This was one of the first campaigns I was handed at Crawford. The creative director sat me down and said, “Do you know anything about Coen brothers movies?” and I about died, because they happen to be my favorite directors. After defibrillating me, the CD continued: “Well, this is supposed to be kind of quirky and dark. Like that.”

This campaign promotes an Appalachian destination located in the heart of the North Carolina Smokies. It’s a rallying cry for locals, a punchline at the end of a joke, and an authentic representation of everything that makes Haywood, Haywood.

The hallmark of this campaign is what we call “Hay Now” lines, which sit pretty right at the top of each ad. At last count, I’d written about 200 of these suckers for various different things: print ads, emails, display ads, TV spots, pint glasses, t-shirts…the list goes on.

Many thanks to this client for really letting me get crazy.

This campaign made top 3 finalists for best campaign in the 2018 Esto Awards.