New York, NY
FORD COBBS
Brand Strategy / Copywriter / Producer
Lead Campaign — Full Process
Sleepy Jones — Partners & Spade
CONCEPT — COPY — SCRIPT — CREATIVE DIRECTION — PRODUCTION
THE NAPKIN
While at a diner on Broadway I watched a couple have an argument that turned into tears that turned into silence that turned into laughter that turned into a hug that turned back into love.
Four minutes. Start to finish.
I turned the napkin over and started drawing.
02
THE PROBLEM
Roses. Candles. Chocolate in a heart shaped box that tastes like the box.
Everyone knew what was coming. Same flowers. Same reservation. Same version of love that arrives once a year on schedule and leaves with the receipt.
We sent a guy in pajamas through Manhattan with a bow and arrow instead.
03
THE INSIGHT
Real love doesn't feel like Valentine's Day. It feels like Sunday morning. It feels like not having to get dressed. It feels like pajamas.
That was the whole idea. Send Cupid through Manhattan in Sleepy Jones pajamas. Not the anxious, roses-or-else version of love. The comfortable kind. The kind that shows up in wings and hands you a flower and doesn't need anything back.
Sleepy Jones already knew what love actually felt like. They'd been making it for years.
04
THE IDEA
One film put love on the street. Loud, generous, slightly unhinged. A man in wings handing flowers to strangers in Manhattan who didn't ask for them and didn't know what to do with them.
No script. No actors. Just a guy in wings who meant it.
One put the same man in a bookstore. Sleepy Jones pajamas. An apple. A book about sleep. Valentine's Day was happening outside. He didn't go.
Nobody bothered him. He seemed fine.
One made love still. A song everyone already knew, played quietly, for no one in particular and everyone at once.
Not three random ideas. One idea. Three different rooms. Same pajamas.
WHAT I MADE
The street films were built from scratch. Every decision made on location, in the moment, with whoever showed up. I literally ran out of flowers twice.
The third came together differently. Quieter. More collaborative. But it lived inside the same idea from the diner window.
Ad 1
Cupid in NYC – bookstore
Same Cupid. Different Tuesday.
Sleepy Jones pajamas. A bookstore. An apple. A book about sleep. The holiday was happening outside. He didn't go.
Nobody bothered him. He seemed fine.
Chris Isaak — Wicked game
Still. Quiet. A song everyone already knew the words to.
Performed in pajamas. Posted to the singer's own people. No press release. No announcement.
The brand just showed up wearing something comfortable and let the song do the rest.
THE RESULTS
The strategy was simple. Find where love actually lives. Not where the brief said it lived.
Three films. Three honest coordinates on the same map. One running through Manhattan handing flowers to strangers who didn't ask for them. One sitting in a bookstore like the holiday outside had nothing to do with him. One quiet room. One song. Same pajamas throughout.
A quarter million people watched. No media budget. No location scout renting feelings by the hour.
When you stop selling the occasion and start showing the feeling, people find it themselves.
That's the whole job.
OTHER WORK
Creative Direction ·
Copy · Production
Nobody had ever asked men how they actually felt about their face.
Not as a real question.
So we asked. Wrote the questions. Built the shoot. Asked women the same questions separately.
The contrast was the whole conversation.
No product shots. No performance. Just the most honest thing a razor brand had said in a hundred years of making razors.
"It was never really about shaving."
#SpeakYourVote — DNC
Copy · Strategy ·
Production
Summer 2024
An election year. Everyone had an opinion. Nobody was having an honest conversation.
So we went and started one.
Went around the country with a camera. Asked people what they actually thought. Not what they were supposed to think.
The questions were the whole job. Writing something that felt casual enough to disarm but sharp enough to cut through the rehearsed answer. The kind of question that makes someone pause, look away for a second, and then say the thing they actually meant. Not the bumper sticker. Not the talking point. The real one.
Most people got there. Some surprised themselves.
The most subversive thing you can do in politics. Listen.
FREELANCE & PARTNERS & SPADE WORK
Some of it is here. Most of it isn't.
Editorial & Social
Concept · Copy
Creative Direction
Some of it is here. Most of it isn't.
Editorial & Social
Concept · Copy
Creative Direction
My name is Ford.
I've been living inside a brand my entire life without knowing it.
fordcobbsstudio@gmail.com
I've been living inside a brand my entire life without knowing it.
fordcobbsstudio@gmail.com