Joe Shands On The Spot

There's still a lot of good ol' boy in Joe Shands, TBWA\Chiat\Day's 39-year-old creative director on Nissan, who drives a tricked-out Infiniti FX and tools around the Playa del Rey, Calif., agency unabashedly singing country classics. Raised in Jefferson City, Tennessee, Shands got his start in the business as an art director at Cole & Weber in Seattle, and later worked for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, as well as Wieden + Kennedy, in Portland and Amsterdam—an experience, he says, that deepened his appreciation for both Old World wisdom and American energy. Q: What inspired you to get into advertising?A: The coal mine in my hometown, and the promise of the United States military. I never did, but my uncle worked in those zinc mines. They're holes in the ground, and they're always waiting for you. Then there's the textile mill where my dad and mom worked. And I could draw really well in high school. My high school teacher, Mrs. Annette Loy, wouldn't have it. She wouldn't let me work in one of those places. She inspired me to go to art school in Atlanta.Were you steered away from high art toward commercial art?I wanted to drink beer and cavort with cheerleaders. So all of this was Ms. Loy saying I had a real talent for commercial art. I did rock posters and sold them. I had a design firm as a junior in high school called Safari Graphics. We did posters and T-shirts. I have no doubt I could still be running it. The only problem is that everything was $35. I expect I would still be charging that. I had a guy pull up with a huge tractor trailer and ask me to paint a logo with his name on the back, a big "Dave." I said: "$35."Who has influenced your career the most?My career really started at Cole & Weber. We were just young punks doing ads and having fun. Then I got called by Rich Silverstein at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. And it was an amazing learning curve for me. I think when he was judging a show he'd seen a catalog for Klein Bikes I'd done. He loved the writing and art direction, and he called me immediately. Rich told me he would teach me, conceptually and executionally, everything I needed to know about television. And they [Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein] did. They taught me that you can have great partnerships with clients. It seems like they're never a vendor. How do you approach your Nissan work?First of all, great work was being done long before I got here. My goal is for people to see themselves within Nissan. They have 12 vehicles that reach out for 12 different kinds of people. I'm encouraging people to communicate well with the people we need to speak to—and to be as human as possible.What work are you most proud of?On Nike Latin America I was part of a campaign to inspire women in Mexico to be themselves. It was a campaign called "Dear Mexico," letters from women to their country. You had these beautiful Mexican women—one was a kickboxer, another a swimmer and another a runner—and they got to talk in their own voices about what they'd be doing today. It didn't win any awards, but during a marathon, women were holding up "Dear Mexico" signs along the way. And I didn't do that, they did it. And that was a great compliment. We inspired them to be beautiful and athletes.What is your dream assignment?I've worked on "Got Milk?," Nike, Miller, Nissan. I've worked on great brands. With Nissan, it sounds like I'm being political, but any assignment that gives you a world stage to play on...You know, my dad only gets three TV stations. It's hard to do these days, but he only gets NBC, ABC and CBS. And even if he gets more channels now, those are the only ones he's watching. So even with Nike, since a lot of that runs on sports, he didn't see my work. And when I went to Europe to work on Vodafone, he certainly didn't see that work. This is one of the few times in my career when my dad can see my work, when he's sitting in his living room at night, and he can say, "My son did that Nissan ad right there." I know it sounds hokey, but for me that's pretty great.What's the last ad that made you think, "I wish I'd done that."I hate to bring this up because it's one of our own, but the Adidas campaign out of [TBWA\Chiat\Day] San Francisco, with [Houston Rockets player] Tracy McGrady and the ropes being shot across his body. I respect the work on Adidas so much. And I love the [BBDO] "Spy vs. spy" Mountain Dew spots. I was a Mad magazine fan growing up. I love the execution, the sound design, and the music is phenomenal.How many songs on your iPod?I have 12 days on it. And it is [mostly] just Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.What's your least favorite thing about advertising?When clients treat you as a vendor and not as a partner. That's my least favorite feeling. And the hours. I've got a great son who I wish I could spend more time with.What's on your nightstand?A lamp, a clock, a book. I just finished Devil in the White City, about the 1892 Chicago World's Fair, about the dynamic nature of the period and so many things were being invented. The architects had to build it, and there was a serial killer on the loose at the same time.What keeps you up at night?I want Nissan to be quoted, to be part of the fabric ... to be understood.

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Joe Shands On The Spot

Gregory Solman

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Gregory Solman