Oregon is known for a lot of great things; the amazing Pacific Coastline, towering volcanoes of the Cascade Range, and every single episode of Portlandia. But you may not know it’s also one of the best places in the world to grow the fickle pinot noir grapes needed to make pinot noir wine—specifically in the famed Willamette Valley. It’s there in the Dundee Hills region where you’ll find Erath Winery, makers of Oregon’s No.1 selling pinot noir.

It was this fact we dove into head first. That Erath is the culmination of all the best things about Oregon’s culture, climate and soil coming together in a bottle of wine. And every time you open a bottle of Erath, you’re invited on a sensory excursion to Oregon, no matter where you happen to drink it. Which is why we dubbed it, “An Oregon Original.”

I’m a big fan of Oregon (and the Pacific Northwest in general), so this was personally a super fun campaign for me to work on. You don’t have to twist my arm to conceptualize what Oregon means, look through beautiful photos of Oregon landscapes and create a voice that captures the same essence. So hopefully that passion comes through in what you see here.

CLIENT: Erath Winery | AD: Andy Westbrock | CW: Carla Sparks | ECD: Mike Hayward | AGENCY: Copacino Fujikado

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If you can’t read the copy, or don’t feel like turning your head because your neck is actually just for looks, here you go:

“To a magazine, the binding is the most important part. Everything depends on it to hold it together. Kind of like fishing line to a fisherman. Everything you depend on starts and ends with the line that holds it together. This explains why more fisherman choose the most dependable fishing line in the world.”

Anyway, this is an ad I did a while ago at a little agency back in my hometown of Minneapolis, by the name of Kerker, now known as Preston Kelly. At the time they had Pure Fishing as a client, which had a ton of great fishing brands under their umbrella, Stren being one of them. So to a Minnesota boy who had grown up fishing since the age of two, I absolutely loved the prospects of working on all this stuff. And this was an ad I always liked for its simplicity, and the point it made using the media.

As for Preston Kelly, they’ve actually been getting some notoriety lately. They won AdAge’s Midwest Small Agency of the Year award, and have been showing up in the CA Ad Annual and Archive as well. They’ve probably been winning a lot of other things too, but either way, I’m glad to see my friends back at PK doing great stuff.