Full service production shop The Collective @ LAIR has hired Chris Dealy, creative director, film director, entrepreneur, and ad industry veteran, as a Partner with the studio. Prior experience includes a role at McCann Erickson as Vice President and Senior Copywriter and most recently Executive Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson.
In 2005, Dealy founded his own ad agency, Splick 13, that utilized an innovative business model of freelancer teams that now seems a precursor to the modern trend of nimble boutique creative teams from big agency backgrounds.
Dealy’s new role reflects an expansion of LAIR’s capabilities and will position him among their team of world-class directors that includes company Founder and Chief Creative Director Thor Raxlen.
“Chris has a valuable and deep understanding of exactly what brands think and want, while also implicitly understanding what the ad agencies of the world are going through,” explained Raxlen, in a statement. “At the same time, he has a natural ability as a filmmaker, with a keen sense of how to plumb emotions to comedic or dramatic effects. His ability as a multi-talent takes our capabilities to the next level.”
Dealy is known for his creative work on Häagen-Dazs’ “äah” campaign, Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign, ION TV’s launch campaign, and various other campaigns for brands like Royal Caribbean, Kleenex, and Nestlé’s Stouffer’s, Tollhouse, and Outshine brands.
“What drew me to LAIR was their expertise across the entire spectrum of content creation and their overt sense of collaboration that ties it all together. The needs of brands and the expectations of agencies are all changing, and here at LAIR we can really give our partners bang for their buck and offer them a complete package,” stated Dealy. “I love elevating the mundane into the heroic – using the project or product as a vehicle to make people stop for a second and look at everyday situations in a different way, one that will help them emotionally, and in turn help brands make a point or sell their product.”
