User:MattyJ28/Tropical Fox Productions

Chris Fox Gilson

Chris Fox Gilson (born Christopher Charles Gilson, June 25, 1947) is a global marketing strategist, author and filmmaker. Gilson has created notable advertising campaigns for clients such as Citicorp, JVC, Heineken, Newsweek, and Steinway & Sons, (1) co-authored textbooks on Advertising (Random House) and Consumer Behavior (Wadsworth) used in universities worldwide, (2) and developed the “Berkman-Gilson Model of Consumer Choice Behavior,” (3) Advertising Age named him one of the “Best and Brightest Young Advertising People in the U.S.” (4) He has also published best-selling fiction including Two For The Money and Crazy For Cornelia sold to Disney and New Line, (5) and created two award-winning documentaries, Wildwood Days (PBS 2005) and Airplay: The Rise And Fall Of Rock Radio (PBS 2011) with his wife Carolyn Travis. (6) In 2011, Gilson and his colleagues launched TAO Global Access, a conquest marketing firm specializing in affluent consumer markets worldwide, with offices in New York and Shenzhen, China, and its production arm Tropical Fox Productions in Miami.

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CAREER ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilson attended Friends Seminary, New York and received his BA magna cum laude from the University of Hartford. He also studied film at New York University and advertising design courses at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He married former television news reporter and producer Carolyn Travis in 1992..

ADVERTISING AGENCY AND PRODUCTION COMPANY BACKGROUND

Gilson began his advertising agency career at Doubleday Advertising, New York City, creating brand advertising for the Manhattan Savings Bank, Control Data Corporation, and Doubleday Book Clubs. (cite AdAge) As a Creative Group Head at Doyle Dane Bernbach’s Rapp & Collins unit, he learned interactive advertising from founding partners Stan Rapp and Tom Collins on accounts such as American Airlines, Avis, Marriott, Save The Children and Time-Life. As Associate Creative Director at the Michel, Cather & Partners (MC&P) agency, Gilson created a launch campaign for JVC’s VHS home video recorder, using Emmy-award winning TV comedian Ted Knight, that positioned the JVC brand against Sony and helped VHS prevail over Beta as the industry standard. (cite AdAge) With Kenyon & Eckhardt Creative Director Don Turner, Gilson created campaigns for ADT and Citicorp that won Clio and Andy awards. (AdDay Burton)

Gilson formed The Gilson & Frankel Consultancy with advertising creative director and political media consultant Noel Frankel, working through advertising agencies on campaigns for Chrysler, Citigroup, and Newsweek.  The partnership was acquired by the Beber, Silverstein & Partners (BS&P) advertising agency in New York, Washington DC, and Miami, founded by Joyce Beber and Elaine Silverstein. Gilson became a partner in BS&P in 1987.  In new business acquisition, he worked with partner Myer Berlow to acquire accounts such as Bertram/Trojan Yachts, Citicorp, Florida Tourism Board, Humana, and Squirt Soft Drinks, and create strategies for Austin Rover, Bacardi, CBS, Coty fragrances, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Steinway. 

In 1989, Gilson co-founded Upmarket/Illustra Films (UIF) in New York and South Beach with partner Bob Gordon. Their combined creative-strategy boutique and commercial-production company created and produced national and international advertising campaigns for Heineken, Citicorp, Faxe-Jyske of Denmark, Bookstar/Barnes & Noble, and Barq’s Root Beer, filming in Asia, Europe, Russia, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States. (cite Forbes)

ADVERTISING STRATEGIST AND EDUCATOR

Throughout his advertising agency career, Gilson drew on his own experience and case histories from clients and colleagues to author marketing textbooks with Professor Harold W. Berkman: Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Strategies, (San Francisco: Wadsworth, 1978, 1981 and 1986) and Advertising: Concepts and Strategies (New York: Random House, 1980 and 1987) While researching his textbooks, Gilson developed a proprietary advertising model called Aspirational Positioning: A Creative Strategy To Reach Young Urban Professionals (cite) cited as one of the first uses of the “Yuppie” status appeals in advertising. (cite)

Gilson also pioneered in legal services marketing with Linda Cawley and William R. Schmidt III, founders of the Legal Clinics of Cawley & Schmidt, authoring the practice-development guide, How To Market Your Law Practice  (Washington DC: Aspen 1980). The trio also wrote a popular guidebook, Consumer Revenge (Putnam, 1981) to help consumers assert their rights.

Over his career, Gilson has won creative and marketing awards including the ADDY, Clio, Andy, The One Show, and McGraw Hill Awards. In recognition of his success in both brand and interactive advertising and contributions to marketing education, Gilson was selected by Advertising Age as one of the “100 Best and Brightest Young Advertising People in the United States.” (cite)

FICTION AUTHOR AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER

Gilson met James Michener while the best-selling author was writing his novel, Caribbean. Michener suggested he use his storytelling skills to write fiction. He wrote his first novel Two For The Money in 1996, and it was sold by Howie Sanders and Richard Green, who headed the Literary Division at United Talent Agency (UTA), at auction to Hollywood Pictures/Disney, to be filmed by “Gross Pointe Blank” director George Armitage.

The UTA agents then sold Gilson first novel Crazy for Cornelia (Warner Books) at auction to New Line Cinema’s Lynn Harris, to be produced by “Rain Man” producer Mark Johnson. Crazy for Cornelia hit #5 on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and #3 on Amazon’s fiction list in 2001, and was a Selection of The Literary Guild (cite). Through UTA TV agent James Degus, Gilson obtained a creative development deal with Alliance-Atlantis, and launched a separate author identity as “Chris Fox” to write international thrillers in Europe, starting with The Devil’s Halo (Random House UK). (Blog refs)

Gilson worked as Creative Director with his wife Writer-Producer Carolyn Travis on the 60-minute documentary “Wildwood Days,” (PBS 2005) about the summer birthplace of rock & roll, featuring Bruce Willis, Dick Clark, Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, and deejay Jerry Blavatt. It was praised by The New York Times (“Wildwood rocks. Really.”), and won three “Best Documentary” awards. Gilson and Travis next wrote, directed, and edited the theatrical-length documentary “Airplay: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio,” (PBS 2011). “Airplay” is the story of the grit-and-glory days of rock and roll radio, told by America’s most popular deejays and the artists they made rock stars. The cast includes deejays such as Cousin Bruce Morrow, Casey Kasem, J.J. Jackson, and Little Steven Van Zandt, and artists such as Grace Slick, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. “Airplay” won the Global Gold Medal from The New York Festivals and six “Best Documentary” awards, and was a featured selection of the Beijing International Movie Week.

External links

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