Recently, we had the honor of working with living legend Phil Esposito on the upcoming Tampa Bay Lightning radio campaign. As a writer, it’s always a blast to hear someone famous read your words. And when it comes to hockey, Mr. Esposito is about as famous as it gets. I enjoyed a similar encounter in 1999 with basketball great and then Miami Heat coach Pat Riley. The feeling never gets old. Now here’s the best part about working with Mr. Esposito. I, nor the other senior-level writer on the project, wrote the first of the eight scripts he recorded during the session. It was penned by an intern. Placing his script at the top of the order was no accident. It was intentional. I didn’t do it because I felt it was the best script of the eight  or even because it was his only script in the mix. I simply did it because it was his; an intern who will proudly begin his career with a highlight he will never forget. It’s one of the privileges of being a creative director at Dunn&Co. You get to influence young talent all around you. In his fantastic book, Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising, the late Phil Dusenberry advises creative directors to not compete with their people. You don’t always have to win, even though you have the desire and power to tip things in your favor. Take as much pride of authorship in your colleagues’ good work as you do your own he says, and agency growth could be exponential. Well, we’re winning. We’re growing. And everyone is getting to play. Even the interns.

– Glen