Phil Brown draws directorial inspiration from tv, movies and a small notebook he keeps close by to record quirky little day-to-day events, in hopes that something from its pages will be incorporated into a commercial.

So far, the real-life angle has worked for him. His comedic ‘Dead Chicken’ spot for Fong’s Fresh Poultry, in which two Chinese women crack a chicken’s neck so they can bring it onto a public bus, is based on an actual incident witnessed by Palmer Jarvis art director Bradley Wood (who cowrote the spot with Brown) in San Francisco. The spot went on to win Gold at this year’s Bessies.

Repped by API Aviator Pictures on the West Coast and The Artists Film Company elsewhere, Brown, who holds a degree in interior design, says he took the long route to becoming a commercial director, starting off working in theater in England, then moving to a television station, where he handled set decoration for primetime soap Coronation Street.

In his spare time, Brown directed rock videos, which eventually led to work on corporate films. In 1989, his career took an absolute turn with a spot for Absolut Vodka, which earned a great deal of attention in u.k. advertising circles.

He was then off to Scotland, where he shot more spots before relocating to Vancouver with hopes of breaking into the Canadian film industry. Instead, he ended up folding his director’s chair to become an art director at bbdo.

In the midst of some internal strife at the agency, Brown, who says he is not a political animal, once again caught the directing bug, resigned as art director, sought representation and returned to commercial directing.

Brown says his international experience has provided him with a global view which has been instrumental to his success as a director, but has also led him to be a little cynical about the level of conservatism in Canadian advertising – something he blames on the clients not the creatives.

‘Advertising has to lead the way not follow,’ the director explains. ‘And things like focus groups water everything down until the message is so bland there is no irate edginess or anything controversial. I would like to shake things up and get in the newspaper for doing something wrong. I love controversy, and if it annoys people, then that’s great.’

Brown sees Canada as the North American Switzerland, which he says bows to minority opinion, whereas European and American creative takes more risks – something he did with great success on ‘Dead Chicken.’

‘A client is so close to a product,’ says Brown, ‘and to them it is the be-all and end-all; sometimes they need to take a step back and look at the big picture. I think people who watch tv are pretty sophisticated and we are interrupting their programs with our commercials, so they’d better be good.’

So, what keeps Brown in Canada? It’s a great place to start a career, he says, and it’s packed with talented people, but when the opportunity comes his way for an exotic location shoot, he’s the first on the plane.

Aside from ‘Dead Chicken,’ other top personal picks for the director include a pool of spots for Samsung through Bozell, Paris. Given complete creative freedom, Brown jetted to Prague to shoot three commercials, one of which features a beautiful young masseuse giving a computer monitor a sensual rubdown using slimming cream to create a new slim-line monitor.

‘It was a blast,’ he says. ‘Bozell gave me the boards and let me introduce as many characters as I wanted. A lot of the time you get the boards and do your translation of how it should work and it gets crazy, so you end up doing what you are told, but in France you are the realisateur, you’re the boss.’

Brown likes to be irreverent in his approach. He believes the look is very important and puts a lot of time into the images and overall look of a spot. When it comes to talent, he says he looks for a great performance rather than just another pretty face.

Brown is now hoping to do something for the Toronto market. He recently wrapped a comedic spot for Visine through Taxi and is bidding on another job out of Milan, Italy, which he hopes will open up opportunites in Europe. Eventually, like most commercial directors, he hopes to shoot features.

‘Everyone I meet generally wants to be something else,’ says Brown. ‘For now I am happy with commercials, but I want to be really good at them and I want to aim high. I’m choosy about what I do, and basically I want to kick butt.’