HOT HOUSE: Stun Creative

Stun Creative "integrates cross-promotional campaigns across all platforms, not just TV," says Roth with full-on ad lingo brio. "There’s also an online component, an ad-sales component, plus whatever else the client wants."

Next time you go to the movies, get there early. You might have the privilege of seeing Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe share a tub of popcorn with an over-sized, but surprisingly tidy, pig perched on a pedestal (the pig, not Rowe). The Discovery Channel promo is witty, with an undeniable chemistry between host and swine, and the spot perfectly complements the program’s style, sans the signature mud and gunk. But if you like your ads a little, um, dirtier, you might remember the soft-porn Banana Cream Pie Fight between “Ginger” and “Mary Anne” that promoted The Real Gilligan’s Island for TBS, while simultaneously introducing cream pies into the fantasies of many college-aged males.

Those spots, and a myriad of other clever promotional campaigns, were brought to you by the folks at Stun Creative, led by Co-Presidents and Creative Partners Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein. And while Stun Creative bills itself as an advertising agency, it’s so much more than that: it’s a full-service production house as well. Roth and Feldstein, and their team of 45 creative directors, writers, producers and editors, handle all aspects of promos from concept to execution, from post to delivery. Another arm of their company, called Buster, handles motion graphics.

Both Roth and Feldstein started out on the client side (ESPN for Roth and Showtime for Feldstein, before meeting at The Travel Channel), had first-hand experience of what cable networks wanted when hiring an out-of-house ad agency and were frustrated when they couldn’t find it.

"There was a need for high production values at a lower price point," says Feldstein. "Commercial production companies think of a campaign as two or three spots," adds Roth, "but we knew that a network needed a:30 spot, plus a:20,:15,:10,:5…"

"And then the ad sales department had its own needs," continues Feldstein, finishing the thought.

When Roth and Feldstein launched Stun, they rented out an Avid room in a space they shared with producer Dick Wolfe, who was working on a reality crime show that depended on re-creations to tell its story. "We’d come in to work and discover that our room had been turned into a morgue or a crime scene. There’d be bloody shirts hanging off the backs of our chairs," laughs Ross. But despite such inspiring company, they soon outgrew their tiny blood-splattered quarters and opened Stun at its current LA location, across from the La Brea Tar Pits. They’ve attempted, however, to maintain a boutique atmosphere in the larger space.

The adjectives that Roth and Feldstein use to describe the vibe at their current digs are: creative, young, open, friendly, young, nice and…young. "We’re the oldest people in the office," admits Roth. "We get challenged to games of Halo a couple of times a week and everybody gangs up on us, because we’re the bosses. But I gotta tell ya, nothing relieves stress better than blowing up your co-workers with a grenade."

Roth and Feldstein work so closely together that they actually share a computer screen, although each has his own keyboard.

"We’ve never actually typed over each other," says Roth. "We have an incredibly healthy respect for each others’ ideas." Feldstein adds, "We make each other’s ideas better and they become one."

Still, you have to wonder: Who put that pig up there on a pedestal?