Jelly Helm is what we in the ad industry call a "creative." He worked as an art director and as a copywriter during his successful tenure as an advertising practitioner.

Before working in advertising, Jelly Helm lived out his childhood in Kentucky where he spent 13 years in Catholic school asking such questions as "Where did Cain and Abel find girlfriends?" (Helm 1999)

While he was in college he produced his first advertisement for the college newspaper. After seeing his first ad run in the paper, he was hooked. "I stopped at each news stand and looked at paper after paper to see that my ad was really running in the newspaper." (Helm 1999)

So from then on he knew that he wanted to work in advertising. One of the creative ways that Jelly would apply to an ad agency while he was still looking for a job would be to send the creative director a little box the size of a pop tart. Inside the box would be a check for $20,000 signed over to the creative director, along with a little note. The note would say - Hey, I heard you were hiring art directors for $20,000. Here's my check for $20,000, when do I start?-

Needless to say, Jelly Helm ended up working for some of the best agencies around. In fact, he worked at creative powerhouse Wieden + Kennedy in Portland for five years as an art director. He did well enough that he later became creative director of Wieden + Kennedy's office in Amsterdam. During his tenure at W+ K, he worked on such illustrious accounts as Nike, Coke and Microsoft.

Jelly has been involved in a multitude of award winning advertisements. His awards include the gold and silver awards from the One Show, the New York Art Directors Club, the Clios, British Design & Art Direction, the Andys, and many entries in shows and publications worldwide. His Nike commercial that features Steve Martin and Michael Jordan has been added to the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

Besides the success, Jelly flat out enjoyed his job. "Advertising can be such a fun business... Advertising is rewarding in its ability to let you express yourself. Something about the act of creating something and then sharing it with the world." (Helm 1999, p.54)

Eventually Jelly moved back to the Southeast, to Virginia, where he worked for the Martin Agency as a Senior VP/Group Creative Director. There he acted as the creative director for the Timberland account, among others.

It is in Richmond, Virginia where Jelly began sprouting out of solely working on advertising accounts. He became an associate professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University's Adcenter, dividing his time between instructing and still working at the Martin Agency. Eventually though, teaching became a full-time profession. At the Adcenter he embarked on a new life where advertising became a focus of study as opposed to a focus of profession.

He began thinking about advertising from the viewpoint of an academic, that is, with a critical eye. His newfound perspective as an outsider, so to speak, led him to such research as a Princeton poll that ranked advertising 25 of 26 as a profession based on ethics and honesty (Helm 1999). He listened to a National Public Radio five-part critical series on advertising which further changed his opinion of his beloved profession (Helm 1999). He noticed the bevy of articles in such magazines as Harper's, Newsweek, and People that likewise were critical of advertising.

So what did this all say to Jelly Helm?

He realized that advertising promoted over-consumption of the earth's resources and that the consumer mentality that is championed by advertisers leads to unhealthy psychological consequences.

Since 1996, Jelly has written and lectured on these subjects including sustainability as it relates to advertising and consumption (Adcenter, Helm). His articles have been displayed in Print, Communication Arts and Emigre.

In 1999, Jelly was appointed to a United Nations panel that was formed to address the ways in which advertising can raise global awareness about the importance of preventing overconsumption of the world's natural resources (VCU news)

Jelly continues to lecture about his opinions of advertising currently as an associate professor at the University of Oregon in Portland where he currently lives with his wife and one son.

The rest of this website will discuss what these opinions are and what he is doing to change the advertising business for the better.