It’s a good day. If there’s a cheesier sentiment than “today is the first day of the rest of your life” I’m not sure what it would be. But, I’m a cheesy guy, and it’s how I feel.
Starting today, I’ve decided to leave Frederator and go back to my roots as an active, excited, indie cartoon producer who’s constantly searching –and finding!– unique talents with original voices. It’s what makes my days joyful and fulfilling. Yes, I know, that’s cheesy.
It’s an amazing, and unique, time for animation of all kinds. The Covid19 era has put a lot of live action on hold, andstreaming has made more styles and genres of animation mainstreamed than ever in history. I’ve called “animation’s new golden age” at least twice before during my time, so I guess we’re entering a platinum age! I’m even more thrilled to be in animation now than I have ever been.
I’m happy to have brought Frederator into the WOW! family where I know it will continue to grow and thrive. I’m thrilled that I’ll be continuing to collaborate with the Frederator/Wow team on Castlevania and Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space and a few new ones; we share the same passion that goes into this great field of animation entertainment. There’s an “official” press release at the bottom of this post that lays everything out.
Something personal to note. Building a venture like Frederator has it’s ups and downs. My great colleagues have ridden through it with great cheer and smarts. But, the most important supporters through it all are my wife and two sons. I’ve pushed them to the limits a number of times, but when I look around, they’re always there, supportive, encouraging, and always with smiles.
And, what’s heartened me everyday are the hundreds –maybe thousands?– of collaborators I’ve been honored to work with at the various Frederator endeavors over the years. I think I expressed it best a couple of years ago with this introduction of our 2018 retrospective book “Frederator Loves You.”
…..
Let me rant for a minute. I think the last twenty years has proved that there’s no other company like Frederator. Really, we’re special. Arrogant? Sure.
Of course, being remarkable is all about you.
“Frederator loves you” has been more than just a slogan around here. It’s been a battle cry that expresses exactly why I started the company.
“You.” First and foremost it’s our audiences, whether they’re the kids that watched our stuff on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, or the still-kids who grew up and watch us on Cartoon Hangover, Get in the Robot or Netflix.
“You.” All the folks that work in and around Frederator across the globe, making cartoons and videos and channels, figuring out the best way to show them off to people.
And “you.” The world class creators –mostly first timers– we’ve been lucky enough to have in our corner.
I think it’s fair to say that without “you” there wouldn’t be an “us.” From my perspective we’re all one big bunch, loving the same things, everyone playing their own roles. I don’t think anyone at Frederator would have it any other way.
Twenty years [sic] seems like both a long time and yet, just the beginning. I can’t imagine it ending, it’s just too much fun making the world smile.
Frederator loves you all, Fred Seibert
…..
Press Release
WOW! UNLIMITED MEDIA ANNOUNCES CORPORATE LEADERSHIP REORGANIZATION
CEO Michael Hirsh To Take on Leadership of Frederator
Fred Seibert, Frederator Founder and CEO, Returns to Independent Production
TORONTO and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) –WOW! Unlimited Media, Inc.
(“WOW!” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: WOW / OTCQX: WOWMF), a leading
animation-focused entertainment company that includes Frederator
Networks Inc. (“Frederator”) and Mainframe Studios, today announces a
corporate leadership reorganization.
Fred Seibert has resigned
from his position as a Director and the Chief Creative officer of WOW!,
as well as CEO of Frederator, effective November 27, 2020. Seibert will
continue to work with the Company on current and future projects as an
independent producer.
Michael Hirsh, Chief Executive Officer of
WOW! will take on the leadership of Frederator, serving as its CEO, and
Neil Chakravarti, COO of WOW!, will become COO of Frederator. These
changes will take effect immediately.
Fred Seibert, current CEO
and Chief Creative Officer, has decided to leave WOW! and the studio he
founded to return to independent production. To ensure a successful
transition, Seibert will stay involved as an executive producer on
current major Frederator projects Castlevania and Bee & PuppyCat and
he also intends to partner with the company on other upcoming projects.
Seibert
said, “I’m happy to have brought Frederator into the WOW! family where I
know it will continue to grow and thrive. I am looking forward to
returning to my roots as an independent cartoon producer who’s
constantly searching – and finding! – unique talents with original
voices. I’ll continue to collaborate with the Frederator/WOW! Team on
projects going forward as we both share the same passion that goes into
this great field of animation entertainment.”
“As we look to the
future, we will continue to provide fans with beloved Frederator
franchises, alongside new and exciting content from the over
3,000-strong Channel Frederator Network,” said Hirsh. “We wish Fred the
best in his next, independent venture, and look forward to continuing to
work with him on projects we know our fans will love as we drive
dynamic growth in the business.”
About WOW!
WOW!
is creating a leading animation-focused entertainment company by
producing top-end content and building brands and audiences on engaging
media platforms. The Company produces animation in its two established
studios: Mainframe Studios in Vancouver and Frederator Studios in Los
Angeles. The Company’s media offerings include Channel Frederator
Network on YouTube, as well as WOW! branded programming on Crave,
Canada’s premier streaming entertainment platform, owned by Bell Media.
The common voting shares of the Company and variable voting shares of
the Company are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and the OTCQX Best
Market.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
Frederator,
a WOW! company, is a pioneer in streaming video and is a leading
independent producer of animation content. Over the past 20
years, Frederator Studios has produced 19 series and more than 250 short
films for and with partners including Netflix, Amazon, Google,
Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Sony Pictures Animation, and Cartoon
Network. Frederator Digital has built and manages one of the largest
animation networks on YouTube.
Forward Looking Statements
This
press release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking
information” (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the
meaning of applicable securities laws. Often, but not always,
forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as
“plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “estimates”, “anticipates”, or
“believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words
and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results “may”,
“could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved.
The
forward-looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press
release only, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update
or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future
events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements
about the leadership reorganization at Frederator, Fred Seibert’s future
involvement in Frederator projects, future content at Frederator,
growth at Frederator and future projects.
Although the Company
believes the forward-looking statements in this press release are
reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and
assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct. The Company
cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company
are not guarantees of future results, and that actual results may differ
materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of
various factors, including, but not limited to, the risks described
under the heading “Risks and Uncertainties” in the Company’s
MD&A for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2020. As a
result, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking
statements contained in this press release.
Contact:
For Media:
Maryellen Mooney
Goodman Media International, Inc.
Tel: (212) 576-2700 ext. 7255
Email: mmooney@goodmanmedia.com
For Investor Relations:
Bill Mitoulas
Tel: (416) 479-9547
Email: billm@wowunlimited.co
The question we all get the most is “how do I sell my show?!” Butch answers all along with his very successful experiences (and of course, the less successful experiences).
Frederator Networks is privileged to be part of a vast network of
creators of every race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. We’re firmly rooted in the support of creator-driven stories
that come from personal, unique, and diverse perspectives.
We
feel strongly about the injustices that the Black community is faced
with. Black lives matter, and we stand with protesters against police
brutality and the systemic racism that causes and enables it.
All of us at Frederator have been having constant internal conversations educating one another,
staying informed, and most importantly, planning how we can do more and
do better.
We’ve decided that one of the ways is by making a donation
to the nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization, Color of Change.
We strongly believe in their mission to free all people from racism and
injustice. This group is only one of many worthy organizations doing
important work to create lasting change and equity for Black people in
America, and we encourage you to continue to stay informed and get
involved however you can.
To
our Black network members, animators, employees, and fans - we support
you, we love you, and we will continue to help you create lasting change
in the world.
Leonard Maltin and Jerry Beck kicked me into my cartoon future.
I’ve written before about the watch that led me to Hanna-Barbera, but never how Leonard Maltin and Jerry Beck kicked me headlong into the cartoon business to begin with, even though we’d never met.
There are music nerds, football nerds, art nerds, computer nerds. But me, I’m a media nerd. Even when I was sure that my path was to become a chemist, I was a devouring all the reading I could about various parts of the media business. Geoffrey Stokes’ “Star Making Machinery” deconstructed what major record companies did to rock bands, David Halberstam’s “The Powers That Be” about print and broadcast giants, Todd Gitlin’s “The Whole World is Watching: The Making and Unmaking of the New Left,” Timothy Crouse’s “The Boys on the Bus” tracking the reporters on a political campaign were just four among many I devoured.
Other than my total and immersive delight in those days before rock’n’roll, I knew absolutely nothing about them. Little did I know that those years were a complete cultural education in some of the greatest comedy films of all time.
Leonard’s and Jerry’s book filled in hundreds of gaps in my knowledge base. I won’t bore you with the details (I’ll post the table of contents below to give you an idea of what’s there), but suffice it to say that I got a total dose of what made the cartoon business famous around the world. It was a snapshot of the creative chaos by which Walt Disney and everyone else from the Warner Bros. gang to Hanna & Barbera ignited their explosions.
What does this have to do with me? You know how it’s said that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?” Well, that’s me. If I think I know a little something, if I’m not careful, it can explode into a very big something. Like me and cartoons.
When I read the book I was already a media professional, having spent time in radio and television programming, dipping my toe into graphics animation for MTV and Nickelodeon branding. So I started asking some of my animation friends a little more about what they knew about the cartoon side of animation.
When the programming heads of Nickelodeon asked me to help them figure out an original cartoon strategy for the channel –up until then all their animated shows were licensed, like Belle & Sebastian, Danger Mouse, and Yogi Bear– I didn’t really know anything other than what I read in “Of Mice and Magic.” They didn’t seem to care.
So I started pontificating about the explosively creative era of theatrical shorts. “Yeah, that’s what you need to do. Shorts! Just like the great old days!”
The Nick folks sort of agreed, but they interpreted my suggestions differently than I meant them. Their takeaway was that the industry generally didn’t do pilots, so if Nick did pilots they could test them and improve them. I hated –I still hate– pilots. From my perspective, a pilot is something only an executive sees, which they can then opinionate on and change if they feel like it. A pilot doesn’t give the filmmaker the right juice, the feeling of true creative risk that only comes when you know an audience will have their chance to judge. Just like what happened with the great theatricals back in the day.
Look, Nickelodeon did better than OK with their approach. They got Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats and Doug, right out of the box. Not too shabby a start.
But me? I was ticked off and held it in until I got offered the Hanna-Barbera gig by Turner’s Scott Sassa. Honestly, if I hadn’t been so annoyed I might have never taken the job. Seriously. Damn it, I wanted to prove that I was right! So I went West, launched “What A Cartoon!” and my life has never been the same.
In so many ways, that’s all thanks to Leonard and Jerry. Thanks guys!
Of Mice and Magic: Table of Contents
Preface 1. The Silent Era 2. Walt Disney 3. Max Fleischer 4. Paul Terry and Terrytoons 5. Walter Lantz 6. Ub Iwerks 7. The Van Beuren Studio 8. Columbia: Charles Mintz and Screen Jems 9. Warner Brothers 10. MGM 11. Paramount/Famous Studios 12. UPA 13. The Rest of the Story
Pretty much the most famous media advertising campaign in history is “I Want My MTV!” –the May 2020 Google search returns 184,000 results, more than 30 years after the last flight ran– and it was the result of the brain of Dale Pon.*
* As I explain in detail in the pieces below, writer extraordinaire Nancy
Podbielniak was the word spark for the campaign; it was George Lois
who suggested ripping off “I Want My Maypo!” Dale Pon was the person who
took these notions and turned them into brilliance.
Dale persuaded me and the powers that be at MTV that he could make it work,
Dale who convinced MTV programmers to recording artists to participate
for no fees. It was Dale who took the paltry budget allotted and
strategized how to maximize the network’s cable distribution. And finally, it was
Dale Pon’s dogged persistence and genius that caused cable operators across America to beg us to
please stop running the campaign before all the telephone operators quit in
frustration from all the people “demanding their MTV!!!”
My great friend –and better mentor– Dale Pon, passed away from difficulties due to Parkinson’s and Covid19. There’s no way to convey all of the ways people expressed their sadness to me today, but one of them probably encapsulated things best by saying “Complicated but brilliant, creatively inspired, strategic like chess master , we were lucky to have been touched by his talents…”
All too true.
Dale could be –to say the least– a challenging personality. Determined to win, he could be a bulldozer crushing an ant. Warm at his core, he could be beyond generous will all he had at his disposal. Unlike many others with talent and raw intelligence, he was quick to share his remarkable thinking, lavish in his ability to elevate the talents of the shy and uncertain, and as bountiful with praises as he could be lacerating with his critical observations. He loved as deeply as he was able, and a constant explorer for the meanings of life.
When it came to the work, there was no one better at understanding media, and getting fans interested in its rewards. I don’t know if it was his methodologies and personality, or the fact that media promotion wasn’t all that well respected in the ad biz, but Dale didn’t have too much of a profile in the advertising world. I think, ultimately, he was much more focused on the work than on the publicity. So, things being what they are, what I’ve collected seems to be the most comprehensive look at his career, at least the parts that I’ve directly touch. By no means is it comprehensive, I know nothing about his radio days in the early 70s, and little about his work after I joined the cartoon industry. But all of what I have is yours, below.
I’ll lead with what a few of his colleagues and friends wrote a few years ago for Dale’s birthday. And then, below that, all the various campaign pieces (written from my perspective, of course) I’ve recalled over the years.
…..
April 2016, on the occasion of Dale’s birthday.
Dale Pon, my mentor and friend. Fucking smart.
Dale Pon’s been on my mind lately, as he is almost every day, because of the ways he taught me to think about …. um,everything. I’ve written about some other important mentors
before, but Dale’s influence was so staggering I could never figure out
how to sketch it out in anything shorter than book length.
“Dominate the space.” (He was referring to graphic design, but it might have served as a life philosophy).
“Of course, there’s an absolute truth.”
“You remember the first thing you see, but the last thing you hear.”
“The power of three.” (Broke that rule with this list.)
“Advertising is a frequency medium.”
“You make album tracks. I make hit songs.”
I’m
not sure that he ever thought of himself as particularly quotable, but
as you’ll see below, I wasn’t alone in internalizing. There were
hundreds more bon mots, most of which he probably forgot as soon as he
said them but stuff I’ve never been able to shake off, to this day.
His
resume doesn’t do him justice, but quickly… For 40 years, Dale Pon was
at the forefront of media programming and promotion for many of the
major media companies, CBS, NBC, Viacom, Storer Broadcasting (where we
met). He specialized in radio throughout his career, but when Bob
Pittman moved into cable television, he prevailed there too (“I Want My MTV!”
is still returns hundreds of thousands of Google search results, 30
years after it went off the air). He was wildly successful in an
advertising agency partnership with ad legend George Lois, before
setting up a solo shop, Dale Pon Advertising, in New York City.
Dale
was brash and loud, very, and he certainly wasn’t to everyone’s taste.
The friend who first recommended me for one of his jobs called in a rage
when he quit and said if I really needed a gig so badly… I knew Dale’s
work from its supremacy of the metropolitan subway system for the New
York country music powerhouse (a paradox if there ever was one) WHN
Radio, but it hadn’t occurred to me that actual human beings created
advertising, or that it took any real brain power. Dale quickly
disabused me of that notion, as he sent me to his tailor to buy me my
first three piece suit (more appropriate for Park Avenue media than the
cut off shorts I wore to our interview).
Most of all, he was
really fucking smart. And deeply, articulately, astute about media. He
could tell the story of radio stations or television networks better
than anyone, and persuade their audiences to fall profoundly in love, by
sticking to the basic human emotions like truth, desire, love. (My
favorite? “Love songs, nothing but love songs” for WPIX-FM, directly
appropriated for an Off-Broadway show). He didn’t end it there, with a
creative, strategic and statistical brilliance that combined, to quote
Bob Pittman (from another context completely) “math and magic.”
What
I appreciated most was his intense, almost overwhelming desire to teach
me everything he knew at exactly the moment I was desperate for his
knowledge. In fact, as I observed him with myself and others over the
years, it would be fair to say that if you wasn’t interested in being
taught, Dale Pon wasn’t interested in you. And, not for nothing, it went
both ways. He’s was as incisive a questioner and listener as one could
want. Curious, intrigued, dying to know anything on almost any subject.
In my case, it meant that we generally spent six or seven days together
all the years we were together in two different media capitals. Whew!
Difficult? Challenging? Exasperating? You bet. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.
Dale’s
the one who changed the course of my work life, and as Scott Webb says
below, “he changed me.” It’s because of Dale that I stumbled on my
understanding that I wasn’t a music guy
after all, or even a TV baby, but a pop culture sponge. I wouldn’t had
the chance to participate in any of the culture shiftings I got to
observe first hand. Who knows, maybe I would’ve stumbled through a life
of complete dissatisfaction. That’s how profound his influence was on
me.
Dale’s birthday recently passed by, and stuck for cogent
things to say about him, I reached out to a few friends who’ve crossed
his path and might be better at expressing themselves than I ever could.
You’ll notice they’re pretty powerful personalities themselves, but
Dale made an impression. Boy, did he make an impression. (I left out
some of those controversial moments and unproductive comments.)
Well, our friends didn’t let us down. They got to the heart of the matter in ways I never could. Thanks everyone.
He’s
the man who “wanted his MTV” and got the world to say the same. My
friend Fred always claimed that he learned whatever he knew from Dale
and whatever I know I learned from Fred so it all comes back to Dale. Or
blame them both. Happy Birthday Dale! Forever young!
Dale
Pon is the mad scientist of advertising. Full of passion, always with a
breakthrough idea and the urgency to get it done quickly with no
compromises. He made a huge contribution to my successes at WNBC Radio,
MTV and even Six Flags theme parks. One of a kind….happy birthday to him
from a big fan!
……
Scott Webb: “Most people don’t know how to think.”
Dale
Pon didn’t just change my life he changed me. He encouraged me to be
brave and fearless and never stop solving problems. He is one of the
smartest people I have ever met and the teacher I will never forget.
You
never know how things are going to happen. After 4 years at Sarah
Lawrence, one of the most expensive liberal arts schools, I was clueless
about a career. My secret wish was to write comics (mostly because I
had no talent to draw). Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were
basically working class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me
to not move back home after graduation.
One January evening, I
was talking with my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just
returned home from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC
Radio; they weren’t hiring but were looking for interns. “What’s an
intern?” I asked. I was so naive.
I immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to work there.
“You’ll
be working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can
handle that?” asked Buzz Brindle, a WNBC program director. Me? Of
course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah Lawrence education. I
thought I was ready for anything. But I was not ready for Dale Pan.
Dale
was bigger than life, louder than anyone else in the company and
frequently slammed the door to his tiny office. I found him brilliant,
charismatic and intimidating.
My first big assignment for Dale
was to create a chart of all the radio stations in New York and rank
them by ratings performance over the past 2 years. I wanted to do a
great job for him but the truth was that I was terrible at chart making.
I was a liberal arts comic book kid and he had me doing statistical
analysis and I knew if I did a bad job I would probably face his famous
wrath behind a slammed closed door. But despite my inept chart building,
Dale painstakingly taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and
methodically went through my work and instructed me how to correct it. I
learned more from him over that 5 month internship than I had in my
last 2 years of college. But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or
radio promotion. Dale had high expectations of me, he believed in me
and he was demanding in the pursuit of excellence.
A lot of
people at the station didn’t like Dale mostly because he would raise his
voice to make a point or because he was passionate about his beliefs,
or would not hold back his opinion when something was mediocre,
pedestrian or just plain stupid. Dale expected greatness in people, work
and business. His mission was to win and often people found that
difficult to embrace. I, on the other hand, found it awesome. I guess he
reminded me of the comic book heroes I admired so much - characters who
were extraordinary and could do things other people thought were
impossible. Most people at the radio station were happy to have a job
and get a paycheck and could care less about being #1 but for him that
was all that mattered.
It didn’t hurt that he was so smart and
insightful. He had the uncanny super power of understand exactly what
the problem was – and he taught me that creativity was the ability to
solve problems in fresh, innovative and smart ways.
“Do you know
why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of my internship. “I didn’t
want to hire one of those kids who studied advertising or media in
college. Those kids have been ruined. They show up thinking they already
know everything - and they haven’t even had a job yet. You didn’t know
anything but you were willing to learn and think. Most people don’t know
how to think.”
Those were some of the most important words I
ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and trust in myself that did
not exist before and served me throughout my life, not just in work but
in life.
…..
Bill Sobel: He yelled at me on the phone…no idea why.
…..
Noreen Morioka: “Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.”
There
is no doubt that we all have a great Dale Pon story. Dale never did
anything average. He did everything in extremes. Whether you were
laughing so hard that you couldn’t breathe or wanting to shake him like a
rag doll, Dale is unforgettable.
One of my favorite Dale Pon
stories is when he was pitching a new name for a network. Since the
channel was going to be all re-runs of a lower level, Dale named it
Trash TV. I loved it, but when I presented my designs, he thought what I
did wasn’t trashy enough and proceeded to get another designer to put
flies swarming around the proposed logomark. When he presented his
concept to the network president, he stopped at the building dumpster
and pulled out garbage to bring up to presentation. Needless to say, the
meeting didn’t go well, and the president was furious that Dale brought
garbage into his beautiful office. Stern words were exchanged on both
sides and security was called to take Dale and garbage out of the
office. He called later to let me know they were going to search for
another name. The network changed their name several times since then,
and each time Dale would just smile. We all knew his solution was
genius.
Like you, Fred, Dale taught me a lot. He taught me never
to settle, always come back stronger and most importantly what the
difference between good and evil was.
“Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.” Thanks to this simple Dale Pon-ism, I live my life by.
I will always have a deep respect and love for that guy. Happy Birthday, Dale. You are the true original.
Dale
is a magnanimous gift-giver. I once told him the Chrysler Building was
my favorite building in NY, and the next time I saw him, he brought me a
beautiful framed B&W print of the building! So thoughtful. I still
have it!
I
always appreciate the opportunity to say something nice about Dale, but
the stories that first came to mind involved women, drugs, and
fistfights. Or were otherwise too self-incriminating. Here’s what I’ve
come up with:
The genius of Dale’s creativity is its directness and simplicity (like “I Want My MTV!”). Unfortunately that sometimes resulted in it being underappreciated.
When
we worked together at WHN Radio I once heard our boss say to Dale at
the end of the day “We need a new ad campaign slogan for the station by
tomorrow. Take twenty minutes tonight, walk around the Village and come
up with something.”
When I later started The United Stations Radio Network
with Dick Clark and others, we hired Dale to create the logo, which he
agreed to do out of friendship for only a nominal fee. The logo was a
distinctive type face, with the letters stuck together (“united”). Some
in the company commented that it was too simple; others appreciated its
genius.
Dale
is a great bunch of guys. Argumentative, persistent, a perfectionist,
fun, difficult, and smart as hell….winning, ultimately, most of his
arguments. Happy birthday.
Long
before there was “Better Call Saul” it was “Better Call Dale” when you
were faced with a creative challenge. Dale had a long term
relationship with MTV Networks having been part of the launch team for
that iconic channel. So when The Nashville Network had to be relaunched
as the new home of the WWE (then the WWF), oh and it had to be done in
three months, there was only one person to call.
My first meeting
with Dale was over lunch at the Mercer Kitchen. Fred had prepped me
that Dale liked metrics and to be ready for a lot of questions. But as
anyone who’s met with Dale will tell you, you can never be fully
prepared for the hurricane of creative energy that is Dale Pon.
I
was prepared with my Venn diagram of the overlap between TNN’s current
viewers and the WWE’s viewers (no surprise, not a big cross section).
Then the questions started in what felt like a ping pong match at warp
speed.
Two hours into the lunch I had held my own and received
the nod from Dale that I was on the right track. I was exhausted,
relieved and thrilled to have passed the test. I learned that once
you’ve basked in the glow of Dale’s approval, you were hooked. I also
learned that I had become a member of an exclusive club, “Dale’s World.”
My fellow club members all know the stories, share the memories and
still live by what he taught us.
Dale always said “work smarter,
not harder.” That mantra has never failed me just as Dale never failed
to be supportive, inquisitive and completely one of a kind!
Happy Birthday dear Dale!
(From left): Dale Pon, Anne Grassi, Scott Webb at WNBC Radio, circa 1980.
Alan Goodman: “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”
Two stories about Dale Pon –
1. I was in Paris with Dale (who ran our advertising agency – my mentor was now my supplier) and MTV’s VP of Programming, Les Garland.
Dale and Les weren’t pals. How tense was it? We had dinner together one
night in Paris and Les bought us all expensive Cuban cigars. Outside,
Dale waited until Les split off to go to his hotel. The first second Les
was out of sight, Dale pitched his cigar in the gutter.
We had flown on 10 hours notice so we could shoot Mick Jagger saying “I Want My MTV!”
Dale had already shot a number of other MTV generation stars shouting
the line, and some were even biggish. But Jagger was THE “get.” We knew
that once Jagger blessed our campaign by participating, we’d get anyone
else we would ever want. (We did).
We waited around the hotel a
couple of days until we got the bat signal that Mick was ready, and
raced over to his hotel to set up. Very quickly, what was supposed to be
Dale’s shoot had become Les’ shoot. Dale was pissed, rigid with anger,
sequestered with me in the adjoining room forced to watch the
proceedings on a monitor. I went over to him to try to diffuse the
situation. I can’t remember what I told him. But I remember his
response, word for word:
“Do you think I need to hear any of this right now?”
I realized why I was in Paris. I was there, as the client, to witness who threw the first punch.
I
had spent every single day of the past four months in the office trying
to figure out how to do a job I had no idea how to do. I was exhausted.
I had zero interest in the kind of politics and shenanigans that
network executives pull, and I didn’t want to be there. That’s it, I
decided. I’ve had enough. I’m a writer. I have a talent. I can make a
living. I will get back home and I will immediately quit.
I said
nothing. I smiled through the rest of the shoot. We stopped at a bistro
after we wrapped, and had a lovely dinner and wine with the crew. It was
a celebration. For good reason. We had Jagger. I stayed quiet. Silent,
even. No one knew of my plans.
When we reached the hotel, Dale drew me aside and sat me down.
“You’re not going to quit,” he said. What?! Huh?! How did he know? On top of everything, the man can read minds??!
“You’re
not going to quit. You are at the very beginning of something that will
change the world, and you will have a great career. You have to stay
there and be a part of that and do what you do really well. You cannot
leave. Do you understand? You cannot quit.”
He went up to bed. I
went home the next day, and didn’t quit. Instead, I stayed and helped
make the thing that changed the world. And it was the beginning of a
great career.
2. I went to get my hair cut at Astor Place one
day. I walked up to my guy, and there in the chair was Dale. I didn’t
know Dale used my guy. Dale looked up at me, looked at the barber, and
told him, “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”
…..
Scott Webb (unedited): “He didn’t just change my life he changed me.”
You never know how things are going to happen.
I
was a few short months away from graduating from Sarah Lawrence College
with no idea what I would do for a job. I was a kid who had grown up
reading and loving comic books. After 4 years at one of the most
expensive liberal arts schools I was clueless about a career. My secret
wish remained to write comics (mostly because I had no talent to draw).
Sarah Lawrence was a great place for me. It was there that I understood
how to learn. I was naturally curious and SLC exposed me to a world of
ideas and brilliant people (students and teachers). But Sarah Lawrence
was not a place where I could start a career path. 5 months from
graduating I felt the looming pressure of finding a job and making
money. Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were basically working
class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me to not move back
home after graduation.
One January evening, I was talking with
my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just returned home
from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC radio with a
guy named Buzz Brindle. She said they weren’t hiring but were looking
for interns. “What’s an intern?” I asked. I was so naive. She explained
that an internship is where you work for free - for experience and to
get your foot in the door. WNBC was part of NBC - one of only 3 existing
TV networks at the time and my eyes lit up at the idea of of doing
anything with a big media company. So I lined up a meeting with Buzz to
see if I was intern material.
Buzz was sweet and avuncular and I
immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to
work there. “We’re looking for interns in the promotion department” Buzz
explained and I just nodded as affirmatively as possible. “You’ll be
working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can handle
that?” Me? Of course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah
Lawrence education. I thought I was ready for anything. But I was not
ready for Dale Pon.
I interned at the station 2 days a week and
It appeared I was the only male in Dale’s promotion team. I reported to a
woman named Anne Grassi but Dale was the boss. Dale was bigger than
life, louder than anyone else in the company and frequently slammed the
door to his tiny office. I had never worked in an office before. I found
him brilliant, charismatic and intimidating. The other interns and I
would huddle in the conference room where we did our work and wait for
our next assignment.
I did many things as an intern but my first
big assignment for Dale was to create a chart of all the radio stations
in New York and rank them by ratings performance over the past 2 years.
This was no small task - this was way before computers in offices - and
required me to go to the NBC research department to collect dozens of
Arbitron ratings books and laboriously extract the data he wanted and
lay it out graphically. I wanted to do a great job for him but the truth
was that I was terrible at chart making.
I was a liberal arts
comic book kid and he had me doing statistical analysis and I knew if I
did a bad job I would probably face his famous wrath behind a slammed
closed door. But despite my inept chart building, Dale painstakingly
taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and methodically went through
my work and instructed me how to correct it. I learned more from him
over that 5 month internship than I had in my last 2 years of college.
But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or radio promotion. Dale
had high expectations of me, he believed in me and he was demanding in
the pursuit of excellence.
The chart was part of his battle plan
to make WNBC #1 in the NYC market and when I understood the big picture
of what he was doing I felt even more inspired and willing to do
anything in the service of that cause.
A lot of people at the
station didn’t like Dale mostly because he would raise his voice to make
a point or because he was passionate about his beliefs, or would not
hold back his opinion when something was mediocre, pedestrian or just
plain stupid. Dale expected greatness in people, work and business. His
mission was to win and often people found that difficult to embrace. I,
on the other hand, found it awesome. I guess he reminded me of the comic
book heroes I admired so much - characters who were extraordinary and
could do things other people thought were impossible. Most people at the
radio station were happy to have a job and get a paycheck and could
care less about being #1 but for him that was all that mattered.
It
didn’t hurt that he was so smart and insightful. He had the uncanny
super power of understand exactly wha the problem was - and he taught me
that creativity was the ability to solve problems in fresh, innovative
and smart ways. “Do you know why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of
my internship. “I didn’t want to hire one of those kids who studied
advertising or media in college. Those kids have been ruined. They show
up thinking they already know everything - and they haven’t even had a
job yet. You didn’t know anything but you were willing to learn and
think. Most people don’t know how to think.” Those were some of the
most important words I ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and
trust in myself that did not exist before and served me throughout my
life, not just in work but in life.
Dale Pon didn’t just change
my life he changed me. He encouraged me to be brave and fearless and
never stop solving problems. He is one of the smartest people I have
ever met and the teacher I will never forget.
…..
Susan Kantor and David Hyman were on the opposite side of their
relationships with him, Susan as a long time account executive in Dale’s
agencies, and David as a client. Drew Takahashi, a trusted friend and
wonderful creative partner.
I’m particularly fond of
the pull quote from David’s recollections. Having had hundreds of
restaurant meals with DP over the years, waitress confusion was probably
my overriding remembrance.
Susan Kantor
has traveled to the upper heights of television since her time with
Dale Pon in the 1980s. But when you read her memoir below he prepared
her well, as he did with all of us.
Drew Takahashi is a director who co-founded (Colossal) Pictures, San Francisco,
one of the most creative production companies of the 1980s and 90s, and
one of the key creative suppliers to the first decades of MTV.
David Hyman became my head of marketing at the MTVi Group when the company purchased Sonicnet.com, one of David’s early digital music endeavors (he’s gone on as founder of MOG, one of the seminal digital music streamers).
Hands
down, Dale Pon was my most influential career mentor. Ridiculously
smart, enormously passionate, admirably courageous and truthfully a
little scary.
We would all brace ourselves for the moment the
elevator doors opened and the sound of his fiercely determined walk in
his trademarked cowboy boots could be heard. With the first, “good
morning” would come a rapid fire interrogation of where we were at on
all the “to do’s” he had just given us an hour ago. “Why isn’t it done
yet?”
Leslie Fenn-Gershon and I used to joke about putting a Valium in his Perrier so we could get through the day.
When
I got to the office in the morning there would often be a “note”, on my
chair written with red Sharpie marker on yellow pad lined paper
(pre-email), from Dale. His handwriting, had as much conviction as his
spoken word. These encouraging notes were meant to guide, remind,
teach, mentor or simply, to show his appreciation - often complimentary,
occasionally piercing. I still have them.
“Lead, don’t follow”. Love, Dale
“Let’s make things happen!” Love Dale “
“There are children and there are parents. Be a parent.” Love, Dale “
“Everyone wants to be told what to do. Tell them.” Love, Dale “
“We had a good day today. Thank you for your help.” Love, Dale
As
we chased rock stars around the globe helping MTV and VH1 revolutionize
the music industry, and traversed across the county to position many TV
and radio stations in their market, Dale always imparted the importance
of what we were doing and demanded we do our very best, every day.
He
recognized my innate work ethic, enthusiasm and willingness to do
whatever it took to learn and succeed – he also knew how young and naïve
I was. Ripe for mentorship and direction. I got both, and then some.
The Dale Pon “boot camp” was not always pretty, but it was always
colorful, impactful, memorable and most importantly, meaningful.
Not
only did he teach me all about advertising and the importance of
finding the unique selling proposition and saying it as simply as
possible so people would remember it, he showed me the world and how not
to be intimidated by it. He made me self-aware of my talents and my
shortcomings. He also taught me there was no substitute for doing the
work.
To this day, I love you Dale and I thank you for believing in me and giving me the chance of a lifetime.
Belated birthday wishes and hope to see you again soon!
…..
Drew Takahashi: “…he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated.“
After
seeing you and the MTV crew took me back to good/bad old days. I
realized I missed Dale Pon.
Back in the day I didn’t know he was a mentor. I only knew
he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated. In the end I realized you
and he knew what was better for me than what I knew. Someday I’ll learn
my lesson.
Steve
Linden and I went to shoot with Dale for WNBC [AM]. He asked us to meet him
at Windows on the World bar for drinks and dinner. He showed up two hours
later and Steve and I were suitably toasted. Then he insisted we join
him in a very alcoholic dinner. I was so hungover the morning of the
shoot I didn’t know how I could direct the talent, Don Imus. Dale
apologized for needing to shoot something first so we didn’t roll my
spot until the afternoon. Saved my ass.
Many
more memories. The weirdest was him in the Colossal bathroom cleaning
crabs of their guts for a surprise picnic in the middle of our animation
camera shoot.
…..
David Hyman: “[He] always confused the waitresses.”
Here’s mine:
Dale came up with the name of my company, Gracenote. I think that just came really easy to him.
For
a while he was a really great teacher to me. I stubbornly couldn’t take
the occasional abuse that went with it, even though it was probably
good for me. I was honored to be asked as the voice over for a $30 million tv ad campaign by Dale and encouraged to do voice over work. Thrilling to be informed I had career chops outside of sales & marketing.
Dale
is the only person i know that would always order two margaritas for
himself (at the same time). It always confused the waitresses.
Before I got to New York’s 1050 WHN, I was aware of the station. Well aware. Sometime in 1976, my friend/future partner/father of my beloved nephew and niece, Alan Goodman,
asked me whether I’d seen some giant subway posters (the top photo
above). Of course, I’d noticed them, with large portraits of Johnny
Cash, Elvis Presley, The Eagles, Charlie Pride, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt
and seemingly dozens of other traditional and contemporary stars of the
era. There were so many, they seemed to be everywhere. And, they were
gorgeous, well designed, in a sea of drop-dead-New York
graffiti, hum drum posters, homeless campers and mess, standing out
like nothing we’d ever seen down there before. Too bad it was for music
we couldn’t stand.
After I got the job with the station’s creative director and ad man, Dale Pon
(another story for another time), I found out a bit about the thinking
at the station and the advertising campaign. How did a city that was the
home of the most sophisticated popular music of all time –to the likes
of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra–
welcome the shitkickers in and become the second most popular radio station in the United States (or the world, for that matter)?
Dale was the supremely gifted Vice President of Creative Services, and he introduced me to Ed Salamon, the station’s innovative program director (Neil Rockoff was the General Manager who brought them together),
who used a Top 40 radio approach* to country radio, upending the entire
(typical New Yorker’s) notion that country music hadn’t evolved since
Hank Williams.
No ordinary radio promotion guy, Dale had been a
media buyer at Ogilvy, a radio upstart (a mild description) when the
world switched from AM to “progressive” FM, and run radio ad sales
teams. In the 80s, he would go on to successfully run his own
advertising agency, and together we started one of the most famous media
campaigns of all time, “I Want My MTV!”).
Dale
Pon wasn’t going to promote the station as cowboy boots and hats, like
the last team did. He wanted big ratings for WHN, big ratings. They all
did.
* If you’re interested, Ed’s written a book that details his contrarian, and wildly successful, methods called WHN: When New York Went Country.
WHN Radio illustrations from top to bottom, all creative direction by Dale Pon
1977: New York City subway station double truck posters (L-R) Olivia
Newton-John (obscured), Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Presley; Olivia
Newton-John; Kenny Rogers; Television/Radio Age cover ads; Linda
Ronstadt double truck subway poster.
MTV had been on the air for six months and we’d fired the storied Ogilvy & Mather and hired Dale Pon’s LPG/Pon (a joint venture with George Lois)
at my insistence. Now they were presenting their first trade campaign
for advertisers and cable operators and my first big decision was being
called into question.
America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats!
“It’s audacious! Outrageous! Just like you guys.” George Lois
was a big talker, a big seller, and a bit of a smart ass, loudmouth. He
was also smart. Even though I knew he designed the “cable brats” thing,
it was my brilliant mentor Dale, who’d never steered me wrong
creatively or strategically, who was behind the whole thing. His
ex-girlfriend, and now one of my best friends, Nancy Podbielniak, had
written the copy. Besides, I agreed with Dale that generally trade
advertising was a waste of time and bigger waste of money. Consumers
were where it’s at, and weren’t all the tradesmen we were hopping to
reach consumers too? If we had a knockout punch of consumer advertising
our job would be done. I knew he was keeping his powder dry for the big
show.
America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats!
There’s an incorrigible new generation out there. They grew up with music. They grew up with television. So we put ‘em both together – for the Cable Brats, and they’re taking over America! They’re men and women in the 18 to 34 age range advertisers want most – plus the increasingly important 12 to 17 segement. The Cable Brats buy all the high volume, high ticket, high tech, high profit products of modern America. They’re strong-willed, cunning, crazily impulsive – an advertiser’s peerless audience. They look and listen and they want their MTV. And they buy, buy, buy.
Rock'n'Roll
wasn’t enough for them – now they want their MTV. (The exploding
24-hour Video Music Cable Network (and it’s Stereo!)
George was certainly right. It was audacious, and it was a touch outrageous. Somehow, the tone wasn’t quite right, but after the crap Ogilvy had done for us, it was way better.
Besides, hidden in there was the sand grain that was going to lead us to our pearl.
I WANT MY MTV!
took the phenomenon that had taken over the imaginations of young
America and supercharged it into a famous brand with just about everyone
in the country. I just googled [in 2010] “I Want My MTV” and it popped up almost
4,760,000 results. Pretty amazing for an advertising campaign that
ceased to exist 22 years ago.* Pretty potent.
The whole thing was the work of my mentor and friend Dale Pon. He’d been my first boss in the commercial media, at WHN Radio in New York when it was a country music station. He’d recommended me for my job at Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, as the production director of The Movie Channel, and eventually as the first Creative Director of MTV: Music Television.
We’d fallen in and out over the years, but in late 1981, when it came
time for us to hire an advertising agency again –at first, the top dog
had vetoed Dale as not heavy enough for a company like ours– with a lot
of help from my immediate boss Bob Pittman, I was able to convince everyone that Dale understood media promotion better than anyone else in America. Anyone. Besides, didn’t he have “insurance” with his partner, legendary adman George Lois?
No
one had ever encountered an ad executive like Dale, because he had the
unique ability to be completely and analytically strategic –”math and
magic” Pittman might call it– and be wildly, and intelligently, creative
at the same time. An almost unheard of combination, especially in media
advertising. Sure, he had a volatile nature, in advertising that was
often a given (look at his partner). But it was his strategic, creative
abilities that really set him apart.
We’d already done our first trade campaign, the “Cable Brats,“
to the discomfort of most of the suits in the corporate marketing group
(Bob and his team, me included, were in programming). But Dale didn’t
buy into the efficacy of trade ads anyhow, so now were onto the big
show, television advertising. The only problem was that we all
recognized that an effective campaign would cost about $10,000,000. Our
budget only had $2,000,000, and if we didn’t spend it quickly the
corporate gods would probably take it away in the fall.
“I want my Maypo” commercials, created by John Hubley
Looking
back, the core creative ended up being the most straightforward part.
Dale’s closest friend and creative partner, Nancy Podbielniak had
written the cable brats copy and had a tag line “Rock'n'roll wasn’t
enough for them – now they want their MTV!” That rung a bell in George
Lois, someone who never missed a chance to abscond with someone else’s
good idea, and decided to rip off his own knock off of a Maypo campaign from the 1950s and 60s (animator John Hubley originated it as a set famous animated spots, and George had unsuccessfully knocked it off using sports stars)
and presented a storyboard that completely duplicated his version. Rock
stars like Mick Jagger were saying “I Want My MTV” and crying like
babies, implying they were spoiled children being denied. No one was
buying it until Dale let me know that there was no way he’d ask Pete
Townshend or Mick to cry for us. “Pride! They need to show their pride
in rock'n'roll! They’ll be shouting!” After a little corporate fuss we
were able to sell it in.
AMERICA! DEMAND YOUR MTV!
Now,
it was the next part that was completely and utterly brilliant. Because
Dale came from the school that great creative was all well and good,
but unless it could move the business needle, what good was it? In this
case, the needle wasn’t ratings (cable TV didn’t have ratings in 1981),
but active households, distribution for MTV. Cable operators were all
relatively old guys who thought The Weather Channel was a better idea;
they’d turned a deaf ear to their younger employees who were clamoring
for us instead.
To dramatically simplify the strategy Dale organized, he decided to only advertise in markets where:
• There was enough penetration to justify a modest ad spend.
• But where there were critically large cable operators on the fence about taking MTV.
• And that
we could afford a 300 gross rating point buy (three times heavier as
any consumer products agency would suggest) for at least four weeks in a
row (the traditional media spend would call for pulsing 10 days on and
10 days off).
The “G” in LPG/Pon was Dick Gershon. Along with data
from our affiliate group, he crunched and crunched and crunched until
he came up with a list of markets and dates we could afford. It was 20%
of what we needed, but everyone figured if we could really start to
knock off a bunch of cable systems, get them actually launch our
network, the domino effect would solidify MTV’s hold on the market
forever.
Strategy in place, the creative was back on the front
burner. The basic campaign was a great way to get famous rock stars
endorsing our channel, but where was the close? What would actually make
the ‘ka-ching’ we needed? Luckily, back in the day there was only one
way to for a homeowner get anything from your reluctant jerk of a cable
operator (they figure they held all the cards, why should they do
anything to make life better for their consumers?). And what was it that
young adults loved to do? Dale knew immediately.
No one alive in front of a television set in the summer of 1982 could ever forget
Pete Townshend, with the wackiest haircut of his career, shouting at the video camera:
“America! DEMAND your MTV! Call your cable operator and say, "I WANT MY MTV!!”
We
shot the spots wherever the rock stars would have us for 20 minutes
(they still weren’t really sure this MTV: Music Television thing was
going to be good for them). Our director and producer, Tommy Schlamme and Buzz Potamkin,
got together with some puppeteers to choreograph the 'dancing’ stereo
television. I asked my partner to go into the studio to edit the music
sections when they weren’t rocking enough, and –poof!– famous
advertising.
Nothing to it, yes?
* For comparison, “I Want My Maypo”
posts 112,000 results on Google. Or “Where’s the beef?”, another famous
1980’s campaign for Wendy’s returns 176,000 (or if you only use that
phrase, which has been appropriated for all sorts of uses, you get
2,640,000).
MTV got Sonicnet in the middle of another transaction they thought would
be more important. But as the internet heated up in the business
world’s consciousness, Sonicnet.com
became something they thought to pay attention to. Which meant that, as
president of MTV Networks Online, I was trying to help make the thing
successful.
MTV had also acquired a then-unique personalized radio application.
Coupled with Sonicnet, we decided an ad campaign would supercharge the
site, something large media folks like us thought was necessary. (It
wasn’t.*)
Over a few objections, I hired my brilliant, challenging mentor Dale Pon
to create our campaign. Dale had done our the iconic “I Want My MTV”
for me in the early 1980s and constantly proved himself to be the most
creative and effective media ad man in America. The stunningly talented
and perfectly musical film director Tim Newman was already on our online staff (after turning his back on a career that included some ofthe greatestmusic videos of all time), so he was really the only person who we thought could direct the spots. Dale hustled our head of marketing, David Hyman, into his one and only –and perfect– voice acting job. (And, I should put in a word for the Sonicnet logo. Designed by AdamsMorioka, from a concept developed by Fred Graver.
You can see for yourself that Dale knew how conceive big ideas to bring
out the best from stars. With Tim in the director’s chair, the results
were pretty stunning. And, to cap it, Dale really knew how to use MTVi’s
clout to reach for the stars (like Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Joshua
Bell, Jewel, Pat Metheny, Sheryl Crow, Beenie Man, Gang Starr, Faith
Hill, Lindsey Buckingham, Don Henley, Al Jarreau, Alice Cooper, Blink
182, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Bon Jovi, Buck Cherry, Charlotte Church,
Christina Acquilera, Dwight Yoakam, The Ruff Ryders, Eve, Johnny Resnick
(The Goo Goo Dolls), kd lang, Buck Cherry, Kelis, Lindsey Buckingham,
Melissa Etheridge, Moby, Seal, Sisqo, Static X, SheDaisy, Hillary Hahn,
Charlotte Church, Yo Yo Ma, and Sting.)
This campaign, like every other one I’d worked on with Dale over the decades, was a hoot. One of the best things to come out of my one year in the early corporate internet.
…..
* IMHO, one of the great mistakes media companies made during Web 1.0,
was thinking that their traditional audience reach would give them huge
advantage in building web destinations. They’d made the exact same
mistake in the transition from broadcast to cable. It didn’t occur to
them in either era that a basic misunderstanding of the newest medium
–not knowing what the audience wanted from the upstarts– would not
attract anyone to their websites.
And, by the by, the same mistake has been made from popular websites bungling the transition to mobile. And, so it goes.
The Ottawa Animation Festival September 23-27, 2020
Here’s a reminder from the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), entries are due in May (!):
ENTRY DEADLINE REMINDER
Don’t forget that the entry deadline is rapidly approaching on May 29. Click here to get all the info.
OIAF COVID-19 UPDATE
The Ottawa International Animation
Festival (OIAF) will happen in September. It might not look like it
usually does, but maybe it will. No matter what happens, the OIAF will
go forward. Our staff are hard at work creating another vibrant,
community-building event that showcases some of the world’s most
innovative and exciting new animated work. You can bet you’ll see a lot
of familiar OIAF programs and opportunities in one form or another.
Check the OIAF website and social media the first week of June for more
information.
THE OIAF20 POSTER [above]
OIAF20 poster designer Christy Karacas is an animator, director, writer, voice-actor, and musician, known for creating Superjail! and Ballmastrz:9009 for Adult Swim. He is also an adjunct animation critic at RISD for winter-session.
“The Ottawa International Animation
Festival will always have a special place in my heart. I was first
introduced to the festival in 1996 by Amy Kravitz and Steven Subotnick
when they took our RISD senior class to the festival.
“That year and every year that I have attended, I make amazing new
friends, witness some of the best animation the world has to offer, and
participate in some fantastic debauchery. I try to come every year I can
and every time I do I am reminded why I love animation and the people
who love it, watch it, and create it.
“My inspiration for the poster was
festival-goers trying to get a front row seat for one of the best
animation festivals in the world. Please don’t follow their bad
behaviour.”
- Christy Karacas
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