Jim Ferguson
DDB Chicago

Ferg was the President & Chief Creative Officer Y&R New York from 1999 to 2003. During that time he had a tremendous impact on the agency's creative product. He's played a hands-on role in developing work for many of the agency's key clients including Dr Pepper, Sony Electronics, Dannon and the NFL. He's reorganized the creative department and brought in additional talent from around the world, including France. Under his leadership, the agency has received many creative honors including an Emmy nomination for Computer Associates.

Prior to joining Y&R, Ferg served four years as Chief Creative Officer of DDB Needham Dallas.

Prior to joining DDB, Ferg served time at Leo Burnett, where he created most of McDonald's image advertising including the "Nothing But Net" campaign with NBA superstars Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. He's won numerous awards for clients including Hallmark, McDonald's, The Beef Industry Council and Tabasco.

Prior to thatÉwell, that's another story altogether.

In addition to creating some of advertising's most memorable award-winning campaigns, Ferg has written several movie screenplays, including the feature-length film "Little Giants" starring Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill. "Little Giants" was produced through Steven Spielberg's production company, Amblin Entertainment, after Spielberg saw Ferguson's work that used Pee Wee football as a theme for a McDonald's Super Bowl commercial. To this day, he still receives residual checks in the two-figure range.

If this wasn't enough, he headed up an elite group of creatives that worked on the George W. Bush presidential campaign. Ferg likes to claim that it was the insight of this group which resulted in a landslide victory in Florida for the President over Al Gore.

Prior to anything Ferg ever did in advertising, he spent his youth with his father and brother in cattle feedlot, and dreamed of working in a place where the coffee is free and the air conditioner managed to bring the temperature under 110 degrees. He's still hoping that someday that dream will come true. (He does believe, however, that pushing cattle through a small chute into an even smaller trailer trained him for a career in advertising.)

Ferg is a native of tiny Hico, Texas. Population 1,200 (and still growing). Any spare time he has is spent with daughters Sadie and Avery, ages 16 and 14, riding horses at his ranch outside of town, where he's been known to do a mean imitation of Kid Shaleen.