Under The Big Topics

We created this award-winning blog for the Neal Advertising team.

We’re proud to announce that Neal Advertising received a Bowl at The Ad Club’s 49th Annual Hatch Awards. What project won this award you ask? This blog! UnderTheBigTopics.com was the only blog to receive an award in the blog category.

The Hatch Awards celebrate excellence in our creative community recognizing the best and brightest advertising agencies in New England.

Congratulations to illustrators Alexis Pacelli and Bryan Woodbury, designer Danielle Pikus, developers Jason Narciso and Jesse Friedman, art director Chad Foster and the rest of the Neal Advertising team!

We all know that Twitter has a ton of uses whether it’s an RSS Feed, IM client, Email Service, or a Chat Room. Recently I was able to use Twitter to take out a Classified to fill a position at Neal Advertising.

@professor – Looking for a strong designer with a good flash background. If you live in RI you’ll be able to telecommute. Great opportunity great Co. 8:14 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web

6 minutes later…

@jasonnarciso – @professor This is interesting… care to elaborate? 8:20 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from web in reply to professor

20 minutes later…

@professor – @jasonnarciso My company is looking for a designer w/ flash experience To design sites and develop monthly flash sites. Great co to work for 8:39 PM Sep 10th, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to jasonnarciso

2 days later…

@professor – On my way to conduct an interview and then teach my night class. 3:39 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

@professor – I’m at Blakes in downtown Providence waiting for a 5:30 appointment if you are near by come join me for a beer. 4:31 PM Sep 12th, 2008 from twitterrific

After 2 weeks notice…

@jasonnarciso – Just returned from an Apple store trip for new home office accessories. As if I really needed an excuse. 3:57 PM Sep 27th, 2008 from web

Neal Advertising is located in Danvers, MA about 2 hours away from my home office in Warwick, RI. I was looking for someone to fill a web designer position. If they lived near Danvers they’d work in the office other wise I wanted that person close to me in RI to work from home. Jason Narciso a.k.a. @jasonnarciso was the first response I received about the position. I had received a few others and my original tweet had been RT’d a few times as well. Jason was the perfect fit for the job and it didn’t take long to figure that out.

Jason and I knew each other from mutual friends but never had the pleasure to work together. We met for our Interview at a bar in Providence, RI. After seeing Jason’s work I knew he was the right guy for the job but I had to make sure he would fit into the Neal Advertising culture. Soon after our interview he went up to Danvers to meet the rest of the crew and have an additional interview. I joined the meeting via Skype. Jason was hired with in days and joined us after his 2 weeks notice. Jason has made a great addition to the team and continues to do great work.

Thanks Twitter!!!

I’ll admit it, Neal Advertising is owned and lead by a clown.  I’ll also admit that we are really proud of it.  Neal Bocian a.k.a. Bagels The Clown is President of Neal Advertising and brings smiles to sick children in a local hospital.

At my first interview for my job at Neal Advertising, I was asked to wait in Neal’s office.  I sat in front of his desk observing the newspaper clippings and wall art.  Behind me were two glass cases containing an impressive collection of clowns.  All of which seemed to be staring right in my direction.  Honestly I was a little scared.

I later found out that Neal volunteers his time and talents at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center in Boston as a clown.  For 16 years Bagels The Clown (Neal Bocian) has been twisting balloons into shapes, performing magic and cheering up sick children.  These children are cancer patients and between 1 and 21 years of age.

It speaks to the culture that we have at Neal Advertising.  We are a family of designers, developers, account reps and other managers all lead by a “clown”.  Neal has an amazing ability to generate results using his unique mixture of humor and experience to motivate us.  Neal is not only a generous clown but an experience marketer with great ideas and a great team to implement them.

I spend much of my time, as many of you do, online. If there is one thing I miss while spending so much time sifting

through thoughtful content, it is thoughtful typography. Staring at fonts such as Arial and Helvetica

(not that I have anything against Helvetica) sort of numbs your brain and you forget that there is a world of letterform

out there. Anyway, I’m going start making it a point to find and provide a little letterform on this world wide web of

ours starting now. Let’s start by checking out ilovetypography.com. Do you have a favorite site that is mindful of typography

or features typography? Tell us about it!