Category / Agency Life

by Jeff Midgley

Shooting an agency Star Wars spoof on Utah’s Antelope Island.

Dave Thomas, TA’s CEO, plays the part of Luke Skywalker.

A Star Wars fan from my youth, I was elated to write and direct a short Star Wars spoof video. This five-minute production gave me my one chance to be George Lucas and fulfill one of my childhood fantasies.

The video was to be shown internally at a ThomasArts agency employee appreciation event. The part of Luke Skywalker was played by agency founder Dave Thomas, who with his silver-whiskered beard looked like he could definitely pass for the real Skywalker.

Medicare for everyone. Including Jedis.

Based on the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, our plot weaves in a few inside jokes for employees to pick up on. For starters, when Rey ascends the island peak and finally confronts Luke, she doesn’t hand him a light saber. She instead hands him a Medicare enrollment late notice rolled up in a scroll.

Turns out while he was in hiding, Luke missed the deadline for applying for his age-in enrollment into Medicare (an inside joke, since the agency does a lot of Medicare marketing for its healthcare clients).

Episode VIII: The Last Jingle?

As the conversation continues, Luke shares his aspirations for starting over and trying something new—like maybe going into advertising. This is also an inside story since Dave Thomas actually got his start in the advertising business by writing musical jingles.

His character then asks Rey if she wants to hear one of his jingles. The scene fades out from a drone shot with Rey walking away baffled as Luke stays behind eagerly belting out a few of his prized creative jingles.

Finding the right location.

Matching the scenery of the beautiful tropical island in the movie was not going to happen. Especially in the mostly desert state of Utah. But I did have one idea. Thinking of a place I had been to on Antelope Island, which is in the Great Salt Lake, I remembered that from the peak of Buffalo Point (yes, buffaloes really do roam the island) you can see water on both sides . This would allow us to somewhat capture the makeup of the real scene—although it’s not quite a lush, green paradise.

So I went on a drive to scout out the location and it was indeed perfect, though it was a short, yet steep hike to get to the top. But since we needed to shoot Rey making an uphill climb anyway, it worked out with our plans.

Our co-lead, Shona Kay Moyer (playing the part of Rey), and me on location at Antelope Island, The Great Salt Lake, Utah.

Star-struck fifth graders.

Our shoot happened to coincide with a small bus of schoolchildren who also hiked the peak. As they approached the top to see Luke Skywalker and Rey shooting a movie scene, a couple of the kids asked if this was a promo for the real Star Wars movie. Nope, sorry kids! But it’s always inspiring to see another generation of Star Wars fans!

It was a sunny but crisp October day for this agency shoot.
Our talent and crew: Chas Kelly (sound/editing), Dave Thomas (Luke), Bethany Cozad (props/gear), Shona Kay Moyer (Rey), and Rod Santiano (video/editing).

by Jeff Midgley

How I almost named a new Mrs. Fields cookie as a marketing intern.

Mrs. Fields Hand-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookie. (Photo credit: MrsFieldsNY.com)

As I was nearing my college graduation from the University of Utah, Mrs. Fields was booming. The company had grown from a successful startup over a decade earlier, spreading like a chocolate-chip wildfire to just about every mall and shopping strip in the country. So here’s my story on how I almost named a Mrs. Fields cookie.

I was looking for a marketing internship.

When I approached local Salt Lake agency Fotheringham (today known as Richter7) for an internship, they said they had a great opportunity available with one of their clients, Mrs. Fields. They promised I’d still be able to attend the weekly agency meetings, but also work on-site at the client’s location in Park City.

I said yes. Not only would I be making a small wage at my first real marketing job, I’d be earning a redeemable voucher every payday, good for free Mrs. Fields cookies (this is also how I lost my college physique in only a few short months).

I started making the daily drive from Salt Lake City to ski town Park City, the Mrs. Fields headquarters at the time. I assisted the marketing director and marketing manager, working in the same office as founder Debbi Fields. Much of the work they did was promotional and point-of-purchase marketing. But they were also in the process of launching a new cookie.

The delicious new cookie needed a name.

To take on this task, the agenda item to name the new peanut butter cookie was brought up at the weekly agency meeting. We launched a brainstorm and started throwing out ideas for the name. To me, this was paradise. I was in an agency environment and taking part in a creative session.

After a few creative names for a peanut butter cookie dipped in chocolate were on the board, I thought a bit more about how the cookie actually looked, and how it was made. Then the idea hit me.

My brilliant idea? Peanut Butter Eclipse.

Just like the moon when half covered in a shadow, I thought the peanut butter cookie, half covered in chocolate, was a type of eclipse. So I blurted out a sudden, “How about Peanut Butter Eclipse?” Both my colleagues on the Mrs. Fields team and the agency people seemed to love the idea.

The marketing director actually said he would call Debbi Fields, who was traveling in Europe, and share the naming idea with her. This all sounded incredible. I had won the cookie naming lottery!

“Not so fast,” said Mrs. Fields.

Well, as you may have surmised by the title of this blog article, Peanut Butter Eclipse is not the name they went with. When the marketing director made the call to Debbi Fields, her response was that she already had strong feelings on how she wanted to name the cookie. What was her idea? “Hand-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookie.” (Pretty boring if you ask me.)

My cookie naming career was now in crumbles.

But the important part of the story is that I had taken part in my first brainstorm. I got to sit in with a client-agency meeting and work on a real project. This got my creative juices flowing and helped lead me into the beginnings of a creative marketing and writing career.

by Jeff Midgley

Hey Midge!

Today, I’m restarting my marketing blog. But with one change. I’ve rebranded it as “Hey Midge!”

Where does this phrase come from? I’m glad you asked. Well, it’s pretty obvious that my last name is Midgley. But there is a story here. At one of the first agencies I worked for in the mid nineties, we ran into some first-name confusion. It was a small Utah agency of fewer than 20 people.

Problem was, there were three Jeffs.

To avoid the confusion, we had to limit ourselves to one Jeff. Here’s how the Jeffs stacked up.

Jeff #1: The first Jeff was Jeff Smith. He was one of the partners, and the agency name, Smith Harrison Direct, included his name. Therefore, by longstanding agency tradition and general boss-subordinate etiquette, he had first claim to all Jeff-ness.

Jeff #2: The second Jeff was the creative director I reported to, Jeff Duncan. To support the issue, he decided to go by his last name, Duncan (sometimes shortened to Dunc). Soon enough, all long timers and newcomers alike knew him solely as Duncan.

Jeff #3: At the bottom of the totem pole was me, a young and eager copywriter. Since Jeff was now officially reserved for referring to the partner, everyone started calling me by my last name too. At first it was Midgley—but why fumble over two syllables when you can go with one?

So they called me Midge.

Working at a small agency, it’s acceptable to yell loudly enough across the open areas so everyone can hear you. So it was not uncommon for an art director to beckon for one of us with an irreverent howl of “Hey Dunc!” or “Hey Midge!”

And so it was. Midge. The name most people in the work environment would call me for years to come. It stuck when I moved to my next agency too.

And yes, I know that Midge is the name of a small mosquito-like fly often brought up in fascinating conversations with fly fishers. But that’s beside the point of this story.

Over the years, I’ve been paged with “Hey Midge!” a thousand times. Now I’m bringing it back as the title of this blog.

Me in my early agency days at Smith Harrison Direct (later Studeo).