Andy Azula

For the fictional character see Azula

Andres "Andy" Azula (born July 5, 1966) is a creative director for The Martin Agency,[1] who achieved fame after starring in a series of advertisements he created for the United Parcel Service in which he draws on a whiteboard.[2][3][4] The ads were directed by Errol Morris.[2]

Early life and education

Azula was born in Miami, Florida, the son of parents who are natives of Colombia. He grew up in Westlake Village, California, and relocated to Florida while he was in high school. After attending a local community college and working for a paste-up artist in Orlando, Azula attended Kennesaw State University, graduating in 1990. Afterward, he spent two years studying advertising at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta.[5]

Professional career

Azula began his career at Leoffler Ketchum Mountjoy. He won awards for his work on North Carolina Travel and Tourism. He later worked at Fallon McElligott in Minnesota where he developed the Buddy Lee campaign for Lee Jeans. He also worked at Goodby Silverstein and Partners and McCann Erickson in San Francisco,[1] creating advertising campaigns for Microsoft. His accounts have also included BMW, Budweiser, E-Trade, and MSN.[1] His work has won him a number of Clio Awards, one of the advertising industry’s highest honors.[1] He also did work for AT&T Wireless.

UPS commercials

As the ad agency's creative director, Azula created a demo tape for the UPS commercials that he sent to Morris. Then, Morris cast professional actors in the same role but told Azula that he liked Azula in that role. Ultimately, focus groups hired by the ad agency said they preferred Azula in that role over any of the professional actors.[5]

On the December 5, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, a pair of UPS commercial parodies aired with Bill Hader portraying Azula.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Brown, Cheryl Anderson (Summer 2006). "Creativity on the Fly" 4 (1). Kennesaw State University.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stevenson, Seth (2007-04-16). "Back to the Drawing Board". Slate.
  3. ↑ Williamson, Richard (2007-03-19). "On the Spot: Martin's Azula". Adweek.
  4. ↑ Lazare, Lewis (2007-03-02). "UPS ad does the white thing". Chicago Sun Times.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.boomerlifemagazine.com/Pages/BoomerFunQAAndyAzula.php

External links