The Ad Man Answers #70

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Today, we bring you Part 1 of our chat with Anthony Award winner Chris Grabenstein, author of the John Ceepak novels: TILT A WHIRL, MAD MOUSE, WHACK A MOLE, and HELL HOLE.  Chris also pens a series of holiday thrillers, as well as a series of ghost stories for Middle Grades.  

Before becoming the president of the NY Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, Chris worked 20 years in the advertising field, for clients like KFC and Miller Lite.  His first boss was James Patterson – who also seemed to do OK making the transition from advertising to novel writing.  Chris eventually rose to EVP/Group Creative director of Young & Rubicam, and now makes his home in Manhattan.

So, Chris, which of your old advertising campaigns are you most proud of?  Which one was the most cringe-worthy... one you still wish never saw the light of day?

I guess the one I am most proud of would be the TROJAN MAN radio campaign I did for Trojan condoms while working at Backer-Spielvogel-Bates.   I wrote it in the late 80s, early 90s when the AIDS epidemic was killing so many people and the Surgeon General was on TV saying "use a condom or you'll die."   The account folks estimated that message was given about two billion dollars in free air time.   The result?  Condom sales didn't increase at all.   I realized you couldn't scare young, invincible, immortal men into "taking a shower with a rain coat," the common condom perception at the time.  So, I came up with a fun campaign that made it "cool" or at least okay to wear a condom.   Trojan even sent a guy on a horse dressed up like Trojan Man to pass out free samples at Spring Break in Florida.  The campaign lived on long after I moved on to other clients.  

Download 01 TROJAN MAN _Drug Store_

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I'm also quite proud of the "Make Seven... Up Yours" work the group I ran at Y&R did for Seven Up.   We actually helped the brand beat back the Sprite "Obey your Thirst" onslaught for the first time in nearly a decade.   

Now... as far as cringe-worthy... has to be one of my first TV commercials for a powdery substance you sprinkled on Pasta and then tossed to make a meal – and you could choose what flavor you wanted, too!  Of course they called it PASTA TOSS.   I wrote a line, I cringe:  "You're the boss with Pasta Toss."   I remember the Associate Creative Director went on the shoot (we juniors were not invited) and it was done in London where "toss" and "tosser," have meanings you don't want to associate with limp noodles.

In other interviews, you’ve said your advertising background taught you discipline and how to grab readers fast.  But there’s a big difference between writing an outdoor billboard and a 100,000-word novel.  Was that an intimidating leap for you?

Hugely intimidating.   When I first left advertising, I thought I would write screenplays – go from thirty second movies to one hundred and twenty minute ones.  I NEVER thought I could write a book.  It wasn't until 1) I realized I was too old and on the wrong coast to write movies and 2) I read Stephen King's book ON WRITING and thought I could do it.  But the advertising discipline still pays off.   I'm used to sitting down in the morning and writing, no matter how I feel or where the muse is currently located.  I respect reader's attention spans and try not to be boring.   Boring is how you get zapped on TV.  It's how your book gets tossed (in the non London way) against the wall.

All of your series book covers have strong, consistent design elements.  Was that something your publisher(s) did on their own, or did you push for similar type treatments, color palettes, etc. because of your experience working with advertising art directors?

I pushed for a consistent look, which the first three Ceepak mysteries delivered in spades.   I learned that, of course, from the master, my first boss in advertising James Patterson.  You can spot his books in an airport kiosk at fifty paces.   The design elements are consistent.   It's like going up the cereal aisle in a grocery store.  You can spot the Kelloggs cereals from the Post cereals without even seeing the logos.

The Ceepak books got knocked a little off design with the hard cover of HELL HOLE, when a new publisher took over and, much like advertising, the graphics were subjected to the Not-Invented-On-My-Watch syndrome (any campaign that was loved by one client would be hated by his replacement).  

With MIND SCRAMBLER and the paperback of HELL HOLE, the look was at least consistent.   I am happy to report that Ceepak's third publisher, a great new press called Pegasus, is run by folks who used to be with the now defunct Carroll & Graf  (Ceepak's first home) and Michael Fusco, the original designer, is back on the case!   ROLLING THUNDER, coming out in May 2010, will be back to the classic look.

You’ve created a Café Press online storefront with T-shirts, mugs, clocks, etc. extending your brand with the tagline “WWCD?” (“What Would Ceepak Do?).  Was that part of your initial marketing plan?  What percentage of your annual income comes from these add-on merchandising sales?

No, the whole Cafe Press store started when I realized that the Map page on my website was one of the most popular.   With Cafe Press, I could get post cards made of the map (it looks like one of those Resort Maps you see in tourists towns) and send them out to bookstores and folks who wrote me asking for autographed bookplates.   The WWCD thing started when my buddy, Captain Dave Morkal of the FDNY (one of the people the character of Ceepak is based on) told me he had started asking himself "What would Ceepak do?" when faced with small ethical choices.   So, I worked WWCD into the third book Whack A Mole and started doing the shirts and bumper stickers and stuff.  People really stare at me when I where my WWCD? shirt.    As far as income, it's zero as I just do the stuff on Cafe Press at their base price.   For me it's a fun way to market... not a cash cow...

Your website is split between your Thriller and YA personas.  For example, your YA author bio has pictures of Muppets and samples from your 8^th grade composition book, which understandably, are nowhere to be found on the Thriller side.  At any point did you try to service both audiences with the same website, or did you quickly see the need for separate homepages?  Did Random House help cover the re-design, or did you fund that yourself?

I actually borrowed/stole the idea from Ridley Pearson, who does adult thrillers and YA books.  My web maven, Madeira James at xuni.com also does Mr. Pearson's site and she suggested that I do it that way.   As far as funding the re-design, that's what book advances are for!   (Some author famously called Advances the new marketing budget).   I made one mistake early on – I did a dual-purpose bookmark, THE CROSSROADS for kids on one side, my latest Ceepak book on the other.  I quickly realized I was sending fifth graders home with an ad for HELL HOLE... probably not a wise move.   Ever since, the two worlds get their own bookmarks.

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Thanks, Chris!  In two weeks, be sure to check out Part 2 of our chat, when we talk about Chris’ book trailers, hangin’ with Bruce Willis, and eating Tootsie Pops outside James Patterson’s office.

 

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.