Flavor Flav’s big reveal at this year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl, alongside an equally hyped-up and soon-to-be-mayo-dumped P.J. Fleck, coach of bowl game winners Minnesota Golden Gophers. (Image courtesy Familiar Creatures) When hip-hop hype man Flavor Flav was revealed to be the Tubby mascot at this year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl – and then commenced with the tradition of dumping a tub of mayonnaise on the winning football team’s coach – the media moment that resulted was the successful culmination of months of work by Richmond ad firm Familiar Creatures. Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck gets doused in Duke’s. (Courtesy Duke’s Mayo Bowl) The 11-person shop had set out to top the buzz from the previous year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, which drew significant media coverage with its Pop-Tart mascot getting lowered into a giant toaster and then eaten by the winning team. The publicity stunt went viral and was brought back for this year’s game. Granted, the so-called “mayo dump” had drawn comparable attention for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl since it started doing it four years ago. But Familiar Creatures, which has led Duke’s marketing since after the first dump, wanted to add a new element to create a media moment that could top Pop-Tarts’. The “Tubby Time” campaign was a high note for Familiar Creatures, which co-founders and creative directors Dustin Artz and Justin Bajan launched in 2018 after stints at larger agencies including The Martin Agency, where they worked on GEICO Gecko ads together. The past two years, Familiar Creatures has landed twice on BizSense’s RVA 25 list of the fastest-growing businesses in Richmond. Artz and Bajan sat down with BizSense to discuss the agency’s Duke’s Mayo mojo with Tubby Time team members Sarah Carr, Carey Ely and Ben Englander. The following is an edited transcript: From left: Sarah Carr, Ben Englander, Carey Ely, Dustin Artz and Justin Bajan at Familiar Creatures’ Scott’s Addition office. (Jonathan Spiers photos) RBS: How did the Tubby Time campaign come about? What was your approach to adding something new for the Mayo Bowl? Dustin Artz: The first year – we had not yet been working with Duke’s – something happened where the team that won accidentally dropped the trophy for the Mayo Bowl and it shattered. It was kind of serendipitous for Duke’s because the quarterback at the time taped a little jar of Duke’s to the trophy, and it went viral. The team at Duke’s ran with it…and from then on, it was how do we make a moment out of every Duke’s Mayo Bowl, so every year we try to elevate it. Carey Ely: One of the biggest things is, when you look back at the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year, it was the headline everywhere: They ate the mascot. It was a big deal. Duke’s Mayo Bowl wants to be the most ridiculous college bowl game, so to make that happen, we’re like, “Well, how do we beat the Pop-Tarts Bowl? They’ve eaten their mascot; what could we do that one-ups, that gets us in the press, that gets people talking about Duke’s and puts them in that same realm? We didn’t know what Pop-Tarts was going to do (this year). I had seen the woman from Kellanova (Pop-Tarts’ parent company) speak about it, and she’s like, “It’s more important what you do afterwards; we have to come back even harder.” …That was the brief, basically, to the creative teams: How do you outdo whatever may be coming down the pipe from Pop-Tarts. Richmond BizSense: How did you end up deciding on a celebrity reveal with Tubby? Sarah Carr: It took a ton of ideas to end up landing on that one. We talked about all the things Tubby could do, all the ridiculous stunts he could do. For the Tubby Time idea we landed on, it was, “Okay, what if we think about what’s in Tubby?” You don’t see a mascot revealed the way that we did. Could we really shock people with who’s inside? How could we really have fun with it? Ben Englander: That was a lot of the back and forth: How do we bring it to life in the best way possible without it getting complex and without it being some weird afterthought moment. Putting it next to the mayo dump and having it all be in the same thing was really key to getting as much attention and spectacle as possible. RBS: How did you land on Flavor Flav? I understand Justin’s a big fan. Justin Bajan: He gave me two nicknames right away; it was the best day of my life (mimics Flavor Flav): “Justin Time! Justin Case!” Artz: It didn’t start out as Flavor Flav. There’s a process where we were like, this could be anyone, these are our shortlist, but then you have to go through all of the representation and management of all these people. You have to get dollar numbers, you have to figure out the charities they want to give to. You have to see if they actually want to be in a costume that looks like a mayo jar. Flavor Flav loved mayo, so we loved that about the fit. Because you don’t want it to just be like, “It’s Tom Hanks!” Which, we would probably do Tom Hanks, but it’s like, why? Ely: He also was the perfect height. He was the perfect size to go in there. He’s the perfect hype man. Carr: And the name, Flavor Flav, worked out as this great cherry on top. The group in the office’s conference room, which features pennant flags for each of the agency’s clients. RBS: I assume Flavor Flav was not in Tubby the entire game? Artz: Mentally he was. Englander: And continues to be! RBS: Were you all nervous wrecks as it was playing out on live TV? Artz: In the very beginning, we were like, “What if they don’t even know who this celebrity is?” It was all very under wraps, because we didn’t want to tease it. We wanted it to just be very pure. But part of that is like what if the coach would have been like, “What’s going on?” Bajan: With anything that we do, there’s a lot of planning and strategy. When we’re making a commercial, there’s all these different phases. One of those phases is pre-production.…We had storyboards, because without that, people are like, “What’s going on? When?” Then it’s 11:47, and it almost all goes out the window. We’re like, “We’re here, we’re in the right place; do the thing, everyone!” What took away some of the nerves is the partnership that we’ve been growing with Charlotte Sports Foundation. They were so on board, and Bespoke (Duke’s Mayo Bowl’s sports marketing agency). They were not going to let it fail. RBS: The result was amazing. Especially the reaction of P.J. Fleck, the Minnesota coach. [embedded content] Carr: The energy when the reveal happened was so electric. People were walking away and I was overhearing them saying, “That’s the last person I expected to be under there!” Bajan: So many factors had to align. We obviously rehearsed the mechanics of it, we worked it through with Flavor, just about how you pick it up and stuff, but you can’t account for when ESPN shows up at 11:47 p.m., because they are in charge. You want it to be exciting, and it really was. I was engulfed by all the Minnesota players, and just to hear them get excited was exciting. RBS: Last year you did the pro wrestling-themed “Mayo Mania” spots that debuted during the Mayo Bowl. How did that originate? Artz: That was right when we were figuring out Tubby. We were trying to appeal to the South a bit and the legacy of wrestling here. We just loved the idea at the time of drawing a distinction between Duke’s, who was a challenger brand, and Hellmann’s, who is the category leader. We wanted to have Hellmann’s represent “Big Mayo” because they’re just so much bigger than Duke’s. At that time, we were like, how do we quickly draw a distinction? So, we wanted to have a head-to-head match, introduce some fun moves and have Big Mayo using some dirty tricks, and then the upstart Duke’s winning.…Duke’s doesn’t like to be the one who’s being directly competitive with Hellmann’s, but if you have a mascot who can do that, then it kind of makes it more fun. That was Tubby’s original role: to be a hype man for the games but also provide a social content generation mechanism. RBS: What’s Familiar Creatures’ creative process? How do you go about coming up with these ideas? Bajan: We really want to know what’s true about a brand and what can yield billions of ideas. What is a little bit unique with us is the fact that Dustin or me, or both, are involved in the strategy phase way before we even know what the heck we’re going to do. We are already pressure-testing it at that level, as opposed to, “Well, this is what they gave to us, let’s just try to make the most of it.” Artz, left, and Bajan first worked together at The Martin Agency. Artz: Carey, Justin and I have been working on the strategy. Between us three, we’ve seen so many briefs for so many brands over the years that I think we know a lot of things that are dead ends or not good. We love what we do, but we’re cynical about a lot of the stuff that doesn’t feel true. We can steer, whereas when you work at these bigger places, it just takes one person in a layer of seven to be like, “This is what we’re doing.” We have a lot more control, and because our clients buy in and know the value we bring, I think we overall can have a lot more control over the strategic sandbox, and the ideas themselves and the execution, because it all matters. RBS: A lot of your ads have a quirky sense of humor that is definitely your own. I’m thinking about the “Welcome to Duke’s Country” spot you put out last year. Bajan: I think it’s a sense of dryness or wryness because of the cynicism within us, and that is how it comes out. Me personally, I’ve been heavily influenced by the coaching tree of Gerry Graf (SlapGlobal co-founder) and how he saw the world in terms of making the brand the hero of the communications as opposed to the medicine at the end. If you look at some of the great work for Skittles and Starburst, the brand is central to the idea. The brand is the joke. Some of the greatest work does that, so we try to make sure that happens. It’s never going to be: “Oh, by the way, logo.” We want you to know the whole time this is a Chesapeake Bank commercial; it couldn’t be anybody else. There is definitely an emphasis on that. RBS: Are there other ad shops in town whose work you admire? Bajan: There was a spot for safe driving that Two Tango did with ducks in it that I found enjoyable. I’m always checking for what Fable’s doing with the Virginia Lottery account; they’ve shown a lot of different tones there. We also love Spang on the production side. We work with them a lot, so I’m always rooting for Spang to keep getting more work. The Nivis spot (by Tilt Creative + Production). They made this spot for an OK budget look like it was the most epic thing ever. That was done by people that we know from Arts & Letters. It’s just mind-blowingly great. RBS: Is your Duke’s Mayo work Familiar Creatures’ calling card? Artz: I will say Duke’s was our first put-us-on-the-map client, and the great clients there trusted us to do what we do well. I think that’s a good microcosm for how we like to view work. I think it is becoming challenger brands that have a passion brand potential, and then just elevating them to really start scaring the big guys that are running the same playbook. I think all of our clients are going to become like a Duke’s.

We didn’t know what Pop-Tarts was going to do (this year). I had seen the woman from Kellanova (Pop-Tarts’ parent company) speak about it, and she’s like, “It’s more important what you do afterwards; we have to come back even harder.” …That was the brief, basically, to the creative teams: How do you outdo whatever […]

We didn’t know what Pop-Tarts was going to do (this year). I had seen the woman from Kellanova (Pop-Tarts’ parent company) speak about it, and she’s like, “It’s more important what you do afterwards; we have to come back even harder.” …That was the brief, basically, to the creative teams: How do you outdo whatever may be coming down the pipe from Pop-Tarts.

RBS: A lot of your ads have a quirky sense of humor that is definitely your own. I’m thinking about the “Welcome to Duke’s Country” spot you put out last year.

RBS: Were you all nervous wrecks as it was playing out on live TV?

Artz, left, and Bajan first worked together at The Martin Agency.
The group in the office’s conference room, which features pennant flags for each of the agency’s clients.
At that time, we were like, how do we quickly draw a distinction? So, we wanted to have a head-to-head match, introduce some fun moves and have Big Mayo using some dirty tricks, and then the upstart Duke’s winning.…Duke’s doesn’t like to be the one who’s being directly competitive with Hellmann’s, but if you have a mascot who can do that, then it kind of makes it more fun. That was Tubby’s original role: to be a hype man for the games but also provide a social content generation mechanism.
RBS: I assume Flavor Flav was not in Tubby the entire game?

Carey Ely: One of the biggest things is, when you look back at the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year, it was the headline everywhere: They ate the mascot. It was a big deal. Duke’s Mayo Bowl wants to be the most ridiculous college bowl game, so to make that happen, we’re like, “Well, how do we beat the Pop-Tarts Bowl? They’ve eaten their mascot; what could we do that one-ups, that gets us in the press, that gets people talking about Duke’s and puts them in that same realm?

RBS: What’s Familiar Creatures’ creative process? How do you go about coming up with these ideas?
Dustin Artz: The first year – we had not yet been working with Duke’s – something happened where the team that won accidentally dropped the trophy for the Mayo Bowl and it shattered. It was kind of serendipitous for Duke’s because the quarterback at the time taped a little jar of Duke’s to the trophy, and it went viral. The team at Duke’s ran with it…and from then on, it was how do we make a moment out of every Duke’s Mayo Bowl, so every year we try to elevate it.
Ben Englander: That was a lot of the back and forth: How do we bring it to life in the best way possible without it getting complex and without it being some weird afterthought moment. Putting it next to the mayo dump and having it all be in the same thing was really key to getting as much attention and spectacle as possible.
Richmond BizSense: How did you end up deciding on a celebrity reveal with Tubby?
Artz: Mentally he was.
RBS: How did you land on Flavor Flav? I understand Justin’s a big fan.
The 11-person shop had set out to top the buzz from the previous year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl, which drew significant media coverage with its Pop-Tart mascot getting lowered into a giant toaster and then eaten by the winning team. The publicity stunt went viral and was brought back for this year’s game.
RBS: Is your Duke’s Mayo work Familiar Creatures’ calling card?
Artz: Carey, Justin and I have been working on the strategy. Between us three, we’ve seen so many briefs for so many brands over the years that I think we know a lot of things that are dead ends or not good. We love what we do, but we’re cynical about a lot of the stuff that doesn’t feel true.
Artz and Bajan sat down with BizSense to discuss the agency’s Duke’s Mayo mojo with Tubby Time team members Sarah Carr, Carey Ely and Ben Englander. The following is an edited transcript:
Granted, the so-called “mayo dump” had drawn comparable attention for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl since it started doing it four years ago. But Familiar Creatures, which has led Duke’s marketing since after the first dump, wanted to add a new element to create a media moment that could top Pop-Tarts’.
RBS: Last year you did the pro wrestling-themed “Mayo Mania” spots that debuted during the Mayo Bowl. How did that originate?
We can steer, whereas when you work at these bigger places, it just takes one person in a layer of seven to be like, “This is what we’re doing.” We have a lot more control, and because our clients buy in and know the value we bring, I think we overall can have a lot more control over the strategic sandbox, and the ideas themselves and the execution, because it all matters.

Sarah Carr: It took a ton of ideas to end up landing on that one. We talked about all the things Tubby could do, all the ridiculous stunts he could do. For the Tubby Time idea we landed on, it was, “Okay, what if we think about what’s in Tubby?” You don’t see a mascot revealed the way that we did. Could we really shock people with who’s inside? How could we really have fun with it?

RBS: Are there other ad shops in town whose work you admire?
What took away some of the nerves is the partnership that we’ve been growing with Charlotte Sports Foundation. They were so on board, and Bespoke (Duke’s Mayo Bowl’s sports marketing agency). They were not going to let it fail.
Artz: I will say Duke’s was our first put-us-on-the-map client, and the great clients there trusted us to do what we do well. I think that’s a good microcosm for how we like to view work. I think it is becoming challenger brands that have a passion brand potential, and then just elevating them to really start scaring the big guys that are running the same playbook. I think all of our clients are going to become like a Duke’s.
If you look at some of the great work for Skittles and Starburst, the brand is central to the idea. The brand is the joke. Some of the greatest work does that, so we try to make sure that happens. It’s never going to be: “Oh, by the way, logo.” We want you to know the whole time this is a Chesapeake Bank commercial; it couldn’t be anybody else. There is definitely an emphasis on that.
From left: Sarah Carr, Ben Englander, Carey Ely, Dustin Artz and Justin Bajan at Familiar Creatures’ Scott’s Addition office. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck gets doused in Duke’s. (Courtesy Duke’s Mayo Bowl)
Englander: And continues to be!
Bajan: I think it’s a sense of dryness or wryness because of the cynicism within us, and that is how it comes out. Me personally, I’ve been heavily influenced by the coaching tree of Gerry Graf (SlapGlobal co-founder) and how he saw the world in terms of making the brand the hero of the communications as opposed to the medicine at the end.

RBS: How did the Tubby Time campaign come about? What was your approach to adding something new for the Mayo Bowl?
Carr: And the name, Flavor Flav, worked out as this great cherry on top.
Artz: That was right when we were figuring out Tubby. We were trying to appeal to the South a bit and the legacy of wrestling here. We just loved the idea at the time of drawing a distinction between Duke’s, who was a challenger brand, and Hellmann’s, who is the category leader. We wanted to have Hellmann’s represent “Big Mayo” because they’re just so much bigger than Duke’s.
Justin Bajan: He gave me two nicknames right away; it was the best day of my life (mimics Flavor Flav): “Justin Time! Justin Case!”
Ely: He also was the perfect height. He was the perfect size to go in there. He’s the perfect hype man.
Artz: In the very beginning, we were like, “What if they don’t even know who this celebrity is?” It was all very under wraps, because we didn’t want to tease it. We wanted it to just be very pure. But part of that is like what if the coach would have been like, “What’s going on?”
When hip-hop hype man Flavor Flav was revealed to be the Tubby mascot at this year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl – and then commenced with the tradition of dumping a tub of mayonnaise on the winning football team’s coach – the media moment that resulted was the successful culmination of months of work by Richmond ad firm Familiar Creatures.

The Nivis spot (by Tilt Creative + Production). They made this spot for an OK budget look like it was the most epic thing ever. That was done by people that we know from Arts & Letters. It’s just mind-blowingly great.

Carr: The energy when the reveal happened was so electric. People were walking away and I was overhearing them saying, “That’s the last person I expected to be under there!”
Bajan: We really want to know what’s true about a brand and what can yield billions of ideas. What is a little bit unique with us is the fact that Dustin or me, or both, are involved in the strategy phase way before we even know what the heck we’re going to do. We are already pressure-testing it at that level, as opposed to, “Well, this is what they gave to us, let’s just try to make the most of it.”
Bajan: With anything that we do, there’s a lot of planning and strategy. When we’re making a commercial, there’s all these different phases. One of those phases is pre-production.…We had storyboards, because without that, people are like, “What’s going on? When?” Then it’s 11:47, and it almost all goes out the window. We’re like, “We’re here, we’re in the right place; do the thing, everyone!”
Bajan: There was a spot for safe driving that Two Tango did with ducks in it that I found enjoyable. I’m always checking for what Fable’s doing with the Virginia Lottery account; they’ve shown a lot of different tones there. We also love Spang on the production side. We work with them a lot, so I’m always rooting for Spang to keep getting more work.
Artz: It didn’t start out as Flavor Flav. There’s a process where we were like, this could be anyone, these are our shortlist, but then you have to go through all of the representation and management of all these people. You have to get dollar numbers, you have to figure out the charities they want to give to. You have to see if they actually want to be in a costume that looks like a mayo jar.
Flavor Flav loved mayo, so we loved that about the fit. Because you don’t want it to just be like, “It’s Tom Hanks!” Which, we would probably do Tom Hanks, but it’s like, why?
The “Tubby Time” campaign was a high note for Familiar Creatures, which co-founders and creative directors Dustin Artz and Justin Bajan launched in 2018 after stints at larger agencies including The Martin Agency, where they worked on GEICO Gecko ads together. The past two years, Familiar Creatures has landed twice on BizSense’s RVA 25 list of the fastest-growing businesses in Richmond.
Bajan: So many factors had to align. We obviously rehearsed the mechanics of it, we worked it through with Flavor, just about how you pick it up and stuff, but you can’t account for when ESPN shows up at 11:47 p.m., because they are in charge. You want it to be exciting, and it really was. I was engulfed by all the Minnesota players, and just to hear them get excited was exciting.
Flavor Flav’s big reveal at this year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl, alongside an equally hyped-up and soon-to-be-mayo-dumped P.J. Fleck, coach of bowl game winners Minnesota Golden Gophers. (Image courtesy Familiar Creatures)
RBS: The result was amazing. Especially the reaction of P.J. Fleck, the Minnesota coach.

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