Brent Bouchez On The Spot

When Bouchez joined Campbell-Ewald in Warren, Mich., in May as executive creative director on the $600 million Chevrolet account, he wasn't exactly coming in unprepared. He has led creative work for car clients Acura, BMW and Porsche in his career, and is a veteran of agencies including TBWA\ Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and Ammirati & Puris, M&C Saatchi and Bozell in New York. He also ran his own shop, Bouchez Kent + Co. in New York, for three years. Bouchez, 46, skipped college and snagged his first agency job, at Phillips-Ramsey in San Diego, at the age of 19. Q: What are your thoughts on the Corvette spot "A Boy's Dream" being pulled?A: The client has asked us not to comment.What were your first contributions to Chevy's new campaign, "An American revolution"?The Cobalt teaser ad and the Malibu spots that ran during the Olympics ["Kick Me," "Check List" and "Magic Word"]. Actually, Malibu was already under way, and I helped to get them finished, but Cobalt was under my tutelage. We have to guide it now and protect it and keep it rolling forward. If it was three or four years old, it would all be set in stone. But a lot of "An American Revolution" is still being tested, and we're still finding out how people are reacting to it and figuring out what it means for Chevrolet. How are people reacting to it?People seem to like it, and it makes a lot to sense to them. It says what it needs to say for Chevrolet—that it's a new day and that there's a lot of new product coming. And it really claims the high ground for Chevy. What was the attraction of Campbell-Ewald? What you learn is that small clients are just as hard as big clients, but it's just much more fun to come up with ideas and strategize and have the world see it, and have it have an effect. And working on something like Chevrolet—it's bigger than most agencies, by a lot—and anyone who is worth their salt in this business should have an understanding at some time in their career of what it takes to do that. After Sept. 11, auto advertising was mostly price-driven. But it seems to have shifted back to product and image. Is this the right time to go back to that? Yes, we're getting back to truly marketing the cars and giving them an image and an attitude. That's also what I liked about "An American revolution"—it looked upbeat and optimistic. It's very smart to do that, and it's especially smart for an American brand to lead that charge. What was your first car?A Chevy pickup truck. It was a '64 long-bed. It was pretty tricked out. It was lowered. It had fat tires on it. I got it in about 1972. It's what I drove to high school. What inspired you to get into advertising? I went to a lecture by a woman named Sandy Butchkiss, who used to work at Young & Rubicam. I grew up in a very blue-collar neighborhood and family [in Los Angeles], and she was the most interesting person I had ever met. She smoked and talked with a New York accent, and I was fascinated. Then she showed her reel, and I was even more fascinated that people did this for a living. I was about 17 or 18 at the time. She said she was going to teach a class, and I took it, just because I wanted to be around this person. And I found I was good at it, and she helped me put a book together. I was going to be an art director, and she said, "No, be a writer. Writers end up running things." What is the most disappointing creative trend you have seen lately? Too many people are in the business because it is their mini Hollywood or their chance to work with a certain director, and they forget that this is about selling stuff. And unfortunately, I think a lot of people in advertising are embarrassed by that fact, and I frankly am embarrassed that we do a lot of stuff that people don't understand, or laugh at but can't remember the name of the product. Name the last ad that made you think, "I wish I had done that."IBM The stuff that's been running in the last year—a lot of it has been for e-business, the letterbox stuff, with the blue bars—it's just really smart stuff. While I love all the Apple work, I think Apple is an easier proposition. I don't take anything away from Chiat\Day, but IBM is a monster company, and for Ogilvy to do that kind of work is very impressive. What would you be doing if you weren't in advertising?Well, I'm sitting here watching these guys across the street dig up a road, so I imagine I would be working with them. [laughs]Give me three words to describe yourself. Curious. Pragmatic, which is important, I think, because you have to keep your vision right and know which battles to fight. And thoughtful—thinking [a problem] through and looking at it from all sides. What are the smartest and dumbest business decisions you ever made?They were both the same decision: opening my own agency. It taught me so many things, but at the same time I made giant mistakes every day, mistakes that cost me a lot of money and heartache. The rewards were also amazing. You walk into a room, introduce yourself, and people say, "Oh, you're Brent Bouchez of Bouchez Kent." But we made some colossal errors, one of which was not having a cornerstone piece of business the day we opened the agency. You can't do that today. I see guys doing it, and I wish them all the luck in the world, but I don't see it happening.

Brand Marketing

Brent Bouchez On The Spot

Kevin Ransom

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Kevin Ransom