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Watch real campaigns and creative work crafted with Vince's unique approach
Samsung
An ostrich learns how to fly using Samsung technology.
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“We’ve been told it’s impossible and can’t be done. I say, “Do what you can’t.””
Vince Cook is a highly seasoned executive creative professional with a rich portfolio of innovative and world renown campaigns across advertising, marketing, and design. Known for his ability to challenge conventional thinking, Cook has worked on high-profile projects for global brands like Samsung, McDonald's, AT&T, US Army, Nintendo, Windex, Raid, Anheuser-Busch, United Healthcare, Allstate and Kellogg's. His work spans integrated campaigns, experiential marketing, and content creation, often blending humor, emotion, and bold ideas to create memorable brand experiences. Cook attributes his success to collaboration with talented teams and a relentless belief in pushing boundaries.
A hall of fame creative with a multitude of industry recognitions for global campaigns like McDonald's Sundial and Samsung ostrich, winning golds, gran prix and top industry awards. Named as Adweek's "Creative leaders who are completely reimagining what's possible in advertising."
Vince Cook’s creative philosophy centers on defying the impossible and challenging the status quo. He thrives on turning 'you can't' into 'you can,' using unconventional thinking and innovative storytelling to create impactful campaigns. His work often combines emotional resonance with clever execution, aiming to surprise and delight audiences while delivering clear brand messages. Cook’s methodology emphasizes collaboration, experimentation, and a refusal to accept creative limitations. He is a master of comedy, sophisticated story telling, metaphor and simple elegant visual design to help create the most iconic and memorable campaigns.
Vince Cook's visual approach embraces bold, high-contrast colors and dynamic compositions that command attention and evoke emotion. His imagery often blends surreal, unexpected elements with hyper-realistic details, creating a sense of playful disruption while maintaining authenticity. Guided by a philosophy of breaking conventions, his designs balance clean, modern aesthetics with spontaneous, organic textures or striking juxtapositions that challenge the viewer's expectations. Typography serves as both a storytelling device and a design element, with strong, unconventional type treatments integrated seamlessly into the visuals to amplify the message. Cook’s visual storytelling relies on crafting moments of surprise and delight, weaving humor, emotion, and bold visuals into cohesive narratives that defy creative boundaries and stick with audiences long after the first glance.
Vince Cook’s creative philosophy centers on defying the impossible and challenging the status quo. Nothing ordinary, always original and a master linguist and storyteller. Uses metaphor, graphic art, comedy and elegant simplicity to execute. Often brainy, sharp, quirky, hilarious and witty.
“We’ve often been told it’s impossible, it can’t be done, it’s out of reach. With AI, there is only one reply to all that, “Do what you can’t.” Let's defy the impossible. ”
You can’t rebuild a brand by making an ostrich fly. Remember the exploding batteries? Samsung would have rather forgotten and put their head in the sand. At a time when their technology was eclipsing Apple’s, a PR nightmare dropped. Everything, including the Olympic sponsorship in 60 days was put on indefinite hold. How does a massive company pick themselves up after that? Could marketing be the answer? As author of "Do What You Can't" and global lead, our campaign developed as an ambitious, ridiculous but simple idea that we presented to help course correct their brand. It’s a story for the ones that defy those that say "you can't" and a demonstration of the huge intent of this company. Leading with an ostrich and building the rest of the Galaxy 8 launch with “Unbox your Phone” we brought together, for the first time in Samsung history, one cohesive global launch.
2016
You can’t heal health insurance with comedy. Man do people hate health insurance companies. They see them as the enemy—piling costs, denying claims and barriers to care - a giant pain when you're trying to heal. A nice bit of research identified the complexity of the health care system and a wall to building trust. The whole industry was sick. Other brands in the category ignored the complexty, offering vague promises of wellness and scenes of happy people walking on beaches or jumping off of docks. We tried something unheard of in the health category, humor. And we used the most complicated part of the system—over 76,000 government medical codes—to tell funny stories of how people got injured. Then we showed how UnitedHealthcare helped make it simpler, and way more human. It seemed to work pretty well, have a look at the case study for the integrated campaign.
2018
You can’t make a sundial out of a billboard. "Can that thing actually work?", when I presented the idea to the head of creative. I naively said, "of course it can". Six months later and a team of many amazing minds collaborated to to create this accurate working Sundial to showcase McDonald's breakfast items throughout different times of the morning. Since then, it globally changed the possibility of what could be done in this medium. I'd like to pay honor to the late Chris Huff, the Nasa engineer whose efforts helped prototype and create something almost impossible.
2005
You can’t make a grown man cry for a glass cleaner. When trades try to reveal a conspiracy behind a wildly viral piece you’ve drawn some attention for your client. Although the Adage (article) is satire, the millions and millions of views in less than a week, blogs, reposts and Ads of the Day revealed how the world is starving for simple, emotional stories. Shot entirely through glass surfaces and built on an insight of how they quietly intersect our lives, combined with a stirring song by a 12 year old budding artist/songwriter, Grace Vanderwaal, it was the perfect recipe for Windex to relaunch its brand. It in effect, launched her first music video and 2018 tour as well. (article) The film was so massively popular it was voted YouTube’s ad of the year winning over 70% of popular votes.
2019
You can’t make everyone an art critic. Rene Magritte taught us to look at the familiar in new ways, to un-think our view of the world. For the opening of his exhibit we partnered with the Art Institute and asked ourselves what would he do? Along with Facebook and Instagram, we unthought the way an exhibit should be by making everyone an art critic. As visitors participated, their interpretations became a part of the official audio tour and changed the way galleries could be shared and experienced for the first time ever, making the Art Institute Trip Advisor's number one Museum in the world.
2016
You can’t turn a sandwich bag into a fashion brand. Yup, you can, especially when you partner with a fashion brand like BEAMS Japan. Then you partner with Google Translate and Fred Segal to launch it in the US in a fashion drop called Found in Translation. This was the first of its kind socially-driven LA drop in the week before Coachella. We used the Japanese street wear to activate a city-wide-hunt for the ‘freshest virtual drop ever imagined',’ and seeded a suite of lightweight, razor sharp assets among the micro-influencers keeping our style-seeking Gen Z / Millennial audience on their toes. Our hints required savvy use of Google Translate hidden in Japanese to hunt for clues. It wasn’t an easy solve but those who did got an exclusive entrance into our retail store at Fred Segal.
2019
You can’t uproot violence and poverty with 5 guys in a garage. It’s an incredible story about a tiny handful from an AT&T garage who got fed up with the violence and poverty just streets away and believed for something different. 3 years later, from grassroots, a national movement was born and not from a savvy social campaign. The corporation “got the hell out of the way” and decided to build a better company from the inside out. They decided to invest in towers and networks of men in employees and in their struggling communities. Dallas, Atlanta, New York and many, many others caught the Believe movement fire. This project represents the choice to document and tell the story of all that good and those that roll up sleeves along side them. Below is a collection of what became a multi-agency passion project I led between BBDO NYC, Tribal, We Are Unlimited and Energy BBDO. The voice uses poetry slams written by a young writer who grew up and rose above these hardships. Much credit goes to Malik Sayeed, our director behind the camera, showing us a world of gang members who put down guns, homeless that found homes and stories of hope, loss and redemption.
2020
You can’t reform a flesh-eating alien with cereal. His name is Miles Melman. and as he'll tell you, losing an appetite for flesh is not easy if your diet is people.. This very zen, reformed creature discuses his new life and has Raisin Bran Crunch to thank for it. Miles captured the love of stand up comics and cereal lovers, with over 5 million unaided views in the first week. 3 puppeteers, a stand up comedian and a brilliant editor simultaneously and painstakingly brought Miles to life for a brand that said would never, ever, ever use an alien to sell cereal. However, it did take an autograph from Ozzy Osbourne to get it done.
2007
Developed their main brand campaign
2016-2018
Launched Nintendo DS and mainline Nintendo brands and games
2005-2009
Michelob light and Budweiser launches
1998-2003
