2007 ADDY JUDGES
Jeff Caporizzo
Vice President/Creative Director
Ogilvy Creative Studio
Jeff Caporizzo is a talented creative lead in the Ogilvy Creative Studio (based in Ogilvy’s DC office). His hallmark on projects is strong, strategic concepts executed with striking good work. A creative zealot, he is proud to carry on the Ogilvy tradition of delivering industry-leading work to clients across all media.
At Ogilvy Jeff has led the efforts (including advertising) for a variety of large accounts such Dupont/Teflon, Novartis, Lenovo, Mirant and the American Association of Railroads. Successful smaller projects include Fordham University and the Soap and Detergent Association. Jeff’s governmental work includes the Center’s for Disease Control’s national HIV/AIDS awareness and advocacy program, Business and Labor Respond to AIDS.
Getting his start in Washington, DC in 1995, Jeff joined a small, award-winning print design studio with an impressive client list that included the Democratic National Committee, HBO, and the National Parks and Recreation Association. Here he gained the nuts and bolts know-how of excellent print design employed as part of a cohesive branded campaign.
Next stop was Boston where this experience was broadened and refined on a national scale primarily with consumer-durable manufacturers such as Closetmaid, Genie and Dewalt. Identity development, environmental graphics, and packaging had to be seamlessly woven together for these popular brands to muscle out their competitors in the cut-throat aisles of Home Depot and Lowe’s superstores.
Trader Joe’s, a popular California grocery store chain valued then at 1.5 billion dollars, was expanding rapidly across the country. In his first creative lead position, Jeff headed this creative department, introducing the quirky and hard to define Trader Joe’s brand to markets in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Jeff focused his team on packaging, understanding that this vehicle should be the cornerstone of the company’s brand. Reworked and reinvigorated packaging drove sales and this new, energized branding was leveraged throughout the company: shopping bags, website, signage, uniforms, advertising.
In 2003 Jeff founded his own creative services company, Creative Powerhouse Design. His client list grew to include Au Bon Pain, Remax, Harvard University, Georgetown University and Sodexho Campus Services. At both Sodexho and Au Bon Pain, Jeff was an integral part of internal creative team leadership, stewarding as a consultant national campaigns within each company.
Jeff graduated Providence College in 1992 as a Studio Art Major and remains a practicing artist to this day. He has exhibited throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including several shows in New York City, Boston, Washington, DC, Providence and Baltimore. He resides in Baltimore with his wife and son.
Mark Carlson
Senior Creative Director, US Marketing, McDonald’s Corporation
Mr. Carlson is a 1982 Graduate of the College of Design at Iowa State University with a BA in Graphic Design. He began his career learning the traditional elements of print production in a print shop, then worked as a graphic designer for American Republic Insurance Company, and later Kragie/Newell Advertising in Des Moines, IA (now part of The Integer Group of advertising agencies). In his 11-year stay at the agency, he worked his way to copywriter, producer, director, and finally Creative Director, working for such advertisers as NAPA Auto Parts, Chevrolet, Firestone, and McDonald’s.
In 1998, he joined McDonald’s Corporation’s world headquarters in Oak Brook, IL, and works with dozens of agencies in the development and approval of creative for all media. His position gives him the challenging responsibility of “brand steward,” coordinating the efforts of local and national advertising. He recently managed the redesign and implementation of McDonald’s new global packaging system.
Mark has won numerous local and regional awards for his creative work (ADDY, Telly), and the advertising his agencies have created for McDonald’s have won too many national and global awards to list. He has been active in local chapter activities of the American Advertising Federation, winning Ad Pro of the Year honors, and has served for fifteen years as an ADDY judge and keynote speaker. He currently serves on the Joint Policy Committee of the ANA/AAAA (Association of National Advertisers/American Association of Advertising Agencies), negotiating the commercials contracts with the actors and musicians unions.
Mark and his wife Vicki Ray Carlson live in Naperville, IL with their three daughters Emma, Leah and Sadie.
Greg Carson
Creative Director/Partner, MeringCarson
Sacramento, CA
You’ve got to hand it to him. For all the creative direction that Greg lends to a project, the things that he’s most respected for are a true desire to drive consumers to action; including one incident where a woman smashed her TV with a motorcycle helmet while watching an Orkin Pest Control commercial he created featuring a computer-generated cockroach crawling across the screen.
Even scarier is that we hired him as Creative Director, even after finding out that he got his degree in Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento. Greg rounded out his ad education working on Orkin, Norfolk Southern Railroad, Clarus B2B Software and Maxfli & Slazenger Golf at J. Walter Thompson/Atlanta.
Greg slathers his creative and business know-how across every piece of advertising MeringCarson creates like he’s butterin’ a muffin, and likes to keep his wit sharp by seeing how many jokes he can think up that have “walnuts” in the punchline.
With offices in both Northern and Southern California, MeringCarson likes to think of themselves as California’s Ad Agency. And with current clients like Pebble Beach, Lake Tahoe, California Raisins, Disneyland and California Tourism, who can blame them?
