About

Jonathan Thake trained as a barrister then decided to use his rhetorical skills to argue for beer and noodles rather than debate points of law.

His first job was at KesselsKramer in Amsterdam, where he designed a Christmas card you put over your head to avoid Christmas.

After that he moved to Mother in London, then HHCL, Rainey Kelly, and TBWA, and up the ranks from junior creative to creative director.

Along the way he picked up various awards, including a place in the Guinness Book of Records for writing the most complained about advert of all time: Pot Noodle, The Slag of All Snacks.

The advert turned Pot Noodle’s fortunes around and made it a brand everyone wanted to work on.

In 2009 he wrote his first TV show – The Persuasionsists for BBC2 – and since then has split his time between TV comedy and advertising, writing campaigns for A&EDDB, Crispin Porter, VCCP, Droga5, etc, etc.

Jonathan wrote the Good Call campaign for A&E with Ben Priest - according to the IPA the most effective beer campaign of all time. He’s also written a TED Talk for Carlsberg, laying out their philosophy: Why Every Question Should Be Answered With The Word Probably.

His own philosophy is that adverts are best when they entertain. If you’re barging into people’s lives, trying to sell them things, the least you can do is put on a show.