Meet the Twisted, Brilliant Copywriter Behind Twitter's Nihilist Arby's

A case study in branding dark humor

Brendan Kelly is the bassist and singer for Epitaph Records' punk band The Lawrence Arms, has appeared on The Daily Show, pens a fairly popular blog called Bad Sandwich Chronicles and has carved out a career as an advertising copywriter in recent years at different agencies in the Chicago area.

That'd all play pretty well at a class reunion, wouldn't it? Well, there's more.

Eight months ago, Kelly started a phenomenon called Nihilist Arby's, a darkly comical Twitter account that has attracted more than 100,000 followers.

AW+

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Spring Special

Save 30% Off an ADWEEK Subscription Today!

View Your Options

Already a member? Sign in