Steven Wilber
Copywriter/Funny Creative-Type/A Bit Much
Wieden+Kennedy
2022 – Copywriting/Creative Concepting
Samsung (yeah, THAT Samsung)
Play Xbox. No Console Required.
I was brought on to help push the Samsung Neo QLED, a TV that lets gamers stream Microsoft Xbox games directly through the TV. Starting in July, with a planned pre-Black Friday rollout, we needed to work fast to come up with ideas that two of the biggest tech titans in the world would both agree on. The experience was fun, challenging, enlightening, challenging, exhilarating, and at times, a little challenging.
Being able to pick up a controller and play a video game directly on the TV: simple as pie. Being able to convey that to consumers in a short amount of time: simple as AN EXTREMELY COMPLEX TO MAKE pie.
“Samsung’s Neo QLED Smart TV: The Only TV That Allows You To Play Xbox Games Without The Need For An Xbox” turned out to be a pretty unsexy slogan. We had to create messaging that was succinct, understandable, and, most importantly, liked by both Samsung and Xbox. Yikes.
The Return of The Clueless Gamer
On top of targeting gamers, we needed to appeal to non-gamers as well. So, we decided hit up one of the most non-gamery non-gamers to ever non-game, Conan “Conan Freaking O’Brien” O’Brien. We proposed resurrecting his beloved “Clueless Gamer” segment to showcase the TV.
Can I be real with you for a second (Gosh, I hope so)? Writing what was essentially a Power Point love letter to one of my comedy idols was easily one of the top 1,000 surreal moments in my life.
Old Spice (yeah, THAT Old Spice)
Smelf Confidence
In an honor beyond honors, I moved from Samsung to the always absurd Old Spice team to come up with an extension for their upcoming campaign geared toward the confidence-imbuing power of pleasantly pungent pits. In a horror beyond horrors, the dang thing was scrapped. With nothing to show for it (I swear it happened though), here’s a short, hopefully legally-vague, list of ideas my brain made:
- What boosts confidence more than wearing a pair of custom kicks? Hopefully nothing! The plan was to recruit talented sneaker artists to customize deodorant sticks and sell them for charity.
- Robobuela, a virtual AI grandmother who would be real with you about your hygiene, in the tactless way only grandma can, while giving you sage advice on staying fresh.
- Pitatouille, a loveable rat and completely original character (note: the original campaign featured a humanoid rat, but no one liked the rat) who lives in your armpit and helps you remain cool and confident during stressful situations.
- A choose-your-own-adventure Japanese manga about an underdog new student (also a rat…so I guess they were an under-rat). They would use their odor-sensing powers to rise through the ranks of the prestigious Perspiration University.
- 90s style PSAs with fake actors from fake primetime sitcoms telling you the confidence-crippling dangers of smelling smelly.
- Form a competitive arm wrestling team who were weak in upper body strength, but strong in confidence that they weren’t weak in upper body strength.
- Create an entire GQ-esque men’s style magazine that featured nothing but content based around smelling great and knowing it (If I recall correctly, this also made heavy use of the rat).
Wanna look at more stuff I’ve done? Well, here it is anyway!
