What should we call you?
Aaron, although I get everything from Eric to A-A-Ron.

Where are you from?
Hendersonville NC, AKA Asheville’s golf-playing, church-going little brother.

What brought you to advertising?
I started out as a business major, but realized I hated most of the classes. I switched to the journalism school, and when I took an intro copywriting course, I was like “wait, I can actually get paid to put funny words and pictures together? I’m in.”

What's your biggest writing pet peeve?
Excessive verbosity.

Earliest or fondest SG memory?
The day the remote-controlled fart device hidden somewhere in the bowels of the office became self-aware. It would emit these dramatic fart noises at random times throughout the day, breaking up quiet moments and offering unsolicited commentary on our ideas. It was like our own little Singularity.

Favorite/best part of your job?
After you’ve been spinning wheels and hitting dead ends on an assignment, the feeling when you’ve finally cracked it and the ideas start coming. Then staying with it as it builds up momentum within the team and eventually the client.

Project you're most proud of?
Tie between the “Claude the Invisible Roofer” campaign we did for Long Roofing, which was fun and smart, and our NCI cancer campaign for RWJ, simply for the sheer intellectual firepower of the doctors in the spots.

Favorite SG perk?
Getting to work with a crazy talented mix of personalities every day is pretty great, although PJ and Pie Day may give it a run for its money.

Dream client?
Some really warm travel and tourism client with a massive budget, run by former marketing people from Geico, Nike, and Budweiser.

Favorite ad of all time?
E*Trade “Nozulla” for coining such phrases as “children born with the head of a golden retriever” and “the condition known as hotdog fingers”

Ad that still makes you cringe?
Trigger warning -- this: youtube.com/watch?v=3h1O7-r7Wrw

What makes advertising in DC cool?
It’s a smaller market, so there are more opportunities to stand out. For its size, DC has a lot of talented creatives hungry to expand beyond the government, association, and other niches that dominate the area.

What careers do you think your kids will choose?
My son already has a stock portfolio, so probably something in finance. One of my daughters says she wants to be a gymnast or lawyer. And the other one says she wants to be an “advertiser,” despite my best efforts to steer her towards something more stable, like cobalt mining or professional pickleball.

Any lessons from recently getting a dog?
1. There’s no such thing as “fully housebroken.”
2. It’s shocking how quickly crate training goes out the window.

Anything unexpectedly difficult to teach your kids while school has been remote?
How to write body copy. They’ve gotten pretty good at headlines and social posts.

Last series you binged?
The Man in the High Castle, and watched all seasons of Friends with my 12-year-old. It’s held up surprisingly well.

Favorite place you've lived?
New York. It’s pricey, smelly, and everything is a competition. But there’s nowhere else like it, and no place so packed with opportunity.

Best divey restaurant you've encountered?
Sheba, a tiny little Ethiopian place in Bethesda. Nothing like a platter of kitfo and injera bread to keep me happy and immobilized for the rest of the evening.

Most formative book you've read?
The Enchiridion, by Epictetus

Hidden talent?
Mixing the perfect dirty martini. And perfect pitch.

Pen or pencil?
Pen. When you can’t erase what you’ve written, it makes you write more decisively.

Biscuits or bagels?
Biscuits. Preferably with chicken, egg, and cheese.

Nashville or Asheville?
Asheville, but I’d be willing to give Nashville a shot.

HBO or Netflix?
Varies, depending on what’s on. Lately Amazon and Hulu have been taking the lead in our house.

Liverpool or Man City?
Really? That’s it, I’m out of here. Glory glory, Man United!