• October 16, 2009

This week, UPS launched four more of its Whiteboard commercials, bringing total count to 52 ads since January 2007. The ads star Andy Azula, who happens to be creative director of UPS' agency of record, The Martin Agency.

The four new ads, slated to run through year-end, will air on cable news programs and during Fox's NFL coverage. The ads stick with the template of Azula in front of a whiteboard, doing cocktail napkin diagrams about how one's business can be improved with UPS.

And they play with the idea of whiteboard drawings being static by making them dynamic. In one ad, he creates a soundboard out of drawings to illustrate how one can use UPS to adjust to the economy. As he explains how one can lower warehouse costs and increase global reach, he moves the icons he drew up and down as if they are knobs on a sound board. The ambient music changes on cue.

Speaking at a marketing conference in New York this year, Azula recounted how he ended up in front of the camera instead of behind it because the director could not find anyone else who could perform the role with more panache.--Karl Greenberg