Ad Infinitum S4E06: Footprints in the Sand with Jordan Brady on AI, Craft & Bill Burr's Ads

I've been telling a story for years about a Big O Tires shoot in Kansas City that changed the direction of my career. I only recently found out Jordan Brady directed it. By then, he'd already become a friend and mentor. Neither of us knew we'd been on that set together. This turned into the longest Ad Infinitum yet. Jordan and I go back further than either of us realized. Jordan is a commercial director, filmmaker, and host of Respect the Process. We start with Rick Rubin's The Creative Act and talk about trusting the people you hire, delegating the craft, and keeping responsibility for the vision. Jordan shares how he uses AI on commercial projects, when he'd rather work with a human, and when to stop prompting and hand the shot to an editor or visual effects artist. As he puts it, "The tools don't equal the talent." We also get into the people who helped us find our way, the choices that shape a creative career, and what I had to put down to become an executive creative director. Jordan was there for more of those moments than I knew. Then we get the records out. We listen to Bill Burr's MeUndies, NatureBox, and ZipRecruiter reads on vinyl, talk about letting the host be the host, and use Audiolytics® Lite to look at what's in the message and what's missing. These are selections from the Monday Morning Podcast's "best of" collection, not a ranking of its highest-performing ads. Along the way, I realize one of the scripts he's reading came from Oxford Road. We also play a Tommy John holiday spot from the Oxford Road archives and work through two questions that matter whenever we review creative: How are we measuring success, and how long do we have to get there? The score helps us evaluate the ad. We still have to watch the results. This episode contains explicit language. Ad Infinitum is the podcast devoted to audio ads, the creatives who make them, the thinking behind them, and how to make them work better. Presented by Oxford Road. Produced by Angela Hunter, Caitlyn Spring, and Ezra Fox. Written and hosted by Stew Redwine. Sound design by John Mattaliano. Audio production by Zach Hahn. Remember: have fun making the ads work.