In Memory of Heat Wave

Today we had the honor of designing a very special ad that will be appearing in the fall edition of The Showtimes, a tribute to Heat Wave. I felt so honored to design this, because Heat Wave is a bull that is very special to me. I designed my first ad for Heat Wave in 2004. I can't explain how excited I was as a young designer to get to work with a bull of such prominence. I can still remember the excitement I felt as Matt or Phil would call me and report one state fair after another that Heat Wave won that summer. Through the years, RHD did tons of ads featuring this bull. I remember in 2007, Heat Wave won something like 27 state fairs. Imagine fitting all those winners on an ad!

Working with Heat Wave was always fun, because he has a great photo (my opinion the best club calf bull photo ever), he has a great name, and he had an unmatched track record. Now, the bull I get excited about doing is Monopoly, a Heat Wave son. I got the same feeling this week when Matt texted me the video of Monopoly winning his first state fair at the Minnesota State Fair. And, I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot more of those texts as the Monopoly winners keep rolling in, just like I used to get of Heat Wave from 2004-2010 when I worked with his ads. But, there's still something very special about the original -- Heat Wave. The bull that I worked with for 6 years and loved every ad!

So I'm happy to share this ad with everyone. I'm sure it won't be the last Heat Wave ad you'll ever see, but to me, it'll always be one that's special.