Arby’s 

I had the opportunity to work for a few years on the brand that possesses the meats. Some of that work found its way into award shows, some into perplexed social posts asking if Arby's was serious (evergreen answer: "lolz yes"), and now some of it has found its way into my portfolio. Below is a sampling of the delightful mess we made together.

ARBY’S DEEP FRIED TURKEY PILLOW

An image of the Deep Fried Turkey Pillow was posted to Instagram on November 7, 2020 and sold out almost immediately. I really wanted an official sellout time in the previous sentence, but I asked around the agency and no one was holding a stopwatch. Still bummed about that.

This unofficial addition to ‘As Seen on TV’ commercial canon was made to commemorate the limited time release of Arby’s Deep Fried Turkey Sandwiches. It would’ve been cruel of us to unleash that much tryptophan on the public without giving them a place to nap.

Below you’ll find a few campaign elements such as the broadcast infomercials, shop website, and Instagram try-on filter. I should make a highlight reel of local newscasters giggling over it at some point. I guess people behind anchor desks live for this kind of thing.

LADANIAN TOMLINSON’S ARBY’S STEAKHOUSE

Here’s a question I never thought I’d have to answer: How do you convince skeptical people that a place with a drive-thru has steak sandwiches just as good as you’d find at a steakhouse?

Our answer was that you open a steakhouse. And you open it with everything a decent steakhouse has: tablecloths, fine cutlery, a dessert cart, and (most importantly) the name of a retired football player over the door. For the last part, we enlisted the help of Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson, who starred in our local steakhouse-grade commercial and greeted our patrons in person later that week at our location in Midtown Manhattan.

The campaign included everything the internet needed to properly freak out. An answering machine message from our owner, an elegant website, a truck driving around NYC trolling high-end steakhouses. And, most importantly, a real one-day-only steakhouse with a line out the door waiting to meet a real Hall of Famer and eat some steak sandwiches. 

BOURBON BBQ SANDWICHES

We all got something out of this shoot day. Some of us got wet. Some of us got little sculptures from award shows. We all got lunch. Pretty good all around.

MEATOBERFEST

Meatoberfest is a famous global celebration of all things beer cheese, beer mustard, beer braised and pretzel bun that happens all over the world in America in Arby’s. Below are a few selections that ran during the last made-up-meat holiday season.

THE ARBY’S FIELD GUIDE TO FRIES

I’m not sure how many AI-powered apps have been created to celebrate fake holidays, but you’ve just found one. On National French Fry Day 2021, Arby’s was celebrating the menu addition of Crinkle Fries to pair with its classic Curly Fry offering. With this glut of new fried potato options in fast food, The Arby’s Field Guide To Fries was created to take the difficulty out of differentiating them. Users simply snapped a photo and Arby’s advanced proprietary techno-algorithm identified the type of fry they’ve found. Unless it didn’t. Admittedly, Arby’s is more comfortable with sandwich making than tech disrupting.

CRISPY FISH

Do you remember where you were during the great surf wars of the early 2020s? Back then, Arby’s and an Illinois-based burger giant were going at it over who had the superior fish sandwich. This was mostly caused by a combination of the following work and a slow news day.

PECAN CHICKEN SANDWICH 2020

I’ll spare you from much explanation about why this commercial exists in blurb form. The voiceover clarifies the blurry sandwich pretty well. I would like to note that the footage we ruined here was originally a funny piece of work by Christine Taffe and Kelsey O’Briant. Terrific people and far better potential hires than myself.

MARKET FRESH WRAPS

Gather round portfolio readers and let me tell you a tale. A 30 second story of three new light lunch options at Arby’s. Press play for high drama. Fearless heroes. Dastardly villains. Also, birds wearing cowboy hats. Pretty crazy twist, right?