The brief was very simple: Make the brand famous and make guys laugh out loud.

With that in mind – and research indicating that their target was a very busy guy in his 30s who put a lot of value on his free time – David Chiavegato and partner Rich Pryce-Jones sat down and created an advertising institution. Well, actually, an institute: The Bud Light Institute.

The concept hurtled the creative team from Palmer Jarvis DDB’s Toronto-based Downtown Partners to national prominence as if shot from the very attic launcher of their fecund minds.

The team was instantly rewarded with praise and a round of honors including Best of Show for the campaign ‘Vikings/Attic Launcher/Figure Skating’ at the 2001 Bessies.

The follow-up campaign was no less inspired and once again the hardware is coming in.

For his individual efforts, Chiavegato took home a 2002 Best of Series Bessie as the writer of ‘Sin and Sentimentality,’ a spoof of your by-the-numbers bodice ripper replete with face-slapping and lesbian undercurrents. The catch in this case, however, is that this epic is 48 hours long, giving guys time aplenty to enjoy several rounds of golf, play poker and drink beer. The spot has also garnered a Bronze Clio.

‘It was a lot of fun to see these guys getting slapped all day, especially in the freezing cold,’ says Chiavegato of the making of the spot.

‘I’m finding these days that my wife is saying, ‘You have to stop doing ads about our relationship.”

Since the airing of the campaign – which also included ‘Wedding Dress’ and ‘Empathy Mask’ – Chiavegato and Jones have moved from PJ to help launch Grip Limited, with Bud Light’s Canadian brewer Labatt Breweries of Canada undersigning the endeavor as flagship client.

For Chiavegato it was hard to say goodbye to the campaign he helped nurture these past few years. ‘You’re just starting to see where this can go. We always envisioned the Bud Light Institute as a brand device – allowing for everything from events promotions to CDs – that would take on a life of its own. So it was kind of hard to leave.’

Indeed, one of the team’s last efforts for Bud Light was a fake CD called Ulterior Emotions, which premiered during the Super Bowl and features mock hits such as It Takes A Special Kind Of Woman To Make Sandwiches For The Guys.

The spot struck such a strong chord with consumers that Labatt ordered CDs be pressed and they are now available at HMV outlets or through www.budlightinstitute.ca.

‘The CD has become such a hit, and that is something you can never plan. It’s quite funny. The next thing you know, you’re walking down the street and it’s at HMV, a CD based on a commercial that you wrote. That’s a bit of a weird thing,’ says Chiavegato.

Despite his obviously strong creative flair, Chiavegato actually got his start in 1991 client-side as brand manager at Unilever under Peter Elwood.

Making the leap to creative from brand manager may appear a stretch, but Chiavegato says the combination has helped him to understand the business needs of the client and how to apply creative concepts successfully. It may also explain his slingshot-like ascent to becoming a top creative in a few short years.

Chiavegato got to try his creative chops while on loan from Unilever to Toronto-based J. Walter Thompson’s creative department in 1996. He credits former JWT VP, creative director, Shelley Ambrose for showing him the ropes and letting him prove himself as an untried copywriter.

There was obviously something there, because in 1998, Marta Cutler, then CD at PJ, brought him on as senior writer and partnered him with Pryce-Jones.

Along with Ambrose and Cutler, Chiavegato credits two other former PJ creative directors, Marc Stoiber and Chris Staples, as influences who set the bar high creatively.

Now at Grip, Chiavegato, still partnered with Pryce-Jones, has turned his attention to Carlsberg with an eye to elevating that brand as well.

‘It’s always great to move on to new challenges, to find the next brand that you can take to the next level. That is always fun.’

Fun, particularly if they can figure out how to integrate some face-slapping with the ‘Welcome to Your Carlsberg Years’ positioning.