Coworking with Andy Pearson

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Andy Pearson is VP of creative at Liquid Death. He’s also worked as a creative director at agencies including McKinney, Deutsch LA, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing? When I make small talk with other parents on the playground, I usually tell them I work for Liquid Death and mostly just make insane videos that somehow supposedly sell water and iced tea. I told someone that we launched a “Recycling Glory Hole” the other day, and they just looked at me funny.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Each new one is my favorite. Seriously. But shooting a music video with a bunch of dancing Puritans burning a can of Liquid Death at the stake for the single “Fuck Whoever Started This,” from our Greatest Hates Vol. 3 album, was pretty ridiculously fun. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much on set as the crazy, chaotic, and fun shoot we had with Whitney Cummings for “Recycled Plastic Surgery Center.”

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I think my all-time favorite ad is Folgers’s “Happy Morning.” The idea is so wild. The craft is impeccable. And the tagline at the end is perfectly underwhelming. It’s beautiful.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: In my spare time, I train for and race ultramarathons. I just completed a 250-mile race across Arizona back in May. It was four full days of running almost nonstop.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I love that people are finally trying to build compelling brands from scratch rather than trying to add compelling creative to brands that already exist. If the brand is the entire idea, you almost get to write for an interesting character rather than an ad campaign. (We’ve proven that with Liquid Death.)

I’m less optimistic about all the hard canned drinks. I’m not sure how many more things we can spike. That feels like a category where the crash has to come fairly soon.

What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I’d say none of them. Go find a weird show or movie you haven’t seen yet. Or crack open a history podcast. Better to fill our minds with non-marketing so we’re not regurgitating someone else’s ideas in our own work.