IOFA with Aaron Starkman
Aaron Starkman, Chief Creative Officer of Rethink Canada, interviews creative advertising legends about their careers, insights, and the industry's evolution. The podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the minds behind iconic campaigns and what it takes to succeed in the creative world.
Episodes
Episode 7. Mike Dubrick September 16,2025
On the latest episode of IOFA Aaron sits down in Toronto and chats with Rethink CCO, Mike Dubrick about his "Go Then Grow Formula", the Heinz work he leads globally, and a next level origin story.
Episode 6. The Career of David Lubars May 14, 2024
On the latest episode of IOFA Aaron chats with ad legend (and recently retired) David Lubars about his incredible career and the work, relationships and philosophy that shaped it.
Episode 5. Pancho Cassis April 16,2024
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Pancho Cassis, Global CCO of David about scary clowns, reactive advertising and drinking with celebrities after award shows.
Episode 4. Chris Bergeron February 5, 2024
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Chris Bergeron from Cossette about Big Macs with bacon, Bud Light, her fascinating path to advertising and her advocacy for diversity, inclusion and the rights of trans people including sharing her own story.
Episode 3. Greg Hahn December 7, 2023
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Greg Hahn, founder of fellow Indy agency Mischief. Greg and Aaron talk about his days at Fallon, BBDO and how getting laid off became one of the best things to ever happen to him, ultimately leading him to open his own agency.
Episode 2. Gabriel Schmitt November 16, 2023
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron sits down with Grey’s Global CCO Gabriel Schmitt and chats about his famous Whopper Detour campaign, what it’s like working with John McEnroe and how award show entries and Gout should never be brought up in the same dinner conversation.
SEASON FIVE Episode 1. Nils Leonard November 6, 2023
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Nils Leonard of Uncommon about getting sued by his former agency, his worst meeting ever which eventually led to him founding Uncommon and some of his career hits like Volvo’s Life Paint & the recent British Airways outdoor campaign.
Episode 7. Daniel Lobaton January 25,2023
Back in the spring(before he joined Rethink), Aaron chatted with Saatchi’s President and CCO Daniel Lobotón about how working in Lima, Paris, Austin & Kansas City shaped him as a creative before leading some of the most famous Tide work ever.
Episode 6. Per Pederson January 9,2023
Per Pederson 1964-2023
The world just lost a great one in Per Pederson, formerly the Global Creative Chairman of Grey and founder of independent Agency network, By the Network. Per discusses growing up in Denmark, some career highs, lows and lessons he learned on the way to becoming one of best Creative leaders in the world.
Episode 4. Shannon Washington July 26,2022
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with R/GA’s Executive Creative Director, Shannon Washington about Cal Ripken, the comedic genius of Diddy and Shannon’s fascinating journey from school to leading creative at R/GA NYC.
Episode 3. Luke Sullivan. March 14,2022
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Luke Sullivan about his amazing advertising career, his earlier struggles with drugs and alcohol, the reason he wrote the ad bible Hey Whipple Squeeze This, and that time Kermit the Frog showed up to a meeting and ruined it.
Episode 2. Chris Beresford Hill March 1, 2022
On the latest episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Chris Beresford Hill about his new role at Ogilvy, how Chris got Mike Tyson to give Evander Holyfield his ear back and an important discussion on the best pizza slice in NYC.
SEASON FOUR Episode 1. Janet Kestin and Nancy Vonk November 9, 2021
Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin chat with Aaron about a disgusting incident at an advertising event that suddenly put them in the mainstream global spotlight and they discuss the theme of their incredible careers: amazing work done in spite of challenging budgets including the Cannes Grand Prix, Dove Evolution.
Episode 6. David Kolbusz August 30, 2021
Aaron chats with Droga 5 London’s CCO, David Kolbusz about what Ellen DeGeneres is like off-camera from his own experience, the story behind David’s famous 3 little pigs ad for the guardian and why you should never attempt small talk with David at any industry function, ever.
Episode 5. Paul Lavoie April 8, 2021
Canadian advertising legend Paul Lavoie talks about what happens when you show up to a Nike pitch wearing their competitor’s shoes, why you shouldn’t turn down stock from a start-up owned by someone named Jeff Bezos, and a worst meeting ever story so controversial it can’t be alluded to here. Buckle up for the most unfiltered IOFA yet.
Episode 4. Ari Weiss January 19, 2021
Aaron chats with Ari Weiss, Worldwide CCO for DDB about some of his greatest hits, a meeting with the world's most sociopathic client and why brown shoes are WAY funnier than black shoes.
Episode 3. Elspeth Lynn and Lorraine Tao December 11, 2020
Get to know Aaron’s former colleagues and heroes, Elspeth Lynn and Lorraine Tao. Elspeth and Lorraine discuss opening up their own agency, some incredible career highlights and the suppression of female voices in advertising.
Episode 2. Danny Robinson December 3, 2020
On this episode of IOFA, Aaron chats with Danny Robinson, the new CCO of the Martin Agency about the famous Oprah episode where she says “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everyone gets a car!” for his former client, Pontiac. Danny also discusses his time doing stand up comedy and why you should never offer cinnamon gum to Jay-Z.
SEASON THREE Episode 1. Anselmo Ramos/Mickey (Paul) Taylor November 19, 2020
Aaron chats with Anselmo Ramos, Founder of DAVID and Gut about independence, why pitching is bad for business & how Anselmo has thrived by always being seen as ‘that guy with the accent’. Aaron also chats with the mysterious man behind the satirical “Adweak” posts, Mickey Taylor about about how it started and Mickey and Aaron count down his top 5 posts of 2020.
Episode 5. Fernando Machado May 13, 2020
In early March, just before airlines shut it down I chatted with the king of CMO’s, Fernando Machado in Miami about some of his recent hits including the Moldy Whopper and the fascinating story behind it. This interview was pure joy for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Episode 4. Malcolm Poynton February 18, 2020
Malcolm Poynton discusses the birth of the famous Dove campaign for real beauty in London, the unapproved Ford ad that got leaked and quickly went viral and that time he flew Aaron to London for a interview and the hilarious “incident” that transpired soon after.
Episode 3. Judy John January 15, 2020
Edelman Global CCO, Judy John talks about her famous “Like a Girl” campaign, how she tackles being a leader who happens to be an introvert, and why there aren’t more women running agencies.
Episode 2. Chris Staples and Ian Grais October 16, 2019
20 years ago the two best creatives in Canada left DDB and opened Rethink. On the next IOFA episode, Chris Staples and Ian Grais chat about why they put their phones in safes on vacation, a worst meeting ever that was so bad it made the news and what happened when their former agency’s holding company started charging for photocopies.
SEASON TWO Episode 1. Eric Kallman September 19, 2019
SEASON TWO!!! Eric Kallman talks to Aaron about creating the Old Spice character, the famously twisted Skittles campaign and the best worst shoot story of all time.
Episode 7. Anna Qvennerstedt June 7, 2019
Anna Qvennetsedt talks about Forsman and Bodenfors’ famous Jean-Claude Van Damme Epic Split spot for Volvo, what’s up with digital in Sweden and what happens when you bring a cheese doodle mascot to a pitch meeting.
Episode 6. Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein April 16, 2019
Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein discuss some of their big hits, why elevators are scary and a shocking conversation they had with Steve Jobs.
Episode 5. Ari Merkin March 1, 2019
Ari Merkin chats about his famous Ikea lamp spot, a strange meeting with Spike Jonze in a park and why ad folks shouldn’t be compared to used car salesmen.
Episode 4. Susan Credle February 7, 2019
Aaron and Susan discuss the famous M&M characters she created, her rise to global CCO, and a controversial topic never before discussed so openly: award show corruptness.
Episode 3. Gerry Graf December 11, 2018
Gerry and Aaron discuss dead rats, little Jesus mittens and some of Gerry's work - which happens to be some of the most loved campaigns over the last 30 years.
Episode 2. Alex Bogusky October 23, 2018
Aaron Starkman chats with Alex Bogusky about the state of the industry, why Alex came back and they also discuss vampires.
Host and Creator- Aaron Starkman
Executive Producer and Audio Director- Ted Rosnick
SEASON ONE Episode 1 . Rob Reilly September 6, 2018
Aaron Starkman sits down with Rob Reilly, Global Creative Chairman of McCann Worldgroup at Cannes.
