WHIT HILER

Super stoked and honored to be included in Adweek’s 2019 Creative 100. Thanks Adweek! Big shout out to all of the rad crushers at Cornett, Kentucky for Kentucky, etc. that I get to collaborate and have fun with every day. Hit the links below to read all about it.

Adweek’s Creative 100: Meet 2019’s Most Fascinating People in Marketing, Media and Culture

26 Agency Leaders Who Are Becoming the Industry’s New Icons

Thanks Herald Leader for the article. Read it here.

Read all about it here, here and here.

I did a “2 Minutes With” on the Muse By Clio. Read it here.

Digiday wrote a little article about me. Check it out by clicking here. 

Stoked and surprised to have made this list. Check it out on Business Insider. 

"Of all the nominations we looked at in assembling these rankings, Whit Hiler was far and away the person we most wanted to be friends with."

That quote also made me happy. 

Cornett tapped a pet psychic to capture the World’s first travel reviews by horses for VisitLEX. Read about it here, here and here.

As a Convention and Visitors Bureau, VisitLEX’s primary business objective is to boost awareness and enhance perceptions of Lexington, KY, as a travel destination.

Our challenge: differentiate ourselves from rival cities and get new audiences talking about Lexington, Kentucky, The Horse Capital of the World.

Cornett’s solution: Sneakers for horses.

Horse Kicks is the world’s first custom sneaker service for horses, turning hyped sneaker models into premium horseshoes for the world’s greatest equine athletes.

Horse Kicks began as a stunt to promote Lexington, home to a billion-dollar Thoroughbred industry. But after partnering with local sneaker artist Marcus Floyd, it quickly became a very real brand with a very real product—and eventually, very real demand, pioneering a whole new sneaker category.

Using the skills he learned at The Shoe Surgeon’s SRGN Academy, Marcus creates Horse Kicks from reconstructed sneakers. They are built onto a pre-made protective boot for horses and are 100% wearable.

Equipped with scroll-stopping photo assets and an impossible-to-ignore pop-up activation in the heart of downtown, we pitched Horse Kicks to sneaker publications like Complex and Hypebeast. From there, it went global, picking up 274 earned media placements, including Jimmy Fallon, USA Today, Washington Post and People.

Photos of VisitLEX’s Horse Kicks were shared far and wide by millions of people on social media. TikTokers made TikToks. The Colts tweeted about it. 50 Cent was baffled by it.

Custom orders and partnership offers from NFL teams, NBA superstars and major brands flooded in.

Horse Kicks resulted in 3 BILLION earned media impressions, introducing Lexington to an enormous global audience of sneakerheads and horse lovers. Best of all, Horse Kicks connected two massively popular global cultures—sneakerheads and equine lovers—like never before, while presenting the city in an exciting new light as a culturally-relevant, stereotype-defying destination.

WATCH THE CASE STUDY

Fun one for A&W by Cornett. Read all about it here, here, here, here and here.

Back in the fall of 2021 everyone was going gaga for NFTs. While most all brands were embracing NFTs with open arms, we (Cornett) and VisitLEX decided to take a different approach and poke fun at them. Read about it here, here, here, here, and here.

In the 1980s, A&W tried to compete with the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder by offering a bigger 1/3 lb. Burger at the same price. But Americans aren’t so great at math and confused consumers wrongly assumed that 1/4 was bigger than 1/3 (You know, because 4 is bigger than 3) and the whole experiment went down in history as a huge marketing fail.

We (Cornett) thought it would help clear things up if we refused to appeal to the lowest common denominator, did some clever advertising arithmetic and just rebranded the A&W 1/3 lb. Burger as the 3/9 lb. Burger. Problem solved, right?

Read all about it here, here, here, here and here.

CORNETT was named an AdAge 2021 Small Agency Of The Year! Read all about it on AdAge.

We (CORNETT) hijacked the popularity of a Netflix mega-hit with The Harmon Room at 21c—and made Lexington one of 2021's can't-miss destinations.

The room came together in record time thanks to our incredible local partners: VisitLEX, 21c Museum Hotel, interior designer Isabel Ladd, preservationist Lucy Jones, wallpaper designer Ferrick Mason, and shops like Scout and Black Swan Books.

RESULTS

The internet went ballistic. 21c received 120 booking inquiries within the first 24 hours. There was a 2,570% year-over-year increase in social traffic to the VisitLEX website. The project earned global press in over 150 publications. 15,000+ social shares. Nearly 700 million media impressions. And Lexington was placed on lists of hot destinations for 2021 alongside locations like Los Cabos, New York City, The Seychelles, Jamaica, and London.

Credits

Mary Quinn Ramer, President, VisitLEX

Gathan D. Borden, Vice President, Marketing, VisitLEX

Niki Heichelbech-Goldey, Director of Communications, VisitLEX

Leslie Miller VP, Director of Brand Management, CORNETT

Danielle Havrilesko, Senior Account Planner, CORNETT

Bailey Klutts, Assistant Account Planner, CORNETT

Whit Hiler, Executive Creative Director, CORNETT

Dave Jones, Art Director, CORNETT

John Herskind, Art Director/Videographer, CORNETT

Katie Rush, Web Developer, CORNETT

Coleman Larkin, Copywriter, CORNETT

Kathy Martinolich, Senior Copywriter, CORNETT

Isabel Ladd, Interior Designer, Isabel Ladd Interiors

Lucy Jones, Preservationist, Harry Dean Stanton Festival

Alex K Mason, Wallpaper Design, Ferrick Mason Inc.

Amani Nichae, Photographer, Honeysage Photo Co.

Bob Banker, Wallpaper Installer

Monster Color, Chess Board & Chess Piece Ceiling Installation

A fun little campaign we dropped for VisitLEX in the summer of 2020. You can read more about it on ADWEEK.

Check out our #WFH Diaries in the Muse By Clio.

Some of our creatives here at Cornett got together and reworked some classic movie posters to portray iconic movie duos practicing social distancing. Think Bad Boys to Bad Boy and Thelma & Louise to just Thelma.

Read all about it on ADWEEK. Hell Yeah.

The creatives that worked on this project are Randy Steward, Laura Merchant, John Herskind and David Loaiza.

Our pals at VisitLEX had a Zoom call with a horse. Read all about it on Travel + Leisure and check it out on AdAge where it was an Editors Pick. Hell Yeah.

A fun video project we (Cornett) made for our pals at VisitLEX. Read all about it in Garden & Gun and the Muse by Clio.

Here’s why that’s cool...

1. It makes VisitLEX the first tourism brand to introduce the “Oddly Satisfying” video trend into their destination marketing strategy.

2. It gives the viewer a fun, unique and relaxing glimpse into the process of making Kentucky bourbon from start to finish.

3. It provides a behind-the-scenes look into a world-renowned bourbon distillery that was just named American Distiller of the Year and Visitor Attraction of the Year at the Icons of Whisky Awards, beating out whiskey makers from all over the country.

4. Advertisements that relieve stress and leave the viewer feeling nice and calm are so much better than ads that leave the viewer feeling annoyed and bothered.

5. All the feels. All the tingles.

6. Bourbon!

We (Kentucky for Kentucky) worked with candle maker Kathy Werking to make a Politics scented candle that contains real dehydrated horse shit in it. Ironically it was featured on Fox News, it made the front page of Reddit and the back page of the National Enquirer.

Featuring a subtle bouquet of profits over people, nothing ever changes, well whaddabout, also guns are actual people, and if you don’t like it maybe you should move to Canada! between layers of actual real deal dehydrated horse shit.

Last Thanksgiving, we (Kentucky for Kentucky) partnered up with Kentucky artist Coleman Larkin to launch a line of t-shirts tie-dyed in real KFC gravy. The shirts were a big hit, sold out and got a ton of press. Read all about them on the KyforKy blog, AdAge, Food & Wine, Yahoo News, MSN, VT.com, Mirror, Daily Mail, AOL, etc.

Our forward-thinking pals at VisitLEX have gone and done it once again. In celebration of Mr. Rogers and the much-anticipated Mr. Rogers movie coming out this fall, they've dressed up a horse to look like Mr. Rogers and created a fun series of print ads that include headlines like "Won't You Be My Neighhhbor" and "It's A Beautiful Day in The Neighhhborhood." Get it? Lol.

 This is important for several reasons.

1. This is the first time a horse has ever been dressed up to look like Mr. Rogers. 

2. This will be the first time a horse dressed as Mr. Rogers has ever appeared in a print advertisement.

3. The horse dressed as Mr. Rogers is named Hank and Tom Hanks is playing Mr. Rogers in the upcoming movie. Let that sink in for a second.

 4. Hank the horse looks absolutely adorable dressed as Mr. Rogers. All the feels.

 5. Mr. Rogers was known for his kindness and hospitality, so is Lexington, Kentucky. Like horses and bourbon, hospitality is a characteristic that makes Lexington a truly unique destination.

 6. Everyone loves Mr. Rogers, and everyone will love Lexington when they visit.

 7. Hank's Mr. Rogers costume was created here in Lexington by award-winning fashion designer Soreyda Benedit Begley. She's got a really great story as well. Read more about Soreyda here.

 8. "OMG! There's a horse dressed as Mr. Rogers" - Everyone

 It was an Editor's Pick on AdAge and you can read more about it on USA Today, Fatherly, Muse by Clio, Yahoo News, etc.

Bourbon hunting is a thing. A big thing. Especially here in Lexington, Kentucky. Bourbon aficionados from all over the world are coming here in hopes of scoring rare bottles of Kentucky's finest bourbon. They hunt our distilleries, our liquor stores and our bars. They'll even stalk our people. They come and set up camps outside our liquor stores when distilleries are dropping limited releases. They'll pay insane amounts of money to get their hands on some of Kentucky's most elusive bottles of bourbon. They crazy. Crazy in a good way. Our forward-thinking friends at VisitLEX are here for these crazy bourbon hunters and they've come up with an innovative new product that is sure to take the bourbon hunting game to the next level.

As you know, every good hunter needs some good camouflage to blend in and there's pretty much a pattern of camouflage for every surrounding. After some research, we were shocked to discover that there wasn't a pattern of camouflage designed specifically for the bourbon hunter. With that said, VisitLEX got to work and is now excited to introduce the world's first line of Bourbon Camouflage®. VisitLEX's new Bourbon Camouflage® will be available in 3 exciting patterns (Liquor Store, Grocery Story and Rite Aid) and will be available exclusively at the VisitLEX Visitor Center on Friday, June 14th at 10am.

Read about it on ADWEEK and Paste Magazine. 

Our forward-thinking partners at VisitLEX have gone and done it. They've dipped their hooves into the popular phenomenon known as ASMR and they've done it in a fun and unique way that only the 'Horse Capital of The World' could pull off. They've used a horse named Hank. 

 This is important for several reasons.

 1) This makes VisitLEX the first tourism brand to introduce ASMR into their destination marketing strategy.

 2) This makes VisitLEX the first brand to use a horse in an ASMR video. 

 3) They are calling it NEIGH-SMR which is a really cute play on ASMR. 

 4) The sounds of a destination are often neglected in tourism marketing.

 5) All the feels. All the tingles. 

 This approach is unique in the tourism space because most destinations focus on promoting the sights. The sounds of a destination are often neglected. We saw this as an opportunity to do something fun and different while playing on the phenomenon of ASMR. Folks can watch this video and if they decide to visit Lexington, they can go out to the Kentucky Horse Park or one of the 400 horse farms surrounding Lexington and experience this in real life - which is a really awesome experience.

 It's been featured in ADWEEK, Fast Company, Herald Leader, KSR, Ads of The World and some French ad pub. Lots of views on Facebook and it’s been blowing up on the Youtube. 

Plus! the sentiment is high.

 The only ASMR I’ve ever reacted to😂😍 - Laura Rigsby

 I’m crying I love this - Paitin Altman

 I hate eating ASMR, but this was nice. - Cullen Smith

 That horse is hawt. - ShizukaYumi Gamer

 This is the best ASMR video I have ever seen. - Morgan Lovaas

My buddy Coleman Larkin is a genius. He recently came to us at Ky for Ky with this amazing art project he was working on and wanted to see if we’d be down to help sell and promote the pieces of art he was creating. Being that it involved selling “Derby Turds” the week of the Kentucky Derby, we were totally down to help. Coleman was the brainchild and artist behind ‘Derby Turds’ and  Kentucky for Kentucky helped with the packaging and photography (Erick Moore) and PR push. It was featured on NPR, Southern Living, New York Times, the New York Post, the Courier Journal, the Herald Leader, Associated Press, USA Today, Mental Floss and countless television and radio stations. Coleman’s ‘Derby Turds’ totally hijacked the Derby news. Read all about it below and you can purchase them here. 

Derby Turds.

We partnered with Kentucky artist Coleman Larkin to create the ultimate Kentucky Derby keepsake. 100% real manure from 1997 Derby winner Silver Charm encapsulated in epoxy resin inside a 16-ounce mason jar. Just like mamaw’s blackberry jam.

Derby Turds, the first in a Dixieland Preserves line of bizarro Southern resin encapsulations by Kentucky artist Coleman Larkin, are now on sale at kyforky.com. Manure connoisseurs are encouraged to act quickly. Supplies are limited and these one-of-a-kind miracles are sure to sell out.  

These gorgeous nuggets of digested Kentucky bluegrass were daringly harvested by the artist himself, fresh from the haunches of legendary 1997 Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, and a portion of the net proceeds will be donated to this outstanding nonprofit Thoroughbred retirement facility.

A laborious proprietary process sees that each of Silver Charm’s incomparable bowel movements is immortalized in crystal clear epoxy resin inside a 16-ounce mason jar. The end result is a must-have object that blurs the line between art and novelty, built for the ages and to forever blow the minds of even the most jaded curiosity seekers.

“It’s a very long, very ridiculous procedure,” says Larkin. “The most difficult step is probably the one where I have to ask the type of people that own million-dollar Thoroughbreds if I can please have some horse turds to put in jars.”

More at Ky for Ky.

We (Cornett) recently helped our pals at A&W out with a campaign to bring back the Ampersand. Read all about it on ADWEEK and Food & Wine.

Cornett made an app. It's called the YouPray app and it turns that uncomfortable question of "who's going to say the prayer?" at your next family dinner into a fun game of prayer roulette. Basically, we're gamifying dinner. We call it 'Blessification.' It was featured on AdAge, ADWEEK and Android Headlines. Pretty cool for an app that’s only feature is spinning prayer hands. Big shout out to the rad team at Cornett for bringing this to life.

Kentucky is a magical place. A kick-ass place. It’s the land of tasty bourbon, fast horses, beautiful farmland and the world famous Cocaine Bear. It’s also the birthplace of George Clooney, fried chicken, Rosie the Riveter, Muhammed Ali, Chris Stapleton, Loretta Lynn, and the 80’s band Exile. Kentuckians are a proud people and no one loves their home state more than we do. But we know not all of us can live here at the same time. So this one goes out to all of you Kentuckians living afar.

Being homesick does not kick-ass and we know this can be especially tough as we get closer to the holidays. That’s why we’ve (Ky for Ky) made something special for all of our homesick sisters and brothers living out of state. Taking inspiration from the phone sex/group chat phone lines popular in the 1980s and 1990s, we’ve created this sexy video and a special 1800# to give y’all a little taste of your old Kentucky home.

So pour yourself a Bourbon, watch the video and call 1-855-883-8663 (text it too). If you listen until the very end, you may even find a special discount code that you can use to get yourself something from the shop. How rad is that?

Our 'My Old Kentucky Home Hotline' was featured in ADWEEK and in the Lexington Herald Leader. Tons and tons of social shares and of course phone calls - over 20,000. Big shout out to the KY for KY for putting the crush down on this one. Big thanks to John Buckman for the video production. Hell yeah!

Paper Cliché

 8 Years of Thinking “Outside the Box”

Have you ever heard someone say, “let’s think outside of the box?” We all, unfortunately, probably have heard this a few too many times. In the world of creativity and business, I can’t think of a more cliché expression. I’ve spent a good chunk of the past eight-to-ten years attempting to do just that, to “think outside of the box.” And for the most part, I’ve been fairly successful at it, whether it’s as a creative director, business owner or through any number of creative side hustles I find myself involved in. While you may not be familiar with my name, I’m certain you’ve probably run across some of my past internet works… and been like, “WTF is wrong with this guy?”

Like most creatives, I love a good notebook and I spend a lot of my time writing, working, scheming and doodling in them. Over the past eight years I’ve managed to save a large number of my notebooks. Instead of waiting for my kids to someday throw these notebooks away (and destroy my legacy), I’ve decided to turn the pages of these notebooks into art—a project I’m calling “Paper Cliché.” Eight years of my thinking (the pages of these notebooks) turned into paper mache boxes. Get it? My actual thinking on the outside of boxes. Hell yeah.

What you’ll see is a glimpse inside my mind and process, which is admittedly very ADHD. That’s a diagnosis I received in 4th grade after launching a crayon via rubber band into my friend Todd’s eye (sorry, Todd). To-do lists, big ideas, small ideas, ad concepts, marketing and tech trends, PR strategies, side projects, product ideas, business ideas, bourbon, tourism, side businesses and doodles. It’s all in there, the pages of my favorite notebooks, cut-up and plastered for your viewing pleasure with good old-fashioned water and flour.

Check it out the website here

Read about it on ADWEEK

Oxford American magazine recently dropped their 19th Annual Southern Music Issue, and, this time, the great Commonwealth of Kentucky is in the spotlight. Well, nobody loves Kentucky and Kentucky music more than we do, so we (Ky for Ky) decided to show our support with a full-page ad promoting KY for KY and our spinoff Southern Socks.

If you aren’t familiar with Oxford American magazine, it’s a quarterly literary publication dedicated to featuring the best in Southern writing. So we thought the best way to get the attention of a bunch of bookworms was to put a big, glaring typo right at the top of our ad. And not just any typo. The mother of all typos. The #1 pet peeve of every grammar nazi on the planet. 

WE SPEAK YOU’RE LANGUAGE.

Ouch. It hurts to read it, doesn’t it? Knowing full well that copywriters and editors have been killed for letting an error like that slip by, we felt like we should at least put a small disclaimer at the bottom of the ad to clear things up. 

We know. It’s “your” not “you’re.” We just figured that a typo would be the best way for our ad to stand out in a fine publication like Oxford American Magazine. But nice catch anyway, William Faulkner.

We’ll probably still catch an earful for such a sacrilegious stunt, but were we’re okay with that. 

The ad was featured on ADWEEK (top post on ADWEEK for a bit), the Herald Leader and a few other local news stations. Plus tons of shares on social. 

“This Ad Is Trolling Readers of a Major Literary Magazine With a Glaring Typo” - Read all about it on ADWEEK 

It was also one of AdWeek's Ads Of The Year for print. Check it. 

THESE NEW ADS FOR VISITLEX WERE FILMED ENTIRELY BY HORSES.

Here in beautiful Lexington, Kentucky we love our horses. We love ‘em so much, we decided to let one film a few commercials for us here at VisitLEX. Seriously, we let real horses film a real tourism marketing campaign promoting Lexington as the “The Horse Capital of the World.” Fitting, right? Right.

So, how’d we make this crazy dream a crazy reality? Our friends at Mill Ridge Farm lent us a hand. And some hooves. And a beautiful horse farm. We strapped GoPros to several willing ponies and let them do their thing. The rest is history…the first time in the history of advertising a horse has filmed an ad campaign.

The campaign was one of AdWeek's 'Ad Of The Day' and an 'Editor's Pick' on AdAge's Creativity Online. It also go picked up by the Lexington Herald Leader and a ton of horsey pubs. Hit the links below to read all about it. 

"These New Tourism Ads for Lexington, Ky., Were Filmed by Horses" - AdWeek

"A Pair of Horses Shot This Local Tourism Campaign" - Creativity

Case study video for our Kentucky Fun Mall commercial. Video by Ian Friley. 

Introducing the 'Marketing Buzzword Jar' - it's like a swear jar but with a higher ROI. A hot new innovative and disruptive product by Cornett. 

The concept is simple - every time an employee drops a marketing buzzword, they have to put $1 in the jar. Say the M-Bomb (Millennial) and they have to drop $2 in the jar. An awesome new rev generator for ad agencies, corporate marketing departments, start-ups, and tech companies. Just place it in the boardroom and get rich! 

So how much does this bad-ass new ‘Marketing Buzzword Jar’ cost? Only $19.99 at launch. Plus, every new ‘Marketing Buzzword Jar’ comes with over 500 marketing buzzword and over 200 TED Talks on Youtube for FREE! 

Check it out on AdWeek (made the Hot List) and Digiday. 

Big shout out to everyone at Team Cornett that brought this to life - Chris Barnes on the logo, Ken Grier on the website design, James McCollum on website, and Emmy Hartley on the project management. 

We (Kentucky for Kentucky) made an epic television commercial for our new Kentucky Fun Mall. That’s right! A real television commercial that’s airing right now on a local television station here in Lexington, Kentucky. To top that off, we think it’s the best commercial to ever air on a local television station here in the Bluegrass state! 

Read all about it on ADWEEK: 

'Two Men, and One Cocaine Bear, Just Made Kentucky's Strangest Local Ad Ever Kentucky Fun Mall spot barges its way into broadcast'

Read all about it on the Herald Leader: 

'Bizarre Cocaine Bear ad gets Kentucky Fun Mall national attention'

Read all about it on KyforKy.com: 

'12,000 SQUARE FEET OF CLUCKING FUN FOR EVERYONE!' 

Yo mom! I’m on Mashable talking about advertising, the Internet and the joys on making weird shit.   Read all about it here. 

Our pals at A&W Restaurants asked us (Cornett) to help them build a little hype around this epic new infomercial they recently made with InStyle TV (not to be confused with InStyle Magazine). You’ll just have to watch it. 

We came up with this fun landing page (click the link) to host this amazing infomercial. The page contains a bunch of fun facts along with 100 additional mug uses, from hand puppeteering to making a great home for a gummy bear - A&W's mug can do it. We also came up with a great press release to help spread the word. 

ADWEEK picked up the story and wrote the following article: 

A&W's Root Beer Mug Has Many Uses Beyond Holding Root Beer, Says Goofy Infomercial But the press release is actually better than the ad - ADWEEK

*Note we did not make the actual infomercial, we just miraculously got it on AdWeek which I am sure was an InStyle TV first, ha. 

Here’s the press release I wrote: 

Hope all is well!

Recently A&W Restaurants worked with InStyle television to create an epic infomercial celebrating their iconic root beer mugs. It starting airing on InStyle TV (not to be confused with InStyle Magazine) last week. It's an infomercial so amazing, I'm sure it will clean house at all of the creative award shows next year.

"In my five years of working in advertising, I've never seen a more moving infomercial. The story, the cinematography, the acting - everything is just so damn beautiful" - Me

"After watching A&W's new infomercial, I broke down in tears. I've never seen anything more heartfelt." - Spencer

"It takes a village to make a great infomercial" - Sarah Blasi

In addition to it being beautiful, we found A&W's new infomercial to also be very inspiring. So inspiring, it inspired us to dig deeper, to go beyond the expected and explore new and innovative uses of the mug. Our team of creative scientists at Cornett got to work and after three days of intensive research, we came up with over 100 new uses of A&W's iconic root beer mug. From hand puppeteering to making a great home for a gummy bear - A&W's mug can do it.

While most mugs offer only one benefit (holding a beverage), ours offers over 100 benefits, making A&W's mug the most beneficial mug in the world.

If you have a second please grab some cheese curds (our mug is actually a cheese curd vessel), hit the link below, watch this amazing infomercial and then check out all of the unbelievable things this damn mug can do on it's very own web page!

http://awrestaurants.com/mug

Thanks and please let us know if you have any questions.

We (Cornett) recently helped Tempur + Sealy launch an awesome new direct to consumer mattress brand called Cocoon by Sealy. Read all about it below and here on the Cornett website (click) and go buy a new Cocoon by Sealy here (click). 

"Tempur-Sealy, the world’s largest mattress manufacturer recently launched a new direct-to-consumer mattress, Cocoon™ by Sealy. Catering to today’s demand for convenience, simple online ordering and choice, Cocoon by Sealy is a beautifully designed, premium memory foam mattress that arrives at your doorstep in a box.

While the “bed-in-a-box” category isn’t new, the quality level that Cocoon by Sealy delivers is. It’s a truly amazing product, which can be attributed to 135 years of Sealy mattress expertise.

As the creative agency of record for Cocoon by Sealy, we couldn’t be more excited to share the story behind the launch of the brand. Our contributions include brand strategy and development, packaging design, photography direction, creative campaign, ongoing social media management, content creation and management of the Cocoon by Sealy Blog.

The ‘My Happy Place’ campaign is based around the idea that your bed is the centerpiece of your bedroom, and your bedroom should be much more than a place to lay your head. It’s a manifestation of identity and style. It’s your creative space. It’s your go-to space—an escape, a retreat.

In other words, the bedroom can and should inspire happiness. And when you have a bed that you absolutely love, it becomes easy to create a space that brings comfort and happy vibes into every day. Knowing that our audience values creativity, seeking inspiration and upgrading the home, we set out to build a brand that could be all about quality, comfort and style.

We brought the campaign to life across our various touchpoints through a series of ‘My Happy Place’ stories featuring several inspiring creatives discussing their bedroom style, their new Cocoon by Sealy mattress and what makes their bedroom a place of comfort and happiness."

- Jason Majewski

Photography by James Merrell

Styling by Martin Bourne

Brand Music by Ben Sollee

Cinematography by Matt Sundin

Kentucky Coal

"The holidays are a time for fun, frivolity, love and gratitude. But let’s face it. Some people don’t deserve any of that stuff. You know the ones. They've made your whole year a little harder than it needed to be. They're the ones with the make-believe gluten allergy. The selfie addicts. The ones with the Make America Great Again hat. Nice boys and girls are easy to shop for. But what are you supposed to get these naughty jerks to let them know just how little you care?

Joy to the world! Real live Kentucky coal lumps are here!

Declare this Christmas a “No Buttholes Zone” and go on the offensive with the gift that's worse than nothing. Coal. Because nothing says, “I do not approve of you,” like a real live chunk of Kentucky’s filthiest export.

You'll be a Yuletide hero when you lower the boom on some unsuspecting schmuck with this hilarious anti-gift straight from the motherland." 

Results: 

* Our Kentucky Coal article was shared over 7,700 times on Facebook driving hundreds of thousands of visitors to our website.
 

*Kentucky Coal was featured in the Huffington Post, National
Geographic, Nylon Magazine, Notcot and Under Consideration.

*We sold over 1,000 lumps of Kentucky Coal (we could have sold more but we ran out of coal). Most people purchased other items in addition to the Coal.

*We didn’t pay anything for the Kentucky Coal!

Team: 

Creative Director: Me

Design: Rachael Sinclair

Copy Writing: Coleman Larkin

Project Management: Justin Mosteller

Photography: Savanna Barnett

Logistics: Andrew Allingham

Screen Printing: Logan Miller w/ The Giant Robot

Read the article

Visit the website

On June 12th we had the pleasure of speaking at Creative Mornings in Louisville on the topic of Revolution. We had a blast. We talked about our Kentucky Kicks Ass campaign and offered up 15 steps on how we bootlegged the Kentucky brand and caused a little revolution. The video of our presentation is now live and can be viewed below. (Photos viaCreative Mornings)

I recently had the great pleasure of attending Digiday’s Agency Innovation Camp in Vail, Colorado as a mentor and a speaker. 

“Digiday’s Agency Innovation Camp is a unique — by invitation only — multi-day event, created for the brightest minds from today’s leading digital advertising agencies. These are the millennials creating change and innovation — the digital natives who are rethinking and reshaping brand communication through technology and a continuously evolving media landscape.

Over the course of three days, these rising digital media stars focus on modern-day media buying, planning and tech innovation in think tank sessions and workshops. An emphasis on collaboration and leadership is woven throughout the camp, as participants are divided into teams to ultimately compete in a Brand Hackathon.”

I had a blast! I absorbed so much positive millenial energy, I feel like I’m ten years younger. Maybe I feel older. I don’t know. There were around 80 young digital natives attending the camp from agencies all over. They were split up into eight teams that competed in a series of challenges. The most important challenge being a big ‘Brand Hackathon’. All of the teams we’re given a brief, a budget and were tasked with coming up with a pitch to be presented in front of a panel of four judges. My team (the Blue Team) put the epic Digiday smack down and WON it all. They took home the trophy for the big ‘Brand Hackathon’ and they took the trophy for being the overall ‘Camp Champions’. Hell yeah, it was an epic victory! 

While at the Digiday Agency Innovation Camp, I gave a 15 minute talk on "How to Sell your Ideas Internally”. It was fun.

“The struggle to sell your ideas is real! For most young professionals, the battle begins right there in their own agency. Way before their idea hits the client, they’ve got to get it through the gauntlet of trained idea killers: the art directors, creative directors, account planners, chief innovation officers, chief strategy officers, chief insight officers, chief technology officers, chief sitting bull, the officer officers, the mailman and the chief chief of agency chiefs. Unfortunately for most, many ideas never make it out of the notebook. It’s not their fault, they’re just not properly trained to fight for their ideas. We’ll discuss how to give those ‘idea killers’ a swift kick to the nuts.”

Kentucky for Kentucky’s mission is to engage and inform the world by promoting Kentucky people, places, and products. Back in November of 2013, we added "scents" to that mission statement when we dropped a small batch of our now famous ‘Scents Of The Commonwealth’ candles, a magnificent line of candles that smell like the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

In May of 2015 we dropped a fresh new batch of our ’Scents Of The Commonwealth’ candles. Once again we collaborated with Kentucky’s most prolific candle maker, Kathy Werking, to bring the world four amazing Kentucky scented soy wax candles; a Double Down candle (New), a Hot Brown candle (New), a Mint Julep candle and our world famous Fried Chicken candle.

Once again we sold out of candles and the Commonwealth got a bunch of press. Big shout out to Andrew Allingham with the idea for a Double Down candle, Kathy Werking for making the candles, Cassie Lopez for the photographs and Ian Friley for the videos. Some of the press can be found below. 

“Fried Chicken candle? Kentucky company serving up scents” - CNN

“KENTUCKY COMPANY MAKES KFC DOUBLE DOWN-SCENTED CANDLE” - IGN

“Nothing sets the mood like a Double Down fried chicken candle” - Mashable

“Now You Can Enjoy The Delicious Aroma Of KFC’s Double Down In Candle Form” - UPROXX

“World, We Present The 'Double Down' Fried Chicken... Candle” - Huffington Post

“Make Your House Smell Like KFC With These Double Down Candles” -Food Beast

“Now your house can smell of fried chicken and bacon thanks to the KFC Double Down candle” - METRO

“Candle Scented Like A KFC Double Down” - Egotastic

“DOUBLE DOWN CANDLE WILL MAKE YOUR HOUSE SMELL LIKE FRIED CHICKEN” - Thrillist

“This Week In Food News: KFC-SCENTED CANDLES” - Food & Wine

“Company Creates KFC Double Down-Scented Candle, Sells Out Immediately” - Paste Magazine 

"Heavy Metal makes everything better" - that's what my friend in 8th grade once told me right before he bit the head off a baby bat.  To this day, I still think he's right (even though he got rabies).  Heavy Metal does make everything better.  We decided to apply that crazy 8th grader's wisdom to a fun project here at Cornett.  Would Heavy Metal make a corporate brand's branding better?  We asked members of the Cornett design team to pick a few different brands and make their branding metal.  Just as we suspected, it worked.  

Credits: Clay Gibson (Tylenol, Benadryl, Kleenex), Matt Newton (American Girl Doll, Fancy Feast, Disney), Matt Bitley (Anthropologie, Lululemon), Randy Steward (Mary Kay, Tampax), Chris Adams (Google), Ivy Oddis (Midol), Lauren Woods (Pinterest) Layout by Kris Ange

Heavy Metal Brands Press

“Heavy metal-inspired typography reinvents iconic logos” - Creative Bloq

“Famous Brand Logos Redesigned With Typography Inspired By Heavy Metal Music” - Design Taxi

“ROCK OUT WITH YOUR FONT OUT: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BRANDS GET A HEAVY METAL MAKEOVER” - Fast Company

“Corporate Logos Get A Heavy Metal Facelift”- Metal Injection

“Popular Corporate Brands Re-imagined as Metal Logos” - Metal Sucks

“Heavy Metal Brands” - Brand New

“11 corporate logos re-imagined as heavy metal bands” - AUX

We recently launched some 'Horse Humping Socks' over at Kentucky for Kentucky. We even made a fun SFW horse porn video (by Ian Friley) to celebrate their release. Read abut em out on the Kentucky for Kentucky site and on Agency Spy. 

Our Kentucky for Kentucky ‘Gold Plated Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Necklaces’ recently took home the big ‘Best Of Show’ award at the AAF Lexington ADDY Awards. Hell yeah! Unfortunately we could be there to accept the award. We did create (with the help of Ian Friley) this little acceptance speech video that was shown at the event. Apparently the speech was a hit. It was also featured on ADWEEK. Check it out below. 

“Watch the Most Strangely Hilarious Addy Awards Best of Show Acceptance Speech Ever KFC necklaces were just the beginning” - ADWEEK 

We just launched a new #ShareTheLex video for VisitLEX. Once again we had a blast working on this. My buddy George crushed it as Daniel Boone and my buddy Ian (Kong Productions) killed it on the video. You can ready more about it onSkift and on the Cornett blog. Check it. 

As a follow up to our tasty 'Gold Plated Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Necklaces’ we worked worked with jewelry designer Meg C to create a line of ‘Gold Plated Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Earrings’. Earrings made from the bones of KFC fried chicken. 

The ‘Gold Plated Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Earrings’ were featured on a number of different websites: 

"GOLD-PLATED KFC BONE JEWELRY WAS SO POPULAR IT’S BACK AGAIN!" - FOOD & WINE

"This Holiday Season, Dazzle Your Loved Ones With Gold-Plated KFC Bone Earrings" - EATER 

"NEED IT: KFC GOLD-PLATED CHICKEN BONE EARRINGS" -  COMPLEX

"You’ll Never Believe What These Earrings Are Made Of" - WHOWHATWEAR

"Kentucky for Kentucky made this strange case study video for their strange “Gold Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Necklaces” initiative" - AgencySpy

We (Kentucky for Kentucky) recently launched a rad new product- "Kentucky Fried Chicken Bone Gold Necklaces. We worked with local jewelry designer Meg C to handcraft gold necklaces made with real bones from a Kentucky Fried Chicken 8-piece chicken dinner. No joke, read all about it on our blog. The necklaces sold-out in a few hours and received a ton of press. Like our infamous Fried Chicken candles, it was a big win-win product for us. They were featured on the LA Times, Daily Mail, People Magazine, Eater,FoodBeast, Complex, Metro, USA Today, PSFK, CNET and a ton of other news outlets around the world. Lots of hot television news action with NBC and ABC. Boomtown. 

Photos and video by the talented Stanley Sievers. 

A few of us at Cornett got lucky and had the pleasure of attending the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences 18th Annual Webby Awards in New York City. Somehow our ‘Beardvertising’ website won a People’s Voice Award. We had a blast, it was an amazing evening. Like Buzzfeed said, it was the ‘Internet party of the year’. Funny man Patton Oswalt hosted. The inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee was in the house to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his invention (the Web). The “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith presented to person of the Year to Bansky. Questlove presented the Webby for Artist of Year to De La Soul. Speaking of De La Soul, ‘Three Feet High And Rising’ was the first Compact Disc I ever owned. That makes me old. George Takei was in the house talking smack about William Shatner. It was really awesome to see all of our Internet heroes (gangstas) under one roof.

A famous tradition of the Webby Awards is their “5-Word Speech”. Check out our “5-Word Speech”. According to my dad it was a horrible “5-Word Speech”. That speech was for you dad, I love you. 

We recently launched a much needed new website for Cornett. It's dope, check it out. The 'ABOUT' page on our brand new and improved Cornett website has been receiving quite a bit of buzz recently.  You can read about it on both Fast Company and PSFK. Check out the 'ABOUT' page here. 

"A Clever Idea For Reinventing The Corporate "About" Page" - Fast Company

"Taking inspiration from the Internet's all-abiding love for things organized neatly, the Kentucky-based design and branding firm asked their employees to come to work with their 10 essential items: the objects they just couldn't live without. After photographing what their employees brought in, they made the resulting gallery the company's corporate "About" page." - Fast Company

"These photographs say more at a glance than a mission statement or organization chart ever could." - Fast Company

"Employees favorite possessions say more than a company bio ever could." - PSFK

Our buddies at A&W Restaurants dropped a big huge tasty new sandwich simply called the ‘Hand-bread Chicken Tender Texas Toast Sandwich’. Like its big long name, the sandwich is huge. It’s a mouthful.

While most all brands are pimping short, weak little hashtags they hope their fans will use on social media, we (Cornett) thought this sandwich deserved a hashtag of epic proportions. A hashtag so long that consumers would be unable to use it on social media. A hashtag so long that it would be the longest brand hashtag known to mankind. A hashtag so long it would break a record in the Guinness Book Of World Records. A hashtag so long, our consumers would say “man that’s a really long hashtag, that Hand-Breaded Chicken Tender Texas Toast Sandwich must be freaking delicious”.

A hashtag so long the New York Times wrote this article about it (print + online).

Agency Spy also wrote a little something too. 

We’ve all seen the corporate logos reimagined as the hipster logos. We’ve all seen the hipster logo generator and the hipster logo guidelines. They are both awesome. How bout those NFL teams reimagined as hipster logos. Hilarious. 

We (Cornett) thought it would be fun to reimagine a bunch of hipster-ish brands as their evil corporate counterparts. We got together with several different members of our design team here at Cornett and we got to work on making a bunch of hipsterish brands look a little more corporate. The results are pretty damn funny. It was also a fun little agency side project. 

Notice Urban Outfitters? The logo is the same either way. Get it? They’re a corporate hipster brand, ha. 

Team Cornett Designers: Ace Hotel by Nick Child, Deus Motorcycles by Tim Jones, Vice by Jason Kaufman, Band Of Outsiders by Danielle Podeszek, Dollar Shave Club by Steve Broderson, Fab by Clay Gibson, Freeman’s Sporting Club by Nick Child, Brooklyn Brewery by Shannon Adams, Dogfish Head Beer by Shannon Adams, Intelligentsia Coffee by Bobby Oakley, Brooklyn Nets (we didn’t do this one), Sight Glass Coffee by Clay Gibson, St. Archers Beer by Shannon Adams, Urban Outfitters (we didn’t do this one), Warby Parker by Clay Gibson, Poler Stuff by Tim Jones, State Bicycles by Nick Child, Mast Brothers Chocolate by Tim Jones, Best Made by Tim Jones. Layout by Kris Ange. 

The project has earned a ton of press. It's been featured in Fast Company TWICE, Time Magazine, Digiday, Brand New, Buzzfeed and a bunch of other rad media outlets. Hit the links below to check out some of the press. 

"Hipster Brands With Corporate Logos" - Brand New 

"19 Hipster Logos Rebranded As Evil Corporate Doppelgangers" - Fast Co.Design

"16 Hipster Companies Rebranded As The Corporate Giants They Hate" - Buzzfeed 

"Experiment gives hip brands uncool logos" - Digiday

"See Your Beloved Hipster Brands Transformed Into Uncool Corporate Giants" - Fast Co.Create 

"Here's What Hipster Brand Logos Would Look Like If They Were Redesigned To Be Corporate" - TIME 

"Hipster Brand Logos Gone Horribly Corporate" - Design TAXI

"Hipster Brands Become Corporate Sell-Outs With These Logo Redesigns" - Creative Bloq

"Cringe-Worthy Corporate Makeovers Of Hip Indie Brands" - Laughing Squid 

"You don’t have to know Whit Hiler or his family personally to enjoy his, as he calls it, “gangstersous” Instagram account. Hiler’s Instagram feed is full of funny family shots of his kids, wife and various other relatives and friends that have all been artfully stamped with rap lyrics." Via Digiday

Ever hear of an indoor throwing star range and sake bar? Neither had I, until this one day a few months back when this crazy idea for an ‘indoor throwing star range’ popped into my head. To my inner 12 year old self the concept was a dream come true. Alcohol and throwing stars. Throwing stars and alcohol. Everyone loves throwing stars and everyone loves alcohol. Everyone loves ninjas. I love ninjas. Why the hell didn’t something like this exist? Seeing a need for an establishment that allows people to pound sake and chuck throwing stars, I set out to bring this business to life.....on the Interwebs of course. I enlisted a group of trained ninja assassins at Cornett to make this happen: Kris Kross Ange on the design, Golden Nick Child on the video, and Shammy Shamick Gaworski on the web development.

We purchased a very long and awesome url www.ninjasindoorthrowingstarrange.com. We created a hipsterish logo. We then created a simple one page website packed full of ninja goodness. Stuff like WuTang Clan lyrics, ninja warriors and Japanese curse words. We put together a simple little video based on Youtube’s ‘best death scene ever’.  We even made a fake gmail account under the alias Satou Watanabe. Everything came together like ancient oriental magic and‘Ninjas Indoor Throwing Star Range’ was birthed and thrown like a throwing star onto the world wide web. Of course the Internet loved it. 

No one knew what to believe, but they all believed it to be awesome. Everyone wanted to believe it was real. Everyone was talking, tweeting, and Facebooking about this crazy throwing star range coming to Lexington, Kentucky in the spring of 2014. No one could believe that Lexington, KY (not Brooklyn, NY) was going to be the first city in the US to have an indoor throwing star range. People were sending us emails asking if this was real. People were sending us emails asking how they could become a franchisee (we received seven of those emails). The media was emailing us and asking if they could interview the ninjas behind this. People even emailed trying to sell us throwing stars. Everyone was excited about pounding sake and chucking throwing stars. 

The media jumped in a started writing about this indoor throwing star range. It got big in Japan. Ninjas have always been big in Japan. It was written about on Guns.com. America loves guns. I faked an interview with Yahoo. I felt bad about that. i don't feel bad about using the alias 'Timothy San Bernardino', I love that name.  We came really close to dressing up like ninjas and going live with a local news station. I really wished that had happened but unfortunately it didn't. Check out some of the stuff the media had to say about ‘Ninjas Indoor Throwing Star Range’ below: 

“If this website is to be believed, come 2014, Lexington, Kentucky could easily replace Orlando, Florida as the most popular vacation spot in the country. Because next spring the city will be host to the nation's first indoor throwing star range and sake bar.” - Gizmodo 

“Ninjas' website links out to a Lexington-based marketing agency called Cornett, so there's unfortunately good reason to think this might be nothing more than a publicity stunt.”  - Gizmodo

"Why the word “f*ck” is displayed in large katakana characters on the website, though, we’re not sure.” - Rocket News 24  (Nice little easter egg on the site)

“"Ninjas" and "Kentucky" are two nouns that very rarely manage to show up in the same sentence. But all that's about to change when the first indoor throwing star range opens in the Bluegrass State this coming spring.”  - io9 

“Ninjas is an upcoming indoor throwing star range and will be the first of its kind in Kentucky.” - Laughing Squid

“When we asked about owner Watanabe’s background, San Bernardino stated simply, “he is a ninja.” He adds that Watanabe owns several dojos (martial arts schools) across the state of Kentucky and, many years ago, operated a now-defunct water park.” -Yahoo 

So why the hell would we want to make a website and video for a fake business? Why does Tom Cruise do what he does? We'll never know. We do know that ninjas, throwing stars, blow guns, Wu Tang Clan lyrics and alcohol are an awesome combination. Our little bad ass throwing star range earned Kentucky and Lexington a little media. It earned Cornett a little media. It gave the Internet some fun content to play with. Hopefully the websites that wrote about it got a ton of shares and views. I think the Laughing Squid article had over 4000 tweets. Maybe it sparked some ideas. Maybe it will make someone rich, ninja rich. Maybe it created some awesome memories of throwing throwing stars as a child. Who knows, maybe we’ll turn this joke into a reality and end up opening the world’s first throwing star range and sake bar later this year. Until, then go get your ninja on online.

Additional Ninja love on Agency Spy, Digiday and MediaPost. 

We just dropped a new case study video for our 'Beardvertising' campaign. Check it out below and you can read all about it on Agency Spy. Big thanks to my buddy Ian Friley for putting the crush down on this video. 

The mission of Kentucky for Kentucky is to engage and inform the world by promoting Kentucky people, places, and products. Recently we added "scents" to that mission statement. We're now in the business of promoting Kentucky's finest scents. That's right.

We collaborated with Kentuckian Kathy Werking to create a line of candles that capture some of Kentucky’s finest scents. Scents like fried chicken (invented in Kentucky), the Kentucky Derby (Mint Juleps), and Ale8One (official soft drink of Kentucky). We called our new line of Kentucky scented candles, 'Scents Of The Commonwealth'. 

You heard that right, we created a ‘Fried Chicken’ candle. Candles that smell like  mofo fried chicken. To make these ‘Fried Chicken’ candles, Kathy fries chicken in all-natural soy wax and adds an infusion of family secrets. How rad is that? Your home can now smell like fried chicken all of the time, without having to actually fry chicken.

Our first batch of ‘Scents Of The Commonwealth’ got hot like Jennifer Lawrence and sold out in under a minute. They’s also received a ton of press. The candles have been featured in the USA Today, Creativity, Digiday, Fast Company,TIME, Fox News, Fox Business, Daily Mail, Perez Hilton, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, TAXI, PSFK, Complex, and a ton of other news outlets (from radio to television).

Not only were these fried chicken candles a fun and unique product for us, they also served as one hell of a tourism marketing campaign for Kentucky. A shit load of free media was earned for our great Commonwealth. Epic crush by the Kentucky for Kentucky team, Kathy Werking and Rachael Sinclair. 

We sat down with Dave Anderson from the Oxford American and shot a little video about rebranding Kentucky for their 'SoLost' series. Read about it here and check out the video. 

Last Halloween my co-conspirator and co-worker Jason Kaufmann (he’s the evil designer) and I anonymously (under the alias of Dr. Gregory Heiter) dropped something spectacular on the Internet called the ‘Ad Agency Human Centipede Infograph’. Like all good horror flicks we’re back in action this Halloween with a sequel. An epic follow up to last year’s disturbing and beloved ‘Ad Agency Human Centipede Infograph’. 

Without further ado, say hello to the: ‘Ad Agency Human Centipede Infograph Part Two’. Same great concept: workflow at an ad agency. From brand brief to brand tweet. So what makes this infograph different from last Halloween’s infograph? The answer: new trends and crazy new job titles. New look too. Plus we added ‘Part Two’ to the name. 

-Part two celebrates all of 2013’s hottest new trends in advertising. Trends like ‘native advertising’ and ‘real time marketing’. 

-Part two also celebrates some of adland’s hottest new job titles. Far-fetched job titles like ‘Director Of Emerging Media’, ‘Sr. Chief Culturist’, ‘Thought Leader’ and ‘Sr. Listologist’.

There's been some good press around this years 'Human Centipede of Advertising Part Two'. Read all about it below:  

"Why the Ad Business Is Like the Human Centipede, Part 2 New trends and job titles are digested" - ADWEEK

"FURTHER WAYS IN WHICH WORKING AT AN AD AGENCY IS LIKE BEING IN A "HUMAN CENTIPEDE"" - Fast Company

 "An Infographic That Compares Life In An Ad Agency To A Horror Movie" - Design Taxi

"How Ad Agency Life Resembles The Human Centipede" - Digiday

What do Daniel Boone, Mark Zuckerberg, hipsters, social media, local businesses, beards, bourbon, horses and Lexington Kentucky all have in common? They all play a role in a new marketing campaign we (Cornett) recently launched for the Lexington, KY Convention and Visitors Bureau called #ShareTheLex. It’s a campaign that supports local businesses, helps to build our community, AND attracts more visitors to Lexington— all good things, right?  

The idea of #ShareTheLex is simple: to encourage Lexingtonians to come together as a community to share all the best things about our city with the world. 

Why would we launch a tourism marketing campaign targeting people that already live here, you ask? Well, we’ve found that the #1 reason people travel is to visit family. The #3 reason people travel is to visit friends. So in activating our community to #ShareTheLex with their friends and family, we (the locals) can be a major catalyst for Lexington tourism. 

Lexington’s biggest cheerleader should be its people, the ones who live and play here. No one knows our city like we do. 

Here’s what we’re asking our community to do: 

1.Watch and share the #ShareTheLex video narrated by Daniel Boone.

2. Share Lexington on social media using the hashtag #ShareTheLex.

3.Leave reviews for their favorite businesses on Yelp, Google, Urbanspoon, Facebook, TripAdvisor...anywhere they can. It helps our local businesses while also making it easier for our visitors find all of the best spots. 

Here’s how we’re promoting #ShareTheLex: 

1.We launched with this epic #ShareTheLex video. 

2. We’ve partnered with local businesses - we’ve created business kits (stickers and counter cards) to help remind customers to share their experiences and leave reviews at these local business. Similar to a ‘buy local’ campaign.  

3. We’ve created a hub where both locals and visitors can consume this locally created content. Check it out at http://www.visitlex.com/guide/

4. We’ll feature their content in promotional ads, social media and more. Plus, we’ll be giving away weekly prizes for the best posts, photos, and videos capturing the best of our city.

The #ShareTheLex social media campaign is part of a larger campaign (targeting leisure travelers) we launched a few weeks prior where we are featuring locals in video and print ads. Check out some of the vids by clicking here. We also helped score this kick ass 'Love Letter' to Lexington that was in the Huffington Post.  

The campaign has been featured on Digiday, Skift, and locally in the Lexington Herald Leader. 

“Southern Hipstertality: Kentucky’s Crowdsourced Campaign” - Digiday

“Lexington Tourism Office Urges ‘ShareTheLex’ in new video” - Herald Leader

“Lexington, KY Tourism Bets Its New Ad Campaign on Social Media” - Skift

All sorts of cool mofos involved in this campaign. My contributions to this project include: concept, writing, producing, pr, etc. 

Last week I decided to come out of fake flier retirement for yet another fake flier. While all of my fake fliers are special this flier was super special, it was a celebration of two of  the Internet’s most hated subcultures - Bronies and Juggalos. Not just ‘bronies’ and ‘juggalos’ but ‘bronies’ vs. ‘juggalos’. An epic street battle between ‘bronies’ and ‘juggalos’. So what happens when you combine two of the Internet’s most hated sub cultures on one fake flier? 

1. You make da Internet babies. 

2. You make the front page of Reddit. All the way to the #2 spot. 18,824 upvotes and 16,348 downvotes with 2,176 comments. 

3. You get over 1 Million views in 24 hours. Our elevator at work was seen by over 1,000,000 people in one day. 

4. Popular sites like College Humor, Epoch Times and i-am-bored pick it up.  

5. You become the winner of the Internet for a day.

Beardvertising began as a joke. A self promotion piece for Cornett-IMS. An online stunt to garner press for Cornett and a few of our clients - A&W Restaurants and Eagle One Automotive. It worked and it blew up on the Internet. Press around the world loved it - NPR, Buzzfeed (twice), AdWeek, BBC, Bob and Tom, Huffington Post, etc. (Click here to read all about 'Part One'). Over 1500 bearded dudes signed up to party. 1500 guys with epic beards. A few brands reached out to us. One of those brands was Dollar Shave Club. I love Dollar Shave Club, I'm also proud member of their club. The idea of running ads (beardboards) for a razor company in a dudes big bushy beard was funny as hell. So after a few conversations with the awesome team at Dollar Shave Club we decided to run the world's first real 'Beardvertising' campaign. We reached out to the 1500 bearded dudes and through a few questionnaires we narrowed that list down to 25 awesome dudes with epic beards. 25 awesome dudes willing to place little beardboards in their beards advertising for Dollar Shave Club. 25 awesome dudes willing to document their experiences on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #beardvertising. On July 9th 2013 we launched a four day #beardvertising campaign. Fun ensued. Read all about it below. 

"It was probably just a matter of time before Whit Hiler and Michael Dubin worked together. Hiler—the ass-kicking Kentucky adman, flier-making crazy person and mastermind of Beardvertising —has lured Dubin's Dollar Shave Club right into his sneaky trap. Yes, Dollar Shave Club, known for its own wacky marketing,   has signed up for a Beardvertising program, in which 25 hairy dudes across the country will soon have tiny Dollar Shave Club billboards clipped to their beards." - AdWeek  
 

"Dollar Shave Club and A&W Restaurants start Beardvertising" - The Drum

"Beardvertising -- It's A Real Thing" - Media Post

"Oh Yeah, Forgot to Mention a Quick Update on ‘Beardvertising’" - Agency Spy

'Beardvertising Coming To A City Near You' - Relevant Magazine

"Razor company pays guy with beard to advertise … with his beard" - MSN

"Dollar Shave Club Launches Beardvertising Campaign On Man’s Beard" - The Inquisitr

"Bearded man uses his facial hair for advertising" - FCN

“Beardvertising campaign aims to get whiskered hipsters wearing ads” - Huffington Post (Video)

“Advertising all over your body” - Yahoo News

“Beardvertising: Now You Can Get Paid To Run Ads On Your Beard” - Lost At E Minor

“Meet Whit Hiler: Part Beard Squirrel Part Beardvertising, Marketing Maestro with Dollar Shave Club” - Male Standard

Inspired by an earlier invention called the 'Beard Squirrel', I invented a new form of advertising called 'Beardvertising'. Little billboards AKA 'beardboards'  that clip on to a beard - real native advertising. My homie and co-worker at Cornett Kris Ange designed everything - he crushed it. 

"DO YOU HAVE AN EPIC BEARD?

Do people stare at its awesomeness? Of course they do. Do you wanna get paid for having an epic beard? Of course you do. Join the world's first Beardvertising network. Get paid.

It's simple - turn your beard into a business. Just like "Duck Dynasty". Hang a BeardBoard (Patent Pending) in your beard. Sit back and get paid up to $5* per day." 

Within two weeks we had 1400 guys claiming to have 'epic beards' sign up. We're currently working with a rad brand to launch some more hot 'Beardvertising' action in the near future.  

Beardvertising crushed the Internet, earning media from around the world for Cornett and a few of our clients (A&W Restaurants and Eagle One Automotive). It's been featured on Buzzfeed twice, NPR, BBC, Bob & Tom, NBC, Tosh.0, USA Today, Metro, tweets from Pee-Wee Herman and Guy Kawaski, etc. So much International press, read all about it- 

 "Introducing Beardvertising: Tiny Billboards That Clip on to Your Beard This could work, right? " - ADWEEK

 "‘Kentucky Kicks Ass’ Co-Conspirator Delves into ‘Beardvertising’" - Agency Spy

"A&W Wants to Clip Mini Billboard Ads to Your Beard" - FoodBeast

"A&W Is Paying To Put Mini Ads In Men's Beards" - Business Insider

"Get fuller, lusher brand exposure with Beardvertising" - ALLTOP

 "Beardvertising: The New Beard Advertising Concept" - TAXI

"Beardvertising: Earn Money With Your Face Foliage" - Inquisitr

"Put your freeloading face to work with a beard billboard" - MSN NOW

"Yepyeni Bir Reklam Mecrası Olarak Sakal: Beardvertising"

"Early Buzz: 'Anchorman 2,' 'SNL' and more" - USA TODAY

"Get Paid to Wear a Billboard on Your Face with Beardvertising" - Relevant Magazine

"¡Atención, hipsters, llega el barbadvertising!" - Yorokobu 

"Beardvertising, Fuzzy Bearded Men Can Make Money By Clipping Mini Billboards on Their Beards" - Laughing Squid

"Beardvertising: paying epic beard owners to wear ads" - AGBeat

"Mini Beard Billboards" - Trend Hunter

"Gentlemen Would You Sell Advertisements On Your Beard?" - Yard Barker 

"Men Can Now Earn Money By Placing Ads In Their Beards Via ‘Beardvertising’"- UPROXX

"Turn your beard into a business" - Thrillist

"'Beardvertising' uses magnificent beards as ad space" - Times Live

"Men With Epic Beards - Want To Make Some Extra Money" - Buzzfeed

"Sydney men will make a killing with this" - Sydney Egotist

"Americanos usam barbas como outdoor" - Midiams

"Agência americana cria mais um espaço de comercialização do corpo humano pagando 5 dólares por dia" EXAMA

 "dirty, dirty advertising (sfw)" - Brand Flakes For BREAKFAST

"Kentucky Ad Agency Starts Paying Men to Advertise With Their Beards" - Fail Blog

"Beardvertising: The Unusual Advertising Opportunity In A Beard" - bit rebels

"Could Beardvertising Be The Next Big Thing?" - The Drum  

"Agency launches 'Beardvertising' to monetize men’s facial hair." - PSFK

"Beardvertising" - Ponto Electronico

"Get Paid To Advertise On Your Beard" - Incredible Things

""Beardvertising" lets hipsters put ads in their beards so you know what brands to never buy ever." - Happy Place

"The Ninth Circle Of Advertising Hell" - Andrew Sullivan's The Dish

"Beardvertising: We're Making Money Off Facial Hair Now" - GOOD

"ひげの中に広告を仕込むことができる『Beardvertising』" 

 "De lolbroeken achter Cornettt Integrated Marketing Solutions experimenteren met advertenties in mannelijk gezichtshaar." - LINDA

"Beardvertising vraagt mannen billboards in hun baarden te hangen" - Dutch Cowgirl

"'Beardvertising' Campaign Aims To Get Whiskered Hipsters Wearing Ads In Their Beards" - Huffington Post

"Advertising Agency Offers $5 Per Day To Men Willing To Wear Ads In Their Beards."- Information Nigeria 

"Beardvertising. If it ain't gettin' you laid, might as well make a few bucks off of it." - TOSH.0

"Beardvertising: sua barba virando anúncio publicitário!" - Communicadores 

"Beardbertising: Beards Become the Latest Turf for Ads" - Yahoo News

"Beardvertising" - Cool Material

"PSFK TOP FIVE STORIES OF THE WEEK" - PSFK

 "Top That! | Tan Mom's New Music Video, Justin Bieber Monkey Update and " - Pop Sugar

"Friday Finds 05.24.13" - DWELL

"Could ‘Beardvertising’ be the next big thing? Get paid for your epic facial fuzz" - METRO

NPR's Wait Wait : Our panelists answer questions about the week's news: This Face for Rent.

"Company launches first 'beardvertising' network" Digital Spy

 "Beardvertising Puts Crazy Beards To Work For Corporate Sponsors" - The Gloss

"The Era Of Beard Advertising Has Begun" - Branding Magazine

"Weird About Beards" - Entrepreneur Magazine

"Company launches first ‘beardvertising’ network" - Arab News

"Our beards are not for sale, rage campaigners" - MSN UK

"Billboard Beard Burger Ads" - Trend Hunter

"Kentucky-based ad agency Cornett-IMS allows men with beards to earn money by placing miniature “beardboards” in them." -Buzzfeed

"Nu kan du tjäna pengar – på ditt skägg"

"Beardvertising" -Like Cool

"あなたのヒゲを広告媒体にしませんか？「Beardvertising – Real Native Advertising」" - MIFDESIGN ANTENNA

"Watch: 'Beard-vertisements' Are Mini Ads For Your Beard" - Austinist

"Hey guys! Make some money off that beard" - MSN

"Beardvertising — размещение рекламы на бородах"  - Marketing 2.

"Anúnciese aquí (en su barba)" - S MODA

 "这种新兴的登广告方式，英文称作Beardvertising，这个新词是将胡须的英文beard，加广告的英文advertising合并而成，真有创意。

 BEARDS AS BILLBOARDS - LEX 18

"Advertising agency Cornett-IMS — it’s American, duh — is offering men “up to $5 per day” " - London Evening Standard

 "In-Your-Face Advertising: Beard Ads" - NBC LOS ANGELES

 "'Beardvertising' nieuwe manier om geld te verdienen" - Metro

"Kentucky Ad Agency Looks to Extend Advertising's Reach Through New Concept of Beardvertising" - Portland Egotist

 "Snel geld verdienen? Adverteer via je baard" - Vacature

"Beardvertising: Turn Your Beard Into a Beardboard and Get Paid" - EGOTASTIC

 "Beardvertising: The Next Big Thing?" - Unique Daily 

In celebration of the most exciting two minutes in sports,  we (Kentucky for Kentucky) collaborated with Louisville artist Rachael Sinclair on a decadent and depraved new print. Not just any print, an infographic of kick ass Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson’s famous essay on the 1970 Kentucky Derby - ‘The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved’. Gonzo journalism's original gangster essay that appeared in Scanlan’s Monthly in June of that year. 

You’ll notice each silk on this print is symbolic of something from Hunter S. Thompson’s essay - Colonel Quick, Nekkid Horses, Whiskey Gentry, Dust Commander, Old Fitz, Chemical Billy, Inbred Horses, etc. Good stuff.

​The print was a huge hit, Rachael crushed it for the commonwealth. It was featured on Buzzfeed, Deadspin, Creativity Mag, Laughing Squid, Paste Magazine, Insider Louisville, etc. Everyone wanted it. After the first edition sold out in a hot second, we received hundreds and hundreds of emails asking for a second edition. We caved in, printed a 'second running' of 500. The 'second running' sold out online in one hour. No shit, it was crazy. I took care of the PR push and had a hand in the theme of the print. It was an epic collaboration between Kentucky for Kentucky and Rachael Sinclair.

Read all about it below - ​

"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" - Kentucky for Kentucky

"Inforgraphic: Hunter S. Thompson's Kentucky Derby" - Paste Magazine

​"Hunter S. Thompson's Kentucky Derby Classic Makes An Awesome Poster' - Deadspin

"This Hunter S. Thompson Poster Is Awesome" - Buzzfeed​

"The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, An Art Print Infographic Inspired By Hunter S. Thompson" - Laughing Squid

"Why The Kentucky Derby Is Proud To Be Decadent - Print" - Creativity Online​

"​It's a kick-ass Hunter S. Thompson print: Second running on sale tomorrow"- Insider Louisville

​

This article in the New York Times screamed - "make some spoof ads". Got my homie Kris Ange to whip some up real quick. So quick he double spaced the headline- like a boss designer. Somehow the spoof ads got picked up by ADWEEK and AdRants. 

Best comment on AdWeek- ​

"Unfortunately, winning doesn't take care of that double space in the headline."
​

The rad team at Cornett-IMS recently launched a dope new website for A&W Restaurants. Killer old-school design and it's packed with all sorts of fun games and social applications. i played a role in the ideation behind the fun stuff - specifically the Now & Then game, the Rooty Burp App, the Rooty cam, and the Rooty Linkedin (recently shut down). I also played a role in the PR outreach which garnered write ups in Media Post and in Forbes. FORBES FTW! 

We recently took it upon ourselves to re-brand the great commonwealth of Kentucky. So far it's working. Read more about it by clicking some of the links below. 

"Kentucky: Kentucky Kicks Ass" - CREATIVITY

"Rebranding The State Of Kentucky" - TAXI

"Does Kentucky Need A Kick-Ass Makeover" - USA TODAY

"Guys Behind 'Kentucky Kicks Ass' take State's Response In Stride"- AGENCY SPY

"Kentucky Kicks Ass: Tourism Department Issues Tone-Def Response To USA Today Article" - Insider Louisville

"Kentucky Kicks Ass, But Not Officially (Yet)" - Media Post

"Bootlegging The Kentucky Brand"- Huffington Post

"Bluegrass State Rebrands With A New Slogan: Kentucky Kicks Ass" - PR DAILY

"Rebranding A State" Kentucky Kicks Ass" - Digiday

"An unsanctioned re-branding campaign for the state stirs up controversy and begs the questions what's a branding best practice?" - PSFK

"Kentucky Kicks Ass Campaign Doesn't Kick Ass, State Officials Say Ad Guys Launched Rogue Tourism Effort" - ADWEEK

"Tom Eblen: When It Comes To Marketing Creativity, Kentucky Kicks Itself In the, UM, teeth" - Herald Leader

"Unbridled Kentuckians Decide It's Time For A Kick-Ass New Slogan" - NPR

"Kentucky Kicks Ass: Duo Starts Viral Campaign For New State Slogan" - MSN Now

"Kentucky Natives Want Kick-Ass New State Slogan - Buzzfeed

"Kentucky 'kicks ass': Taking pride in plain speaking" - BBC

Recently the agency I work for (Cornett-IMS) became the creative agency of record for A&W.  That kicks ass. The story of how we got our first meeting with A&W was recently a big hit on Mashable (shared 2800 times). That kicks ass too. The story of how we dropped something we dubbed a "Linkedin Bomb" - a little something something I invented back in the late 1980's. BTW - we're one for one with the Linkedin bomb. We tried it once and it got us a meeting.  Plus we got the big Mashable story. The "Linkedin Bomb" is the bomb. Several good quotes by my wifey wife in there too. Read the full Mashable story by clicking here. 

So my buddy & co-worker Jason "Beard Eater" Kaufman and I were joking around a few weeks back about beards. Somehow the conversation evolved into a product called the "Beard Squirrel". An ornament for your beard - "This year's hottest beard accessory". Everyone has beards these days, I'm surprised folks aren't cashing in on beard accessories. I laid out the idea and my other buddy/co-worker Kris Kross Ange designed a sweet little ad promoting the "Beard Squirrel". 

We posted it to Reddit. Within a few hours it landed on the front page (front page of the Internet). Boomtown - 8,268 up votes and 6,695 down votes. 677,427 views on imgur alone in 24 hours. It got picked up by College Humor here and here. Cheezburger also picked it up. All over Tumblr. The Internet loved the combination of serial killer beards and cute little animals. 

I think we should create a little beard critter business.

Cornett-IMS has got a great team and a roster of really great clients. I've been fortunate to work with this rad team on a number of fun projects this past year. Some really cool stuff. My participation varies from project to project but typically in the space of ideation and PR. Read about some of Cornett-IMS's work below. 

"University of Kentucky Football Tweets Become Billboards" -Mashable

"Ad Agency Changes Its Name in Tribute to Jeremy Lin " - AdWeek

"Cervical cancer: There's an app for that" - USA Today

"Now Even Baby Naming Gets Social, With Facebook-Linked Name Maker" - Fast Company

"This Facebook Car Show lets you pit your pride and joy against motors from around the wold" - The Next Web

The internet loves cool infographics. People that work in marketing do too. You know what else marketing people like? Fancy J-O-B titles. You know what else the Internet likes? The Human Centipede. I learned this a few months back when I made a flyer for a "Human Centipede Meet-Up" and posted it on Reddit. The internet loved it. 

What do infographics, the Human Centipede,  fancy job titles and marketing people all have in common? They all peacefully coexist together on the "Ad Agency Human Centipede Infograph" - a sweet little infograph my buddy / co-worker Jason "Beard Eater" Kaufman and I invented and launched on Halloween day.

We sent out a sweet little press release in both English and German from the infamous Dr. Heiter. It was written about in Creativity, Fast Co.CREATE, TAXI, and on the Denver Egotist. 

Worked on the concept and the PR push for this campaign Cornett-IMS launched to promote "Girls Night Out" at Applebee's. Every brand in America is trying like hell to drive consumers to their Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages. While we know how important and beneficial social media is to a brand, we decided to be a little different and ask women to ditch social media and take the party off-line to Applebee's. 

"We all spend a lot of time sharing our lives in fun places like Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest. And while we love sharing online, sometimes life is better shared offline. A little more face to face and a little less Facebook can do the soul some good."

​We made videos - social media tutorials with a twist. One for Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. The campaign blew up online. It was described as "brilliant". It was described as "condescending". it got press, loads of it - some good and some bad. It was featured on Buzzfeed twice. it got tweeted a bunch - good to great to bad. A few social media gurus got their feelings hurt. In the end it got a whole bunch of people talking about Applebee's Girls Night Out.

​Helped with the initial concept, copy writing, and PR push for this Canadian Hunter campaign created by the rad team at Cornett-IMS. These were first two ads in a series of the burly “Canadian Hunter” character defying death and kicking ass in the wild. The artwork was inspired by stag magazine covers from the 1950’s and 1960’s (Man’s Life, Man’s Action, True Adventure, and Stag magazine). It's tough to get media coverage for print BUT these ads were featured in Complex Magazine, Trend Hunter, Ffffound, Ads Of The World, and on Design Boom. Canadian Hunter FTW!

​George Clooney is a beautiful man. Everyone knows that. He's also from Kentucky. We had our buddy Tim Jones design and print these kick ass prints promoting the beauty of George Clooney. Kentuckians and the Internet loved these prints. Check out what Jezebel had to say about em. 

​in the spring of 2011 myself and a couple of friends formed Kentucky for Kentucky. In the fall of 2011 we set out to crowd fund the world's first Super Bowl commercial for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Unfortunately we were unable to raise the $3.5 million needed. We did get people talking about how great Kentucky is. Kentuckians we're proud of us. The project received a ton of great press - from the Lexington Herald Leader to​ Mashable. Out of 30,000 videos uploaded to Kickstarter in 2011 our video made their top 12. While we didn't reach our funding goal, the project was a huge success. 

​You can check out our little case study video here. 

​Business Lexington wrote this article about me. They failed to mention that I was struck by lightning at a young age and can shoot lightning bolts from my eye sockets. 

​Won some creative briefs with Victors & Spoils. One of those was their famous Harley Davidson brief. The work was featured in AdAge, AdWeek, etc. It had mixed reviews. Mixed reviews make the Internet awesome. You can read more about my exploits with V&S at the Bottom Bunk Blog. 

​Sold CEO Jumpsuits to promote my clothing line. Prison jumpsuits made by Kentucky inmates monogrammed with the initials of Bernie Madoff and Martha Stuart. I thought it was funny but the internet only kind of liked it. 

​The Internet loves popped collars. In 2008 I used the power of popped collars to promote my clothing line - Attus Apparel. My boy Rex Vanderwoodsen crushed the "Planet Douche World Record" for popping 23 collars. History was made. The Internet loved Rex and his popped collars - Reddit, College Humor, Whacky Archives, etc.  It even made College Humor's list of the top 25 douches. He became the face of the complete social media douche bag and recently Red Bull used Rex's sexy mug to promote popping cans not collars. 

​Back in 2007 I shot some polo shirts (with guns) and sold them online. The Internet loved this. So did the New York Times. 

​

This is my family. One wife. Four bad-ass kids. Two dogs. Seven squirrel monkeys. Fifteen cobra snakes. 20,000 hamsters. One snapping turtle.