disparate as Saatchi & Saatchi New York and TraceyLocke; he joined Carmichael Lynch’s creative department for the first time in 1996 and later moved to fellow Minneapolis agency Fallon, where he served as group creative director.
Damman may be best known within the industry for reviving Buddy Lee, the vintage doll who initially served as a storefront model for miniature versions of his namesake jeans in the 1920’s. He returned to life after more than three decades away to star in various campaigns created by Fallon during the late 90’s and early 00’s and (unofficially) run for President of these United States.
Damman left Fallon in 2005 to launch his own Atlanta-based agency called Damman Pearce along with fellow CD Bobby Pearce, who later ran BBDO Atlanta’s creative department before founding Van Winkle + Pearce (which he left in January). Carmichael Lynch hired Damman for the second time in early 2011 to helm creative on its Rubbermaid and FirstEnergy accounts and work on new business pitches, promoting him to CCO less than a year later as a leader on Subaru, Jack’s Links and various other accounts.
This blog alone has covered Damman-led ads for The Denver Museum of Nature and Science, American Standard and The Humane Society in addition to numerous Subaru campaigns. In 2012, he answered “Six Questions” about the chief creative life for Adweek, touting Minneapolis attractions and telling the magazine that most creative lifers grow quite accustomed to the agency world over time.
Damman is also responsible for the Carmichael Collective project, which encourages employees to work on creative projects as seemingly random and unrelated to standard industry business as decorative urinal cakes, pinata anatomy posters, bike matadors and portraits of dogs dressed as Napoleon.
The agency did not offer comment on the reasons for his departure or any immediate plans to hire a successor.