We were looking for a way to openly talk about balls in the mainstream and show the emotional connection every guy has with them. A love story. A love story where too much hair got in the way.

The idea for the visual metaphor—and I can’t say this loud enough—came from a pair of female creatives: Sophia Held and Lily Ramos. When we read that initial scene, of a man walking with his two hairy miniatures, we basically spit our iced coffees out and said “This is it!” The Manscaped team felt the same.

Then it was time to build the world of “The Boys.” Thanks to Fernando Passos, the minis are never the exact same height. One is just a tiny bit shorter than the other.

I fought hard for that hot-tub scene. There was some debate about whether all “boys” float. The jogging scene was the idea of Manscaped CMO Marcelo Kertesz. He thought it’d be funny to see “The Boys” bobbling all over the sidewalk. He was right.

Director J.J. Adler’s approach brought a level of intelligence that made the piece disarmingly dumb without feeling slapstick. To us, she was the woman who could bring “The Boys” to life.

The shoot was incredible. Gareth Parr was our VFX wizard. To keep the effects realistic and natural we shot everything practically. So, all the miniature versions you see are the same actor shot three separate times in the same location, keeping the same lighting, but moving the camera exactly 2x higher and 2x further to shoot them 2x smaller. 

And, of course, shaving (or should we say grooming) was real. The cast agreed to shave their faces, bodies and heads.

From edit to music to finishing, we had one rule: Let the funny breathe. Every decision needs to add to the payoff, which in this case was the product benefit.

Naturally, we all had great debates about the angle our hero should cup one of his boys, or if they bobbled enough in the jogging scene. We all measured the funny by how loud P.J. Pereira (Pereira O’Dell co-founder and creative chairman) laughed at the end. 

Overall, we’ve never laughed so much making anything in our lives. Hopefully the audience will have as much fun watching it as we did creating it—and of course, give their “boys” the love they deserve. 

Juliana is executive creative director at Pereira O’Dell. Prior to joining in 2023, she spent eight years at Meta, leading global creative at Instagram Creative Lab. In that capacity, she helped devise the strategy for innovative products, driving engagement for Reels, Stories and IGTV.

We spent two minutes with Juliana to learn more about her background, her creative inspirations and recent work she’s admired.

Juliana, tell us …

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I was born and raised in Sao Paulo In 2017, I moved to California with my cats and husband, where we lived for six years, and this year I came to New York for Pereira O’Dell. I’ve always had a crush on the big city.

How you first realized you were creative.

Since childhood, this curiosity about how things work has permeated my way of looking at the world. Of course, it had some implications—either breaking some stuff to figure out how it works, or creating stories that comply with my imagination. I apply creative thinking in everything I do. I think creativity can come from anywhere. A logic or mathematical challenge can be as inspiring as a book or piece of art.

A person you idolized creatively early on.

I was interested in something other than advertising when I went to college. I came from a high school where I studied computer programming and always liked to write, so I decided to shift to communications. At that time, I didn’t know the big advertising figures as creative inspirations. However, I’ve always enjoyed art, movies and literature. So, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dali were the coolest people in the world to me. People that I wish I could spend time with. In literature, Haruki Murakami and Julio Cortázar, among many. Surrealism is very attractive to me, almost as much as sci-fi. I like the possibility of imagining different worlds and playing with reality.

A moment from high school or college that changed your life.

When I was in college, the internet became “the thing.” I remember coming out of the BBS groups—the grandma of the internet—where we kept sending messages and hoping for communication over data, despite the slow connections. It all started with the internet, then mobile, then social media, and now we have the privilege of playing with AI. How can you not be excited about it?  

A visual artist or band/musician you admire.

I’ll stick with Frida. Beyond her work, she was such a character, and her art is a statement about a woman finding her space, occupying it boldly and disregarding every obstacle.

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring.

Many of my favorite podcasts are in Portuguese—like Boa Noite Internet (Cris Dias) or Naruhodo (Ken Fujioka). But one that I honestly love is Philosophize this! by Stephen West.   

Your favorite fictional character.

Naruto Uzumaki. I love his pure heart, strength, resilience and unbeatable optimism. 

Someone or something worth following on social media.

Baron Ryan on Instagram makes me smile at his clever lo-fi sketches and impersonations. 

One of your favorite creative projects you’ve ever worked on. 

Our Instagram campaign for Close Up (a toothpaste from Unilever)—“Don’t Judge, Just Kiss.” I love this project because the brand tried a new platform and developed another dimension of their personality. They publicly declared support for all kinds of love. The campaign’s visuals are breathtaking, and choosing love in an environment where hate and critics often find space was such a bold move. The campaign was done in partnership with FBiz Brazil’s creative team. 

A recent project you’re proud of. 

“Music to Small Businesses Ears.” Last year, I worked on a project to help small businesses use Reels on Instagram. Picking the right song was one of the hardest struggles for them, so we invited creators to develop songs and made them available at Instagram’s royalty-free library. 

Someone else’s work that inspired you years ago. 

“Love Has No Labels.” This campaign developed by RGA is another strong statement against bias and discrimination.

Someone else’s work you admired lately. 

“La Compil des Bleues” from Orange, created by the Publicis agency Marcel. This is the smartest use of AI in advertising so far. I hope to see more soon.

Your main strength as a creative person.

Curiosity and resilience. 

Your biggest weakness.

Stubbornness.

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in advertising.

Architecture.

Chief creative officer at Pereira O’Dell, Rob Lambrechts guides campaigns that engage audiences and speak to culture. He has helped build and refresh iconic brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Adobe, MINI, Stella Artois, the Ad Council, Zelle and more.

In 2018, the agency launched social film “The Beauty Inside” for Intel, which won an Emmy for Outstanding New Approach to Television. This made Pereira the first agency to win an Emmy against traditional TV programming, and the project helped evolve the branded entertainment space.

In 2021, Lambrechts co-authored the book, High Art: The Definitive Guide to Getting Cultured with Cannabis, published by Penguin-Random House. It pairs more than 50 works from artists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Henri Rousseau with various cannabis strains and products.

We spent two minutes with Rob to learn more about his background, creative inspirations and some recent work he’s admired.

Rob, tell us…

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I grew up in the Paris of the Midwest, St. Louis, Missouri, and now live in Marin County just North of San Francisco.

How you first realized you were creative.

Ask me tomorrow, maybe I’ll have realized it then.

A person you idolized creatively early on.

Growing up my dad and Uncle Jim were the funniest people I knew. They had conversations that spawned joke, upon joke, upon jokes, and were littered with all kinds of pop culture references. I used to think “God if I could just do that!” Although, I would be remiss to not add that also growing up I watched my mom, who was a nurse, work ten times harder than I ever could and without her work ethic I never would have accomplished anything.         

A moment from high school or college that changed your life.    

Because I’m a white male in my 40s with a liberal arts degree, I read Don Delillo’s White Noise in college. But it was the first time I’d read capital “L” Literature and thought, “Wait, this sh*t can be funny?!?”     

A visual artist or band/musician you admire.

The Flaming Lips. I was at a Flaming Lips show in Chicago when I was working as a (very bad) account person. Listening to them sing “Do You Realize?” it struck me that I was going to die one day and couldn’t spend more time doing a job I hated (and was bad at).            

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring.

You’d think a national book winner about John Brown at the start of the Civil War would be a tight assed, overly wrought homework assignment, but it turns out The Good Lord Bird by James McBride is one of the goddamn funniest, most spirited and big hearted novel I’ve ever read. (Also shout out to Emily St. John Mandel for Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel as she might be the best person on Earth at putting sentences together.) 

Your favorite fictional character.

Ray Midge in Charles Portis’s Dog of the South or Bravo’s Andy Cohen, both of whom I find endlessly fascinating.         

Someone or something worth following in social media.    

I’m not on any social media platform and never have been, except for LinkedIn, but come on … I’m not going to name any names here, but I get endless joy out of the LinkedIn posts that use some sort of personal experience (normally bad) to illustrate some (normally obvious) business lesson.     

How Covid-19 changed your life, personally or professionally.

I got really into Steely Dan for a minute there, which I can’t say I saw coming.        

One of your favorite creative projects you’ve ever worked on.

This is kind of a copout but it’s also the truth. I’ve been at Pereira O’Dell since the beginning (I was the first employee) and I’m starting to think the agency itself is the most interesting creative project I’ve ever been involved in. At least I hope that’s the case since I’ve invested the last fifteen years of my life into the place. Wait, did I say 15 years? That can’t be right.

A recent project you’re proud of.

I played a very small part in the “90 Minutes of Air Conditioning” film we created for Midea. Fernando Passos, Julie Rutigliano and Nick Sonderup deserve all the credit and more for bringing this extremely simple and extremely fun idea to life. 

Someone else’s work that inspired you years ago.

David Fincher’s “Golf” commercial for Gap might be the single most important piece of filmed content in existence. Her car. Her dancing. The music. The dude hitting golf balls in dress shoes, jeans and a leather jacket. A driving range at night. It’s perfect and mystifying all at the same time. 

Someone else’s work you admired lately.

Serviceplan’s “The Wish” really got me. So simple. So resonant and executed as close to perfection as you can get. It makes me angry I didn’t do it.

Your main strength as a creative person.

Being raised Catholic, I’ve been blessed with a healthy degree of self loathing, which dissuades me of any notion that anything I’ve ever done has been good enough. 

Your biggest weakness.

I don’t have what you’d call the warmest personality. Put more eloquently, I can be a real prick sometimes.         

One thing that always makes you happy.

Eating ice cream straight out of the carton in the middle of the night.         

One thing that always makes you sad.            

Those 30 seconds after eating ice cream straight out of the carton in the middle of the night.         

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in advertising.

Besides living a healthy and fulfilled life? But seriously, I’d probably be in the Marines (that’s not a joke).

I understand the debate. The first contact with a generative A.I. tool like Midjourney will make you feel like everyone is an artist. And as a response, artists will say that typing something and letting a computer do the work doesn’t qualify anyone. Not artistically, at least. But things don’t need to be that black and white in a field so new and open.

Out there in the world, there are some brave pioneers trying to understand how to be artistic through the tools of artificial intelligence. They are developing their style, their craft, their point of view. And even though I don’t feel qualified to define what art is, their quest definitely makes me feel like they are up to something.

So I picked a few of them that have been impressing me and inspiring me. Maybe from seeing their work, you will feel inspired too.

José Parra (Chema Parsanz)
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A photographer without a camera, José Parra creates these sometimes impossible, sometimes surreal series of pictures that look absolutely real, except you know they aren’t. His series about exotic (impossible) cats and NewBoriginals, with inexisting skin configurations are a punch in the gut. His series about a pink astronaut holding balloons in a mansion got me to stare for hours, trying to understand what was happening there. That’s it: he makes you stop. And in this fast paced world, this is always a good thing.

Chelsea Kinley
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A product designer who used A.I. to express the free side of her mind. Chelsea’s work brings colors and shapes you don’t recognize from other artistic attempts. Both from the graphic tone and the nature of her subjects—always so noble and grand, among the explosive shapes of her vibrant palette.

Ｔｏｒｕｓ トーラス
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The universe created by Torus doesn’t exist anywhere but in his head. Creatures, plants, vessels of spectacular stature, all wrapped inside of his signature encyclopedic look. A mix of real and unreal, old and new—yet with the consistency and rigor that makes his vision stand out from everything else.

Remi Molette
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The combination of dance, shapes and rhythmic imagination makes this A.I. film director one of the most mesmerizing artists in the A.I.-sphere. The combination of patterns, music and movement creates this hybrid of artificial and natural images that became his most prominent signature.

Roope rAInisto
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Roope Rainisto is an explorer. For a while, his experiments were funny takes on the possibilities of the medium, but soon his humor pulled him deeper into a darker exploration of the broken parts of the artificial land where he lives. What for others are technical problems to fix, like hands with too many fingers or displaced heads, for him are a playground. By forcing the engines to make its most annoying mistakes, his art creates a striking combination of familiarity at first… until the realization of how bizarre the whole scene is. Which in a certain way, reveals both the fascination and the fear we all face when we look at this new future being rendered in front of us.

My openness to A.I. does not mean we shouldn’t look critically at the problems this new world brings, though. Like the business models behind these companies that use established artists’ work to learn their styles, at a scale and precision that no student has ever been able to achieve. Regardless of the question around whether A.I. art is art or not, there is the certainty that human artists are and they need to continue to be celebrated, admired and protected. Because once we eliminate artists from the art, then you may have nothing left, anywhere.

But these are separate issues. For now, I chose to keep watching A.I. as someone watches a tiger, with the stunned fascination of someone ready to run. Even if deep inside I know it may be too late to escape, already…

When it came to the partnership between Adobe and Tierra Whack, the Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist known for her creativity and unique style, we knew there was an opportunity to create something truly special for all involved. It all started with Tierra inviting her fans to flex their own creativity and style by having them design her next wardrobe alongside renowned stylist Shirley Kurata. The initial designs were utterly amazing, and to see them go from a Photoshop file to a physical outfit was even more incredible. So much so that the final outfits earned Tierra, Adobe and the fans a feature in Vogue magazine. Talk about being mutually beneficial.

But it doesn’t always have to be a massive undertaking to make a successful partnership. Sometimes you just need the right artist at the right time to deliver a message in which they are personally invested. That’s what happened with the Ad Council when we partnered with Willie Nelson to cover the iconic song “I’ll Be Seeing You” as part of the national vaccination initiative “It’s Up to You.”

Willie was so passionate about the cause, he recorded the song the same day we contacted him. And that recording is the one you hear on the final spot. It’s absolutely pitch perfect and still gives me all the feelings as it did the first time I heard it.

Are partnerships the sole answer to being culturally relevant? Absolutely not. But when done well, they can create an impression for the brand, the artist and the fans. 

So, the next time you’re tasked with “being more culturally relevant,” start by asking yourself how you can collaborate with culture instead of interrupting it. 

I think about this quote a lot. Greg LeMond, famed cyclist and Tour de France winner, said it, so it’s a little more relevant this month as we watch the best cyclists in the world climb the Pyrenees and the Alps. But it could’ve just as easily been said by you, or me, or anyone in advertising. Today, or 10 years ago, or 19 years ago when I got started.

The “it” for LeMond was Le Tour—21 days of arguably the world’s hardest sporting competition. For us, the “it” is timelines. Deadlines. Briefs. Pitches. Social posts. Google docs … you get the picture.

Today in advertising, we’re not just multitasking. We’re hypertasking. How much time do we get to think about a single creative brief these days? But the industry evolution isn’t why I bring this up. For me, the power of the “it” in LeMond’s quote is craft. Not just how quickly we do our jobs, but how well.  

Whatever your discipline, it applies. 

Brand management never gets easier; you just go faster. 
Strategy never gets easier; you just go faster. 
Production never gets easier; you just go faster. 

But I’m a creative. So…

Getting to a powerful idea never gets easier; you just go faster.
Writing taglines never gets easier…
Crafting a presentation never gets easier…
Art direction… Design… Social campaigns… 360 global campaigns…
You just go faster.

These are the Pyrenees we train for. They’re not meant to get easier. You’re meant to get stronger, smarter and, yes, faster—at solving them. 

How do you do it? Consider another LeMond quote, this one given directly to me. 

I had the privilege of meeting Greg a few years ago as I was training for the L’Etape California, a 100-mile bike race with 8,000 feet of climbing. Not quite a stage at Le Tour, but no walk in the park. I asked him for any advice as I trained. He said you don’t have to go on five- or six-hour rides every day. All you have to do is go as hard as you can for an hour each time. And he won the Tour three times, so I’ll take that advice.

What does that mean in advertising?

As a writer, it just means carve out a quiet, uninterrupted hour to do really smart, focused, hard work. Sometimes, sure, you need a long ride, or long concepting session. But mostly, working smarter is the answer.

Go faster. Be brutal. Write hard. Only aim for the good stuff. Self-edit. On the page. Then, eventually, in your head. The further along you are in the business, the “easier” that will be. To not even write down the bad ideas, or headlines. But put in quality reps every time.

If you’re newer to the business and not there yet, just know it’s a process we’ve all been through. You don’t start out climbing Mont Ventoux. You have to start on the 5 percent climbs before you take on the 10 percent and 22 percent grades. Put in the miles. Turn the pedals over and over again. Crank like crazy. Write your ass off. The quality will come. When you’re starting out, it’s the volume that matters. You have to write more to eventually write less.

It sounds basic, because it is. The more miles you ride, the faster you get. But then, you’ll want more, better miles. And those won’t be easy, until they are. And so on.

Which leads me to another favorite quote, this one from Mark Twain, which has nothing to do with cycling, but everything to do with advertising. 

Make the time. Faster.

Over the course of the pandemic, we learned that going out freely is a luxury. We learned that natural environments like parks, specifically Central Park, are a quintessential place to not only come together but feel a sense of normalcy. However, this pure and organic place cannot maintain its 843 acres all by itself. It needs our help.

Pereira O’Dell understands the importance of keeping Central Park clean and beautiful. The agency has partnered with the Central Park Conservancy to launch The Park Needs Us to raise awareness about not only the natural beauty of the park but the people who help keep it that way. 

With a simple brief, “Get people to care and donate to the Central Park Conservancy,” Pereira O’Dell put its creatives to the test. How do we get people to care about something they think their taxes already pay for?

The answer was simple: Show people the places they care about, like the Sheep Meadow, the Bow Bridge, the Great Lawn, and even the North Woods, but with a twist. Instead of having the Central Park Conservancy ask for donations, what if the park itself did the asking, using the voices of famous New Yorkers?

From TV to movie actors to people from the arts, the park began to find its voice. ALL of its voices.

In the first spots, Hank Azaria becomes the Great Lawn, Whoopi Goldberg becomes the Bethesda Fountain, and Patricia Clarkson becomes the Bow Bridge. The agency used multiple celebs, rather than just one, because so many different people care about the park and want to help sustain its luxurious green grass and its landmarks.

Pereira O’Dell considered matching the talent with their favorite location in Central Park. They realized that, as long as the writing matched the actor and the character, they could do no wrong. And using the talent to personify parts of the park gives the work an energy that a more typical spokesperson approach wouldn’t.

“The specific is always better than the general,” Nick Sonderup, executive creative director of Pereira O’Dell, tells Muse. “It was WAY funnier to imagine Hank Azaria as a blade of grass than real live Hank Azaria walking through a patch of grass. He’s a talented, charismatic actor, but come on. A blade of grass talking? Way better. Or Whoopi Goldberg as a fountain? And Patricia Clarkson as a bridge? There was just so much more value in the wink to the audience as a voiceover than a straight spokesperson.”

The shoot went smoothly. All the talent showed up on time. As Sonderup humorously stated, “In fact, the Bethesda Fountain arrived 160 years early. The Bow Bridge didn’t go all diva on us. And the Great Lawn arrived camera ready.”

“This assignment was a writer’s dream,” Sonderup adds. “What would a small, beautiful bridge say, in a city full of huge, not-so-pretty bridges to get you to donate money? What would a patch of grass say? What about a 160-year old fountain? The goal was to turn each object into a real character, so you understood it wasn’t just a celebrity voiceover.”

Josh Gad, Kristen Bell, pianist Wu Han, and Eduardo Vilaro will be featured in upcoming spots. Which areas of the park will their voices represent? Well, according to Sonderup, “you’ll just have to wait and see.”

He optimistically adds, “Maybe we’ll even get Paul McCartney to be the voice of Strawberry Fields? If there’s any reader out there who knows Sir Paul, reach out.” 

Lambrechts is chief creative officer at Pereira O’Dell. He tells Muse that the book came out of an idea the agency had for a pitch—which it ended up losing. But Rob then happened to come in contact with an editor at Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, who was looking for a book about cannabis and she was interested.

“I always just loved the basic premise of the book—art is confusing, but weed can help—which made it fun to write,” Lambrechts says.

With a limited budget, they had no money for licensing art, which meant they needed to find works that were fair use and royalty free. “Luckily a lot of museums have made their collections as such, and we had a lot of interesting stuff to choose from,” says Rob. “But beyond just being weird—which there is plenty of—we wanted to find things that represented a wide range of art from different styles and time periods.”

As for the actual pairings, “the goal was to try and pair the biology/chemistry of the different strands with the work that the artist was trying to evoke. The goal was always to treat cannabis and the art itself seriously, but have some fun at the interpretations surrounding those works.”

Here’s a video trailer for the book:

“One of my favorite entries in the book is the Degas “The Milliners” entry, just because it makes me laugh, even though it’s kind of dark,” Lambrechts says. “My favorite artist in the book is William Blake, and although that particular piece isn’t my favorite, I really wanted to have something from him because I find him to be really inspirational for his creative output. One of my other favorite pieces is the Van Gogh ‘Irises.’ It’s a lovely painting of a few ordinary flowers that you can appreciate for its simplicity or with a slightly elevated mindset can provoke thoughts about how we’re always surrounded by the wonders of the natural world but very rarely stop to look.”

High Art will be published April 27.

Willie Nelson cut a new version of the standard “I’ll Be Seeing You” in a PSA urging viewers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 so they can attend live sporting events. His mellow, weathered tones convey a range of emotions. It’s a take perfectly suited to the wistful yet hopeful tenor of the song and our times.

“I sing ‘I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places,’ and that’s exactly what I hope these PSAs will help do: help get Americans informed about the vaccines and one step closer to the people and moments we miss,” the music icon says in a statement.

Nelson, 87, who received his shots a few weeks ago, recorded the track specifically for the 90-second film, though he doesn’t appear in it. Developed under the Ad Council’s “It’s Up to You” banner, the clip, produced in partnership with 13 sports leagues and organizations, features footage from professional playing fields and stadiums.

Happy, triumphant and moving scenes include Jordan Spieth celebrating after his 2017 Travelers Championship victory, Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff embracing at the U.S. Open, and New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso going yard.

The Ad Council and its Covid Collaborative of health experts devised the spot with agency Pereira O’Dell and these leagues and organizations:

• American Horse Council
• Athletes Unlimited
• Major League Baseball
• Major League Soccer
• NASCAR
• NBA
• NFL
• NHL
• National Women’s Soccer League
• PGA
• U.S. Open Tennis Championships
• WNBA
• WWE

“There are things that we all miss and hope to see again soon, and getting vaccinated is the first step to returning to those people and moments we miss the most,” Michelle Hillman, chief campaign development officer at the Ad Council, tells Muse. “The song has already been used in another recent PSA of ours, showing a grandmother finally getting to hug her grandchildren, something that resonates with so many people. So, whether it’s getting back to family, or sports moments, the song which Willie Nelson so beautifully covered is a symbol for all that we hope to return to.”

That earlier effort featured Billie Holliday’s famous recording of the 1938 song. The Ad Council tapped Nelson for the new PSA because “he is universally loved and a recognizable voice of America,” Hillman says.

“Within just two days of signing on, Willie Nelson recorded the vocals over a ukulele musical arrangement we had on the rough cuts,” Hillman recalls. “He recorded in his home studio and we were able to edit into the spot the following day.”

The work drives folks to GetVaccineAnswers.org for reliable information and follows memorable “It’s Up to You” PSAs starring all the living U.S. presidents and first ladies (except Donald and Melania Trump). At present, about 13.5 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. Experts say life can return to some semblance of pre-virus normality when about 75 percent of the population achieves immunity.

To some extent, the “I’ll Be Seeing You” spot recalls last year’s uplifting tribute to healthcare heroes from big-time athletes, who literally gave doctors and nurses the shirts off their backs.

Of late, Nelson has received a fair share of commercial play, appearing in deep-fake form for Omega Mart, and lending his precious pipes to Kohl’s 2020 holiday campaign.