There’s something to be said for teamwork, and the team on the top of this year’s lists for art directors and copywriters prove it. From Leo Burnett, art director Anthony Chelvanathan (left) and copywriter Steve Persico put their heads together to create award-winning work for James Ready (for which they accepted a Gold Lion at Cannes), Procter & Gamble and the Alachua County Humane Society to name a few.
Chelvanathan started at Leo six years ago after interning at TBWA and Grey, while Persico joined as an intern straight out of school five years ago.
While their accomplishments this year are many, the one they hold most dear? “Our world record for a Sri Lankan and Italian being in the same room at one time over the course of one day. Beat the record by 23 hours and 59 minutes.”

For James Ready’s “Share our Billboard,” what were the challenges when it came to working with other people’s ad entries?
Persico: There were lots of challenges with the fact that we let consumers dictate what we would put on these billboards. As you can imagine, five out of every six submissions involved sex, booze, drugs, minors, illegal or dangerous or nude activity. Obviously, this makes them awesome submissions, however, not acceptable for beer ads.
Plus we had to make sure we could post people’s submissions on a billboard close to their hometown. Well, media had to make sure; we just sat back and relaxed and drank a couple of James Ready Beers. Except for Anthony, he doesn’t drink. He had a Five Alive.

The Cheer Dark print ads featured animated black-clad characters, like an artist and a rocker, with fat heads and skinny bodies. Where did this idea come from?
Chelvanathan: The Cheer Dark super-skinny fat people came from a simple insight: black makes you look thinner. So what would the darkest blacks make you look like? What would the darkest blacks make fat people look like?
After we had the idea, we knew we were on to something different. We gave people a good reason to buy a detergent just for their black clothes.
It is probably one of our favourite print campaigns. We are so glad we didn’t screw up the execution. The idea was simple and thankfully the execution stayed simple too.

What was it like getting up on stage to accept a Lion?
Persico: It was a great experience. When you work so hard to make something a reality, and then you put it in a room with the best work in the world and have it judged by some of the smartest people in the industry, and they come to the conclusion that it’s brilliant (or at least good), that’s a great feeling.
It was an exciting evening, drunken night, rough morning, but most importantly a motivational week in Cannes. It was great to hold up our nation’s flag on stage. We searched all of France for that flag and were glad to actually hold it up. Unfortunately we lost the receipt and couldn’t expense the 17 Euro we paid for it.
Chelvanathan: Cannes is always an inspirational experience. Winning was an extremely proud moment, even though the actual onstage moment lasted a few seconds.

Describe your working relationship.
Persico: We complement each other very well and often. Usually Anthony tells me how soft my skin is and I tell him how his eyes light up the room. We’re very vain.
But as far as why we make a good team, it has to be because we have the same goals, the same level of expectations (high) and the want to turn the worst projects into the best work.
Chelvanathan: Our ideas are the strongest when we are able to build off each other’s initial thoughts. One step at a time the idea gets better. We are open and honest. We sometimes brainstorm separately for 10 minutes and then share our ideas. It’s a friendly competition to see who has better ideas.
The loser has to brush the winner’s teeth.