gte telephone company – full page magazine

executive creative director: jim ferguson, art director: rob story, writer: pat mendelsohn, photography: philip esparza

i shouldn’t even have this thing in my portfolio because it’s so old. but i like it. so here it is. all the credit should go to pat. if i remember correctly this was his idea. it was for a congratulatory ad for the dallas cowboys that was going to run in sports illustrated. in preparation for the shoot, i had to scour dallas for regulation helmets. the cowboys helmet was not a problem to find, but the bills helmet was a bitch. i did find one though. waaaaaaay down in south dallas. so i bought it, shot it and promptly returned it after the game. i was a young art director and extremely proud of whatever i got produced, so i told the woman who ran the store that i only bought it so it could be featured in an ad in sports illustrated. i was just as pleased as i could be and i just knew she would be happy, too. how could she not be thrilled that a helmet from her store was in an ad. that was a mistake. i thought she was going to tear my head off. she wanted that helmet to stay sold. that’s the moment when i learned that 99% of the world doesn’t care nearly as much about my art as i do.