This billboard that never ran was my suggestion to a preacher with the same name as me who found my rickbennett.com website.

 

I got a call one day from a fellow named Rick Bennett who found me by googling his own name. He was a preacher in Mineral Wells, Texas and wondered if I could help him promote his ministry. I asked him a few questions and determined that he didn't "pass the plate" to his congregation. I was impressed that he wasn't involved in what my own church calls "priestcraft," or charging for "the word." I suggested he run this billboard in Texas.

Helping him consider damage control, I told him that his competition in "The Bible Belt" would probably crucify him on some fence posts, but that it wouldn't kill him. Having recently had a bicycle accident myself, I told him his body would probably go in to shock when they drove the nails into his hands, and that some Good Samaritan would definitely find him and take him to a hospital. After which he could claim in his sermons that he knew how Jesus felt.

Alas, he never ran the ad, although he subsequently ran for mayor of Mineral Wells, TX. If you're ever driving through Texas, you might stop in his little town and look up Preacher Rick Bennett. Say, "Hi!"

Sincerley yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

How I took over a Linux tradeshow and had Linus Torvalds spend the day sigining copies of this cheap/regional WSJ ad.

 

Yep, I know. Linus can't run for president because he's not US born. But he sure loved this ad, and showed up at the Linuxcare booth to meet everyone. And he stayed to sign copies of this ad. Because I needed the ad to run on a certain day, we paid the WSJ about $15K for the SFO edition. I could have gotten a "remnant" rate of around $3K if I'd given them a 3-day window. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man

One of my other clients was acquired by the government and went dark thereafter. It is reported they run security at the White House. I thought this was a cool headline…

 

Learn.com didn't get invited to the White House. They were acquired by Taleo which was then acquired by Oracle.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

For $7,000 I got my client the automaker's attention.

 

My client was Scott Smith, CEO of KIDZ MAGAZINE. He wanted automakers to advertise with him. Did you know Detroit has the cheapest billboards in the world? I got this on a major highway near the GM HQ. Result?

Not only did the the Saturn division of GM request a meeting, but so did Toyota. Evidently, they had teams snooping around Detroit, too.

Here's the link to the video we produced for the landing page: https://lnkd.in/gMjr9jCU

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Ad Hit Man

My filmmaker friend Jeff Hays wanted to promote his new film with a WALL STREET JOURNAL AD. Here's what I created for him.

 

Interestingly, for you fledgling filmmakers, this movie was funded by what Jeff calls "an under-represented" group of people in the medical community. If you find such a group, they will be the source of your funding. Selah. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man