Jill Burgeson knows all too well the creative legacy of TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles. She first came to the agency early on in her career as a junior account person and then a planner, back during the day when Lee Clow was in the building. Burgeson said that Clow–the advertising legend whose body of groundbreaking work ranged from Apple’s “1984” to the “Think Different” campaign, and much more–has had a lasting impact on her career over the years on both the agency and client sides.
Since returning to TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles some three months ago as chief strategy officer, Burgeson has bonded with the shop’s newly hired chief creative officer Pedro Pérez who came over from FCB Chicago, riding the momentum of a stellar year there, including such achievements as its “Caption with Intention” campaign for the Chicago Hearing Society winning the Titanium Lion at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as well as two Grand Prix honors.
Pérez too was attracted to the creative legacy that Burgeson had experienced first-hand during the formative years of her industry upbringing. Unlike Burgeson, he had no prior stay at TBWA\Chiat\Day, only knowing the agency from afar–yet what he knew of the creative culture carried a strong allure that, he quipped, went far beyond his wanting to escape the winters of the Midwest for sunny Southern California. Pérez explained, “There aren’t a lot of places where the point of view and DNA are very clear.” From a distance, he observed, the creative and strategic success of the agency over the years seemed complex. But he found that the opposite is true, that the emphasis on creativity, connecting with people, the dynamic of ‘Disruption’ that’s been an agency mantra are “beautiful and simple–and when applied the right way, the sky is the limit.” An admirer of “the historical achievement of this place,” Pérez was drawn to “the opportunity to create the next chapter of that history.”
As Pérez and Burgeson have come together for the first time to live up to that TBWA\Chiat\Day legacy and build upon it, they have leaned on each other heavily, reflecting how strategy informs creative, and similarly how they and their departments inform each other.
Towards that end, Burgeson has made a concerted effort to educate her team about the agency DNA cited by Pérez. She’s initiated a book club of sorts, the required reading being the original “Disruption” book authored by Jean-Marie Dru, the venerable chairman of TBWA\Worldwide, who provides a first-hand account of how the bold methods of disruption propelled TBWA to the forefront of global advertising. He shares insights and lessons learned, shedding light on how campaigns for the likes of Nissan, adidas and Apple, among others, made their mark on advertising, culture and the world at large. This serves as “a foundational piece” for agency staffers, said Burgeson, explaining that understanding history can substantively inform the present and future.
Pérez too embraces the power of disruption, recognizing that Burgeson is essential to fueling his capacity to disrupt. “I cannot exist without Jill,” he affirmed, noting that the creative department that thinks it can solve problems alone is delusional. “We need that information and datapoints to get to the creative solutions. The creative process doesn’t start with creative.” Instead creativity springs from “having amazing strategists like Jill who uncover truths.” And those truths prove to be the catalyst for developing and fashioning content that meaningfully connects with people.
“The feeling is mutual,” chimed in Burgeson, referring to how she benefits from Pérez and his team. She cited being a part of “great whiteboarding sessions” these past few months between creatives and strategists to brainstorm and riff on ideas, visualize complex concepts, and solve problems.
Pérez likened it to “a writers’ room where we sit, discuss and debate every possible angle.” Such discussion along with learning from and doing justice to the Clow and Dru legacy are leading to what Pérez and Burgeson hope will be a treasure trove of disruptive, engaging work, much of which they’re not yet at liberty to discuss publicly.
However, Pérez did note that in the offing is an ambitious documentary project for Gatorade centering on a high school football team in Alabama with a losing streak in excess of 90 games. The documentary will chronicle the efforts of a new head coach, the players and a partnership between Gatorade and the Columbia High School football team in Huntsville, Alabama, to put a halt to the historic losing skid. Gatorade is providing varied resources to the high school, including sideline equipment and access to its Sports Science Institute for perspiration testing and the development of personalized hydration plans. Gatorade and NFL Films are teaming on the documentary titled All the Reasons Not to Quit–The Columbia HS Story.
Artificial intelligence
From a “Disruption” book club selection to whiteboarding sessions, it’s clear that the human element is of paramount importance to Pérez and Burgeson. So where does artificial intelligence fit in without disrupting that human dynamic?
Burgeson and Pérez pointed to this year’s Cannes keynote address by Tor Myhren, VP of marketing communications at Apple. He talked about AI as “a co-pilot,” said Pérez, but with human beings as “the drivers.” Myhren affirmed that human creativity must remain the center of everything. However AI can be part of a toolset that delves into audience trends and insights, for example, informing the strategy team on a much quicker basis that conventional research means can. Pérez added that AI can save time and “help us to move faster” but people remain essential in order “to manifest the proper usage of the tool.”
AI, observed Burgeson, does not in any way diminish or detract from the importance of “critical thinking,” particularly as it helps to nurture work that evokes empathy and strikes a responsive emotional chord with people.
Backgrounds; the value of client-side experience
Prior to recently joining TBWA\Chiat\Day, Pérez was CCO at FCB Chicago. He earlier was CCO at the Chicago office of Dentsu Creative. His tenure there saw the Windy City shop break into the top 10 Cannes Lions rankings (#6 ranked agency in the U.S., #8 in North America). Previously Pérez was CCO at Energy BBDO.
Burgeson meanwhile recently returned to TBWA\Chiat\Day after serving as sr. director of brand & product marketing at Yahoo and prior to that, head of global brand marketing at Twitch. She previously held lead strategy positions at agencies such as Deutsch, Zambezi, and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Her work spans the 2025 Super Bowl campaign for Yahoo, the Twitch brand relaunch, Cannes-recognized fare for Taco Bell’s breakfast launch, and breakthrough campaigns for Logitech.
Burgeson noted that her recent experience on the client side with Yahoo and Twitch has proved to be invaluable. Living on that side in the tech world has given her a greater understanding of “how multifaceted a client’s day is and what they deal with.” To work on a Super Bowl campaign from that perspective helped create an empathy within her for a client’s concerns and aspirations. From the other side of the proverbial fence, Burgeson said she learned “how to be a better partner to the clients we serve today.”
