The world of reality is growing and changing, and the latest show from NBC is a unique offering that is both entertaining and educational. On Brand with Jimmy Fallon pits 10 hopefuls against each other in an attempt to win a major marketing job and $100,000.
While going up against each other, they also need to work as a team. Along the way, contestants will be eliminated, with BT Hale as the first to go.
BT Hale is a 36-year-old creative dad from Keller, TX. Despite going through law school, he is now the marketing mind behind Cowboys Red River, and he has plenty of fun brainstorming with his three young kids and setting up exceptional daddy-daughter dates. Sure, his process is chaotic and loud, but he’s unashamed to be himself, as it should be.
Unfortunately, the minds behind Dunkin’ Donuts and Southwest Airlines didn’t see his ideas as working for them, and in the end, he was the first to go from the competition. And what an emotional ride it was! We chatted with BT about his time on the show, and the reason he even got into it in the first place.
GeekSided: First, I want to say that I’m so sorry to see you be the first eliminated.
BT Hale: Yeah, I was pretty devastated, as you could tell, but I’m just trying to sit and understand that. It’s a blessing to make of it, and I’m trying to stay positive.
GS: What was it about this reality show that made you want to do it? I mean, this is nothing that we’ve seen before.
BT: Absolutely! I didn’t know what to fully expect. The casting director reached out to me because they had my information from when I applied to Big Brother. I made it to the finals for that, but got cut right before.
I didn’t want to be on just any reality show. I wanted to feel drawn to the concept, so when they reached out to me about this and said I got to be creative, I knew it was for me. To this day, I swear that Mr. Clean used ideas from me for one of their Super Bowl commercials. They ran a contest where people submitted videos on what they thought the next Mr. Clean should look like. I submitted a video saying that Mr. Clean needed to dance more and have a bit more sex appeal for the housewives. Then I said, the shaved head and clean face is out the door. It’s all about the beard and dad bod.
Then there’s this Super Bowl commercial where Mr. Clean dances around the kitchen to this sexy music, and he’s looking back at the woman doing this stuff. She’s getting all riled up, and then they cut to her, and it’s her husband, who is bearded with a dad bod.
When I told the casting team about that, they were like, ‘You’re perfect, because that’s what we’re looking for.’ They wanted someone that’s sitting on the couch at home thinking they can come up with the next big idea for a Super Bowl ad or something.
GS: What was it like getting to pitch to Dunkin’ and Southwest directly?
BT: It was fine. The intimidating part was definitely coming up with an idea. What idea’s gonna be good enough for them, but the pitching part was the easy part for me. I enjoyed it.
I will stand on business that Dunkin’ missed out with the “Take me to your Dunkin’” People ask me what made you do aliens, and I didn’t just grab that idea out of the air, no pun intended. When I did my research into the history, one of the things that I thought about was what’s bigger than America? The whole galaxy!
You can make a commercial without people believing in aliens, because people enjoy Men in Black, or they’ll take their kids to see Lilo and Stitch. People don’t need to believe in aliens to have fun with the alien concept, so I wondered if there was a way to connect this to Dunkin’.
When I researched, I found out Dunkin’ was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and that’s accredited as the first place aliens were seen. I tied those together. It was a match made in history, but I guess, because of my performance, they couldn’t look past the concept of an alien eating Dunkin’.
I said to them that I’d looked at their social media and their best campaign last year was a Spidey donut that everyone fell in love with. It went super viral. So, when they said that they were worried that aliens might alienate them, I said that a lot of people don’t like spiders, but you just told me that was your best thing last year. Of course, they didn’t put that in the show, but it was a fun part of the battles to sell the idea.
GS: Is there anything that you regret not being able to do, or something that you realize that just didn’t work?
BT: So, the only thing that I regret was that I had a hard time moving on from my original idea for Southwest. My original idea was when they talked about the 34-inch pitch. I’m a big sports fan, so I thought about how to promote this new legroom, and 34 inches made me think of Shaq as being the perfect spokesperson for this.
His number was 34, and he lives in Dallas. He’s from San Antonio, so that triangle is Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. It’s the Southwest triangle of how they were born. I thought they could get Shaq and have a festival in each of the cities. I was so excited, and then they came back and told us that we couldn’t use celebrities in our pitches.
You know when you have an idea that is so perfect that it’s hard for you to think about something else, right? So, I just thought, what can I come up with that I can just sell well, because even if they don’t like my idea, I can give them something and be me, and use my personality to sell it. I had some taglines, like “The sky is your sanctuary” and “Don’t just arrive. Thrive.” I thought the taglines were cute and fun, and I thought I would have enough energy to skate by the episode and go into the next brands with a fresh mind.
GS: What was it like going from the pitches and into the teams and helping people like Ryan and Bianca develop their pitches?
BT: That was all hands on deck. It was a tough part because you want to be supportive of the idea and make it the best it can be. For Dunkin’, I was devastated that they hated my idea so much, and I thought it was so great, but I had to focus on Biance, Queen Bee! We had to get her idea to where it needed to be, so I had to turn off the upset factor.
I remember in the Southwest one, when working with Ryan and we talked about his legs idea and the legs under the window, I played Devil’s Advocate for a second. I thought it was a great idea, and I said, if I think it’s cool, then it’s not necessarily what the brand wants. We got into a little tussle, and I just said, “I’m just trying to tell you this. I’m not trying to take over your idea.” I wanted to give him some caution.
One of the things she said about the legs is that it jumbled up the design a little bit. I felt bad, because I thought it might be a thing.
GS: As my last question. Which brand would you have loved to do a marketing campaign for?
BT: On the show, or in general?
GS: I don’t know all the brands on the show, so let’s say both.
BT: On the show, they’ve announced some different brands, and one is Captain Morgan. I was really looking forward to that, because I’m working at a Honky Tonk nightclub, and it’s rum and pirates. It just seemed like it was gonna be such a fun episode, and I really wish that I could have gone that far.
My dream would be Pizza Hut. I just love pizza so much, and I’ve always grown-up loving Ninja Turtles, so working for somebody that sells pizza would be a dream.
On Brand with Jimmy Fallon airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c and Friday at 8/7c on NBC.