Barney Smith for Clorox’s Ode to the Commode

Toilet Seats. Toilet seats in Texas. A Toilet Seat Art Museum in San Antonio. Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum. Count me in!

One of the things I love about what I do is getting access to a place or a person that I didn’t know even existed before they contacted me.  A big part of what keeps me going is the love of an adventure and to have – and share – these experiences with people and their stories.

Ketchum contacted me in regards to working a project for The Clorox Company. Working with creative director, Ken Buraker, we headed to San Antonio and Barney’s museum. In addition to creating a series of images as well as a short video of Barney for a national campaign, we set up an outdoor available-light studio in the 100 degree Texas heat and photographed the objects that inspired us – Clean, minimalistic and graphically interesting.

The images were created both for use on OdeToTheCommode.com and Clorox’s Facebook and Instagram channels. For Clorox this was more about digital storytelling and celebrating someone, who shares a unique passion for toilets, than a traditional campaign.

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Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with FeathersBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with sink trap itemsBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with tattoo itemsBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with Challenger ShuttleBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with beesBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with paintingBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with toilet partsBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with museum signBarney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum - Seat with animal bones

The idea came about after Clorox saw a news story about Barney Smith. Barney is an artist who uses toilet seat lids as his canvas. Over five decades, he created more than 1,300 ornately-decorated toilet lids, some of which feature artifacts with national and international historical significance. He displays them in his Toilet Seat Art Museum, which also happens to be the garage of his San Antonio home. With Barney’s 100th birthday a few short years away, he is looking to take a step back and is searching for a buyer for his entire collection who will keep available to the public, free of charge, for years to come.

It’s not often someone sees the potential for finer elements of the bathroom like Clorox does, so they had the idea to release a digital gallery featuring Barney’s favorite and most unique lids – an Ode to the Commode – to find a new home for the collection and share Barney’s passion for toilets with everyone to enjoy like thousands of visitors to his San Antonio museum have over the years.

The project was about creating different visuals that can live on many different platforms but telling the same brand story, and I think it’s a perfect example of where brand marketing and storytelling is going.  As marketing continues to drift onto digital platforms, creating “assets” and “content” is what we are seeing more and more of in regards to needs from agencies.

I loved this project so much. It’s bananas!!

What do you do after toilet seats? What’s next? Honestly, I want to go where I don’t know I want to go yet.

*If you are in San Antonio, Barney’s Toilet Seat Museum should really be on your must visit list.  Barney himself is an American treasure. And he has a ton of stories to tell. The museum is located in his garage, so it’s small but it’s overflowing with stuff to see.