EDITOR’S NOTE: On September 19, the advertising and comic book worlds lost a talented writer. Munier Sharieff, who spent most of his advertising career at Burrell Communications, passed away on September 19, just shy of his 57th birthday. Former co-worker and friend Kevin Brockenbrough wrote a thoughtful piece about Munier.
It hurt that more people didn’t get to see Munier’s work.
The bigger media budgets go to the bigger agencies, but the smaller shop had the bigger ideas. Munier Sharieff never let a limited budget limit his imagination. He pulled ideas from anime, comic books, movies, and many car enthusiast magazines (including a favorite, DUB). Munier was an expert in culture before being an expert in culture became the thing to be.
Need a Super Bowl spot?
Munier did one for Toyota’s Venza. It didn’t show Black people dancing or cracking jokes. It showed a Black man living a luxury lifestyle, his African mask transforming into the grill on a new sedan. (Note: Ad Age reviewed the spot and accused Toyota of “pandering to Black viewers” as if showing an affluent Black man during a game played predominantly by athletes who are affluent Black men was a problem. Can’t go around breaking stereotypes.)
Need to create interest in a car whose only superpower was dependability?
Munier sold Toyota on showing a Corolla being used to escape a zombie invasion (the Fords nearby wouldn’t start, so if you ran to one of them, you were zombie munchies). Then Munier tipped off our Media department on a new show that was coming out that featured zombies: AMC’s The Walking Dead, one of the most-watched shows to air that year.
Being an established comic book writer, Munier had already read the WD graphic novels the show would be based on and knew the show would be a hit.
Need an idea for Black History Month but don’t want to do another print ad showing Martin Luther King, Jr?
No disrespect to Dr. King, but Munier was always against doing what everyone else did. He and I worked with our Engagement and Media teams to come up with an integrated marketing campaign that an outside consultant called Toyota’s most effective corporate sponsorship, even better than their NASCAR sponsorship (which received a waaay bigger budget).
He helped sell in everything but a great name, which one client thought sounded “too African.” For Black History Month? (Again, you can’t make this stuff up.)
That’s just a few examples from a great career. And unlike some CDs, he didn’t just sell his own ideas (many do). I enjoyed writing creative briefs for Munier and his Creative teams because you never knew what he’d come up with. But you knew he listened. And he always proved that being on strategy doesn’t mean being boring. He used strategy as a springboard to take us higher.
Rest in Peace, Brother. You had one hell of a run. And I’m glad I was there for it.
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Kevin Brockenbrough is an award-winning brand strategist and creativity coach.
