Silverman Listed As Questionable

You never know when the next pitch will result in a torn rotator cuff. And we’re not talking baseball.

Since taking the helm as president of WongDoody in Los Angeles a year ago, Bruce Silverman has thrown himself into the job—literally. He has appeared in a WongDoody house ad and on a Web site for fictional carrier SkyHigh Airlines. (Silverman plays SkyHigh’s chairman and CEO, Howard Barium. The site was created as part of a campaign for real client Alaska Airlines.) He has also lent his voice to commercials for the Los Angeles Dodgers and appeared in face paint in a brochure for the team.

But Silverman recently made perhaps his biggest sacrifice when he suffered a pitching injury—one that was completely non-Dodgers-related. In a new-business pitch for an undisclosed client, he was flailing his arms wildly (not an unusual gesture, apparently—one that is common enough that Tracy Wong even has a name for it: the “upside-down, bald, Jewish eggbeater”) when he felt a twinge of pain in his shoulder. He finished the presentation but soon found out he had torn a rotator cuff.

Did the effort pay off at least? Did the client recognize the level of commitment on display? Says Silverman, who is recovering from surgery: “To answer truthfully would be to add insult to injury.”