The Creative Caucus

Garret Brubaker
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Politics

Political ads are weird. They’re emotional, strategic, overanalyzed, under-appreciated, and everywhere. The Creative Caucus is a podcast that goes behind the scenes of the political advertising world to talk with the people who actually make the work. Hosted by Garret Brubaker, founder of Studio Brubaker, the show is a candid, creative-first conversation about persuasion, storytelling, and the craft of political communication. Each episode features in-depth interviews with professional creatives working across the political spectrum, from presidential and national campaigns to statewide races, ballot initiatives, advocacy groups, and local elections. These are strategists, copywriters, filmmakers, designers, editors, and creative directors who live at the intersection of art, messaging, and power. Whether you’re a political creative, marketer, strategist, journalist, or simply someone curious about how modern political messaging actually gets made, The Creative Caucus offers a rare, inside look at a strange, influential, and endlessly fascinating corner of the creative world. Because political ads may be weird...but the people who make them are thoughtful, talented, and worth hearing from.

  1. 1d ago

    Mallory McMorrow: From Creative Director to Political Powerhouse

    Before she was Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow, she designed cars, built toys at Mattel, and helped send real stunt drivers through a six-story Hot Wheels loop in downtown Los Angeles. She went on to direct branded content for Gawker Media and work on a 2014 Bud Light Super Bowl spot directed by Jackass creator Jeff Tremaine. Then came the 2016 election, a viral video from her own polling place, and a Google search that changed her career: how to run for office. On this episode of Creative Caucus, Garret Brubaker talks with Mallory about what a designer's mindset brings to government. She explains why a critique of your work is not a critique of you, how she got the tampon tax repealed only after handing her bill to a Republican, and how a request from auto journalists turned into vintage license plates that have raised millions for Michigan roads. From there, the conversation moves to her U.S. Senate run, the most expensive Democratic Senate primary in U.S. history, and the story behind the NFL RedZone ad she and two teammates wrote, shot, and published in 48 hours, including a guerrilla shoot at her own grocery store. Mallory also explains how a hundred-year-old hand-painted Vernors billboard in her district inspired her campaign logo and its hidden message. Then Garret puts her design eye to the test with a lightning round of this cycle's political logos. She praises the texture of James Talarico's wordmark, the firefighter badge on Bob Brooks' logo, Angie Nixon's Miami Vice palette, and Rob Sand's break from red and blue. She saves her harshest words for a logo that hands the Upper Peninsula to Wisconsin. The episode wraps with her work at A More Perfect Michigan and how she would rebrand the Democratic Party if she were its creative director. Key Takeaways ● Design training is good training for government. "Government would be so much better if we took that attitude where your goal is to find the right solution, not just the one with your name on it." ● Speed and a small team can beat a big budget. The RedZone ad worked because three people made it in house in 48 hours, with no agency and no rounds of feedback, and the candidate clearly knew what RedZone was. ● Sometimes the risk is worth taking. The team kept a real Burger King commercial in the middle of the video because it was funny, it fit the corporate greed message, and a cease and desist would only have brought more earned media. ● Social content has to keep coming. Even a video with millions of views fades within days, so campaigns have to keep showing up authentically in the places voters already spend their time. Big outside ad spending can still drown out a candidate who has a name ID gap. ● Good political branding comes from local roots. Mallory's logo borrowed the layout of a Vernors mural in her district, and her yellow came from the mid-century modern palette Michigan is known for. She argues that Democrats in red-leaning places should avoid design so modern that it pushes away independent and Republican voters. ● The Democratic brand should lean into the big tent instead of fighting it, with flexible style guides that let voters in different states and communities see themselves in the party. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● A More Perfect Michigan: https://www.amoreperfectmichigan.com ● Mallory McMorrow: @MalloryMcMorrow on Instagram, X, Substack, TikTok, and Threads ● Mallory McMorrow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorymcmorrow/ Hashtags #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #MalloryMcMorrow #PoliticalBranding #LogoDesign #CampaignCreative #DesignThinking #Michigan #AMorePerfectMichigan #PoliticalDesign #RedZone

  2. Oct 5

    Stefan Smith: The Most Disruptive Man in Digital

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Stefan Smith, Head of Digital Engagement at the ACLU, who joins the show speaking in his personal capacity. His career runs from Drunk History to Hillary Clinton's Michigan campaign, through the Democratic Party of New Mexico, and on to Pete Buttigieg's presidential run. Stefan traces his political awakening to fourth grade in Greenville, South Carolina. He scored high enough to qualify for his school's gifted program, the school dismissed the result as a fluke, and his mother fought for weeks to get him retested. From there he moved through a history PhD program and a job as principal researcher on Drunk History, where he pitched the Marsha P. Johnson story. One day-drunk afternoon he watched a Hillary Clinton ad and applied to the campaign on the spot. The conversation moves quickly into how Stefan learned the craft. He credits New Mexico, where data was scarce and production was lo-fi, with teaching him to build real programs. He joined Pete for America as its 17th staffer, wrote a memo in his first week warning that Pete would have a problem with Black voters, and later became Online Engagement Director, where he helped build the digital captains program that still sets Pete's supporter base apart. He makes the case that good digital work comes from instinct and cross-training rather than message calendars and Tableau dashboards. He also argues that the party lost a generation of mid-career talent in 2010 and 2014, and that AI has created a new audience segment he calls "artificial audiences." Stefan then turns his critique on the industry. Beautiful videos with no end card, no link, and no next step are "roads to nowhere." Programs built only to extract dollars are a form of digital colonialism. And the 2028 campaign that wins will be the one that breaks down silos between digital, tech, comms, and organizing. He closes with a charge to every creative listening: the old rules may not be real, and the only way to find out is to push on them. Key Takeaways ● Digital is more than platform management. Running the Instagram account is not a digital program. The job is moving people up a ladder from attention to following, advocacy, donating, and volunteering. ● Every piece of content needs a second call to action. Beautiful videos with no end card, URL, or link in the post are "roads to nowhere," and in a broken attention economy, awareness alone is not enough. ● AI has created "artificial audiences." Search summaries, inbox filters, and AI retrieval now sit between campaigns and voters, so websites and content have to be built for the robots as well as the people. ● Cross-training is the most valuable skill in politics right now. The most powerful seat on a 2028 campaign will sit where tech, digital, and communications meet, and staffers who have only run social or only worked safe districts will struggle. ● Extraction drives people away. If supporters feel like a wallet, they will never give more than a dollar. Every step of the ladder has to feel good, and wherever someone stops on it is valid. ● Instinct still matters. The best moments on the Pete campaign, like the lights going out at the Nevada event, came from knowing the candidate and moving fast, not from waiting on a dashboard. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Stefan Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/s-alexander-smith/ ● Stefan Smith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestefansmith ● Stefan Smith on X: https://x.com/TheStefanSmith Hashtags #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #DigitalStrategy #DigitalOrganizing #PeteForAmerica #AIinPolitics #Campaign2028 #CallToAction #ContentStrategy

  3. Sep 21

    Kasey Rollins: Behind the Scenes with JB Pritzker’s Campaign Photographer

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Kasey Rollins, photographer, videographer and graphic designer and the founder of Rollins Media, for a conversation about what it actually takes to photograph a candidate on the road. Kasey Rollins is a photographer, videographer and graphic designer and the founder of Rollins Media. She served as campaign photographer for the 2024 Biden-Harris and Harris-Walz presidential campaign and lead photo/videographer for Reverend Raphael Warnock's U.S. Senate campaign. The path there started nowhere near politics: biochem classes, a lab job through COVID, fashion editorial work in Atlanta with the family dog as a first model, and photo walks through the city learning how light and shadow behave. The two go image by image through Kasey's portfolio, and the craft is in the details. The DNC frame of Kamala Harris, shot blind with the camera held above a nine-foot stage so it wouldn't crash the broadcast, ended up on the spine of 107 Days and on a Times Square ad, with a credit mix-up the publisher later agreed to fix. Governor JB Pritzker in a cornfield, where the whole shot depended on the speech running long enough for golden hour to arrive. President Obama in a cramped press room, captured through a gap between camera monitors after some improvised yoga. Kasey breaks down building a custom color preset per principal (the Pritzker one is literally named "JB's vibe"), the split between rapid turnarounds sent out mid-event and the late-night cull on the couch, and why learning a candidate's stump speech is how you stop reacting and start anticipating. There's also the stuff that makes campaign life campaign life: leapfrogging between three events a day, waking up in a sweat a year later convinced you're late for a plane, and the strange privilege of a front-row seat to Mark Hamill, Anna Wintour, Coco Rocha, Annie Leibovitz, and Busta Rhymes. Kasey closes on the thing that makes the job worth it: a photo you love is nice, but a photo the campaign actually uses means you did the job right. Key Takeaways ● Political photography is photojournalism most of the time, but the posed "media days" are where the fashion and editorial training pays off, and campaigns front-load that content because the candidate only gets busier. ● Anticipation is a learnable skill. Learn the stump speech, learn the keywords, and you know when the hand goes up, when the look out into the crowd is coming, and which side to be standing on. ● Build a color preset per principal. Kasey makes one in the first month of a campaign, tuned to that person's skin tone and built to hold up in low light, indoors, and outdoors, so mailers, commercials, and social all feel like one body of work. ● The day has two shifts: rapid edits in the gaps between events, capped at about five photos sent to whoever needs them, then the real cull and color grade late at night. ● Word of mouth runs the media industry. A sorority crossing shoot led to the Warnock campaign, and a cold outreach to Grayson Kisker led to a call asking Kasey to be in D.C. in two weeks for a presidential campaign. ● Black and white is a tool, not a mood. When democratic-blue stage lights wrecked the skin tones on the Pritzker cowboy hat shot, pulling the color forced the shadow play to carry the frame. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Kasey Rollins Website: https://www.kaseyrollins.com/ ● Kasey Rollins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasey-rollins-909a10136/ ● Kasey Rollins on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rollinsmedia_/ ● Kasey Rollins on X: https://twitter.com/KaseyRollins ● Kasey Rollins on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rollinsmedia Hashtags #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #PoliticalPhotography #CampaignPhotography #Photojournalism #Portraiture #ColorGrading #HarrisWalz #CampaignCreative #PhotoEditing #EsportsPhotography

  4. Sep 7

    Alli Peters: Dragging the Democrats Into a New Creative Era.

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Alli Peters, Chief Digital Officer at Majority Democrats, for a conversation that does something Creative Caucus has never done before: the guest opens her actual working project file and walks through a rebrand live, from the first Pinterest board to the final logo. Alli is a multidisciplinary creative whose work spans photography, video, design, writing, and creative direction, with credits on Amy Klobuchar's 2020 presidential primary, the Mandela Barnes 2022 Senate race, and current projects with Pete Buttigieg. The rebrand story is the heart of it. Alli explains why the old identity felt sterile and political, how a member's blunt feedback lit the fuse, and why she chased loud, bombastic color and 1990s athletic leisure references instead of the black and white minimalism the party has been stuck in. She talks through the fonts, the acid green she had never seen used in politics, the 61 that nods to the last Democratic landslide, and the Dalmatian grabbing a star: the firehouse dog that signals what danger is looming. When the internal debate stalled out, she took advice from Seth Godin, told her bosses what she was doing and when, changed the social accounts, and moved on. Alli also gets into her unlikely path in, from shooting photos for a Minneapolis coffee brand owned by a congressman she had never heard of, to a last minute video with Klobuchar that landed her in Iowa, to a coffee meeting with Pete Souza that Mandela Barnes engineered by faking a bathroom break. Plus: shooting Pete Buttigieg through a handheld prism filter with no adapter, why she switched from Premiere to DaVinci Resolve, the Nikon R10 versus the new audio recording Kodak Super 8, and the corn eating contest at the Indiana State Fair that became test footage for a new YouTube show. Key Takeaways ● Alli never got a political job off a posted listing. Every role came from relationships and from showing up and doing work for free, including the Dean Phillips connection that started with a coffee brand client she quit. ● The Majority Democrats rebrand was built to break the mold: acid green and colors she had never seen in politics, Druk in thin and bold to signal a growing party, and a retro reference set drawn from C-SPAN era design and 1990s athletic wear. ● The Dalmatian grabbing a star came from a tattoo on Pinterest. It was chosen because it could run in animation, because it reads as all American rather than elitist, and because the firehouse dog signals danger looming for a party that refuses to change. ● The logo nearly died in internal debate. Alli followed advice from Seth Godin, acted like she did not care if she quit, told leadership the change was happening on a set date, and rolled it out. ● Political work does not have to look political. Alli's guiding light this year has been pressure testing ideas outside what is traditionally accepted, from prism filters on rally footage to Super 8 film for a new entertainment first, education second YouTube show. ● Her pitch to creatives: come work in politics, you do not have to be a martyr or be underpaid, and Render Club exists as a signup list where she sends out real jobs and creative experiments. Timestamps 00:00 Why the dog became the mascot 01:47 From coffee shop photographer to Klobuchar's digital director 06:07 Meeting Pete Souza on the Mandela Barnes race 13:30 Inside Majority Democrats and the chief digital officer job 19:02 Opening the project file: where the rebrand started 24:51 The Dalmatian, the star, and the fight over the logo 36:04 Side work with Pete Buttigieg and shooting on prism lenses 45:20 Super 8, Kodak, and the Indiana State Fair 54:49 Render Club and an open invitation to creatives Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Alli Peters: [https://www.allipeters.com/ Hashtags #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #BrandIdentity #Rebrand #LogoDesign #MajorityDemocrats #PoliticalDesign #Super8 #FilmPhotography #DaVinciResolve #CampaignCreative

  5. Aug 10

    Tobias Frere-Jones: Creating Gotham and Other Political Typefaces

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Tobias Frere-Jones, founder and typeface designer at Frere-Jones Type, for a deep look at the craft behind some of the most recognizable political branding in modern American politics. Best known for creating Gotham, the typeface that became synonymous with Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, Tobias traces how a piece of plainspoken lettering off the Port Authority bus terminal became a versatile family that would go on to blanket rally signs, newspaper front pages, and, later, conventions on both sides of the aisle. The conversation moves through Tobias's political portfolio one project at a time: Conductor for Cory Booker, born from the anti counterfeit numbers on a Bulgarian lottery ticket; Mallory for Julian Castro, a typeface built on Tobias's own dual British and American heritage; Community Gothic for Stacey Abrams, drawn weight by weight from different historical sources; and, most recently, the Administration typeface for the New York City Mayor's Office, a "grownup" evolution of the campaign type used by Zohran Mamdani. Along the way, Tobias explains why the Obama team got more out of Gotham than John Edwards did, how a custom word mark gets tuned letter by letter, and why naming a typeface is often the hardest part of the job. Tobias also opens up about the personal side of the work, from the pride of seeing his letters on the keys to the city he grew up in, to the strange experience of watching his typefaces get used to spell out messages he fundamentally disagrees with. He closes with a clear thesis on why type matters in politics: consistency reads as credibility, and a campaign that keeps its visual voice steady under pressure signals something real about how a candidate might govern. Key Takeaways ● Gotham grew out of plainspoken lettering on the Port Authority bus terminal, and Tobias designed it to preserve that unvarnished, forthright personality rather than chase another generic geometric sans serif. ● The Obama campaign leaned into Gotham's personality so hard that no other typeface could be swapped in, while John Edwards used the same font in a way where almost anything would have worked. ● Conductor, used for Cory Booker's campaign, was inspired by the deliberately unique anti forgery numbers printed on a Bulgarian lottery ticket. ● Mallory, used by Julian Castro's campaign, was built to carry Tobias's own dual British and American heritage, with monumental Roman uppercase and a noisier, New York influenced lowercase. ● Community Gothic, used for Stacey Abrams, was drawn weight by weight from different historical sources, and its name was changed from Union Gothic after the campaign flagged how it read in Georgia. ● The New York City Mayor's Office Administration typeface retrofits campaign details onto Empirica to balance credibility with the joy of Mamdani's original campaign type. ● Type gives a campaign personality, and consistency reads as credibility: a brand that looks different every time can quietly signal an unreliable candidate. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Tobias Frere-Jones, Frere-Jones Type: https://frerejones.com ● Conductor in use, Cory Booker 2020: https://frerejones.com/in-use/cory-booker-2020 ● Mallory in use, Julian Castro: https://frerejones.com/in-use/julian-castro ● Community Gothic, Grit and Patchwork: https://frerejones.com/blog/grit-and-patchwork ● Designing Gotham: https://frerejones.com/blog/designing-gotham ● Frere-Jones Type custom work: https://frerejones.com/custom #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #Typography #TypefaceDesign #Gotham #PoliticalDesign #BrandStrategy #CampaignBranding

  6. Jul 27

    Eric Bravo: Directing and Editing for the White House, Harris, AOC, Zohran, and Mor.

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Eric Bravo, a director and editor who got his start in political video working on Beto O'Rourke's 2019 presidential campaign and has since worked with Joe Biden, the White House, AOC, Kamala Harris, and Zohran Mamdani. Eric brings a music-video sensibility and his Mexican-American cultural perspective to political storytelling, and in this conversation he traces the fast, unrelenting marathon that took him from shooting bands and Jarritos spots in El Paso to directing President Biden in his own library. The two editors get deep into craft. Eric breaks down the last-minute cufflink shot on the Biden book announcement, the frame-by-frame ball tracking behind the viral Zohran basketball spot, and how the Harris "Freedom" launch video came together in a sleepless three-day sprint after his wife suggested laying Beyonce's "Freedom" over the cut. He explains his guiding principle of shooting for the edit, why the "Mother" and "We Rise" ads gave him rare creative freedom, and how his run-and-gun AOC district doc leaned on car-ride conversations to shape the story. Eric also opens up about the surreal stretches of his White House work, from filming the Ted Lasso cast bowling to getting swept into the BTS fandom, and why an all-female mariachi group performing on the South Lawn remains one of his favorite projects. He closes with a case for authenticity over formula: not every political video has to be a hype video, and there is enormous untapped potential in Spanish-language ads and in work that gives a scene room to build. Key Takeaways ● Eric approaches political video like a music video, a mindset that landed him his first campaign job because Beto's team wanted someone without ingrained political instincts. ● "Shoot for the edit" is his guiding principle: knowing exactly what he needs on set saves time both in production and in post. ● The Harris "Freedom" launch felt flat until Eric pitched putting Beyonce's "Freedom" over the cut, and the partnerships team secured the song within an hour of seeing it. ● The Zohran basketball ad's whip pans required frame-by-frame ball tracking and speed ramps to sell each transition, with lens flares covering the clunkier cuts. ● Ads like "Mother" (narrated by Viola Davis) and "We Rise" (narrated by Ron Perlman) are cut and approved before the voiceover is ever recorded, so a star read can't get killed in the approval process. ● Not every political video has to be a hype video: Eric favors slower, scene-driven ads that give a moment room to build, and sees Spanish-language work as an underrepresented, high-potential space. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Eric Bravo Website: https://ericbravo.co/ ● Eric Bravo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbravo4/ ● Eric Bravo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbravo #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #EricBravo #PoliticalVideo #VideoEditing #FilmDirecting #KamalaHarris #ZohranMamdani #WhiteHouse #SpanishLanguageAds #CampaignCreative

  7. Jul 13

    Quinlin Kelly & Alyson Quigley: The Craft, Chaos, and Comedy Behind the Scenes of Political Ads

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Quinlin Kelly, Director of Video Production at Change Media Group, alongside creative lead Alyson Quigley, for a candid, funny tour through the messy reality of political production. From a childhood cameo in a Senator Durbin ad to a Snapchat that landed a spot on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, Quinlin traces a path that runs straight through the last decade of Democratic politics, while Alyson brings the perspective of a dance-and-film creative who found her home telling real stories for real stakes. The conversation is a working clinic in doing more with less. Quinlin and Alyson break down the ads they are proudest of: the "Off the Deep End" spot that required a VFX artist to empty a pool that had to be shot full, the "Wrong Profession" shoot where the gaffer got oiled up to play a mechanic between lighting his own shots, and the "busting your ass" infomercial that only clicked once they made the voter, not the candidate, the hero. Along the way they talk casting non-speaking roles fast, directing 10-month-old babies in two takes, and working with an untrained dog named Charles Barkley. They also get honest about the hard stuff: the iron worker in Florida who, after a full 12-hour shoot for a Kamala Harris spot, announced he was an undecided voter, and the delicate work of communicating the gravity of an abortion ban through a young girl's bedroom without exploiting anyone's story. The throughline is a philosophy of stripped-down crews, natural lighting, and creative testing that lets a Midwest-based boutique shop take real swings and win. Key Takeaways ● Political ads compete with TikTok, Netflix, and everything else people watch, so grabbing attention means treating craft and entertainment as seriously as strategy. ● Comedy is one of the hardest things to pull off in political work: the candidate has to be a game team player, and the biggest obstacle is often convincing the client to take the risk. ● Small crews and natural lighting can beat big budgets. On the "Her Room" spot, the hero shot ended up with no lights at all because it simply looked better. ● Casting non-speaking real people means leading with the fact that it is Democratic political work up front, then confirming again on contact, to avoid a shoot going sideways. ● The best on-set moments, a baby looking to camera, a gaffer improvising a wordless gesture, cannot be directed. You build a comfortable set and stay open to brilliance. ● Centering the voter as the hero (rather than the legislator) transformed the "busting your ass" infomercial from a stalled idea into a favorite spot. ● Creative testing acts as a safety net: the consultant-favorite ad is often not what moves voters most, so data gives clients the confidence to take creative risks. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Garret Brubaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garret-brubaker-9b481553/ ● Quinlin Kelly, Director of Video Production, Change Media Group: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quinlinkelly/ ● Alyson Quigley, https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyson-quigley-4b25b64b/ ●Change Media Group: https://changemediagroup.com/ Hashtags #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #ChangeMediaGroup #PoliticalVideo #VideoProduction #CampaignCreative #Directing #NaturalLighting #CreativeTesting

  8. Jun 29

    Sara Pearl Kenigsberg: Storytelling Across Newsrooms, Campaigns, Documentaries, and so Much More

    Garret Brubaker sits down with Sara Pearl Kenigsberg, Director and Producer at Hardpin, for a career-spanning conversation about what it actually takes to make political video that breaks through. A director, producer, and multimedia creative whose work runs from short films to TV and digital ads to podcasts and social campaigns, Sara has collaborated with top media and advocacy organizations, corporate clients, political campaigns, and world leaders. In this episode she traces a path that starts in journalism and photojournalism and winds through some of the most influential digital newsrooms and presidential campaigns of the last decade. Sara takes us inside the early days of online video at NowThis and HuffPost, when producers were inventing the rules before Instagram and Facebook even supported video. From there she breaks down life on the inside of two presidential campaigns: the in-house, all-under-one-roof creative engine behind Bernie Sanders and the Not Me. Us. spot, and the locked-down, socially distanced reality of producing for Joe Biden during COVID, including the Michelle Obama closing argument she helped pull off in Martha's Vineyard. She is candid about the tools, the silos, and why keeping paid and organic work in the same shop changes everything. The conversation widens out to becoming a parent in a young person's industry, the ego check that comes with it, and her current work at Hardpin, telling docu-style, human-driven stories for nonprofits and Democratic clients. Sara also opens up about traveling with the Clintons, her first feature documentary on harm in the mental health care system, her advocacy through Rosie's Farm Sanctuary, and why the best political storytelling still comes down to real people, real stakes, and a little bit of humanity. Key Takeaways ● The video teams behind both the Bernie and Biden 2020 campaigns were stacked with former digital media producers from NowThis and BuzzFeed, who brought a social-first, make-it-go-viral instinct into political work. ● Keeping paid TV, digital ads, and organic social all in house, as the Bernie campaign did, breaks down silos, shares resources across teams, and stretches every shoot further. ● COVID production meant no rallies, no big events, and a lot of improvisation: driving instead of flying, build days, air-out days, N95s on set, and directors joining remotely. ● Becoming a parent reframed the work. Caring deeply about the mission while accepting that one more ad will not single-handedly change the world is a healthier, more sustainable mindset. ● Hardpin's edge is a documentary, human-driven style that draws out authentic emotion, even inside scripted ad work. ● The fastest turnoffs in political creative are gotcha division, overplayed attacks, blatant AI, and filming a finished spot off a computer screen to fake authenticity. Connect ● Creative Caucus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreativecaucus ● Studio Brubaker: https://www.studiobrubaker.com ● Sara Pearl Kenigsberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarakenigsberg/ ● Hardpin: https://www.hardpinmedia.com #CreativeCaucusPodcast #PoliticalAdvertising #PoliticalCreatives #CampaignStrategy #PoliticalMarketing #CreativeStrategy #PoliticalVideo #DocumentaryFilmmaking #CampaignCreative #DigitalVideo #Hardpin #PoliticalStorytelling

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About

Political ads are weird. They’re emotional, strategic, overanalyzed, under-appreciated, and everywhere. The Creative Caucus is a podcast that goes behind the scenes of the political advertising world to talk with the people who actually make the work. Hosted by Garret Brubaker, founder of Studio Brubaker, the show is a candid, creative-first conversation about persuasion, storytelling, and the craft of political communication. Each episode features in-depth interviews with professional creatives working across the political spectrum, from presidential and national campaigns to statewide races, ballot initiatives, advocacy groups, and local elections. These are strategists, copywriters, filmmakers, designers, editors, and creative directors who live at the intersection of art, messaging, and power. Whether you’re a political creative, marketer, strategist, journalist, or simply someone curious about how modern political messaging actually gets made, The Creative Caucus offers a rare, inside look at a strange, influential, and endlessly fascinating corner of the creative world. Because political ads may be weird...but the people who make them are thoughtful, talented, and worth hearing from.

Information

  • Creator
    Garret Brubaker
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Garret Brubaker
  • Show Website
    The Creative Caucus

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