Ad Age is marking Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor JJ Augustavo turns the spotlight to Ehsan, the DJ and film director known for his work for brands including Nike, Samsung, Captain Morgan and the NFL. Here, Ehsan writes about finding common ground between art and commerce.

Let’s take it back to circa 2018, pre-salt-’n’-pepper chinny-chin-chin and finding my voice as a commercial filmmaker. Let’s take it back to that long, hard, existential look in the mirror, post inspiring conversation with my brother Jon Jon Augustavo (fellow Asian and stupidly talented director), that went a lil’ something like this:

So I’m shooting car commercials and fashion films, but the scripts I’m writing for myself are so much more than cars ’n’ clothes, they’re a window into my world, my culture, my people, my values… 

I want to spread joy and make people smile like some kinda hood Aladdin, but BOY! I’ve got a lot to say about the world we live in. How can I be part of the system, whilst wanting to take a match to it?

I’m an artist, a filmmaker, an activist, but first and foremost I gotta secure the bag; there is NO safety net.

No matter how many artistan coffees I kick back, I come from the ends (thats LDN for the hood) and no way am I ever going back there… there’s no Maru coffee in the bits!

Twisting my thick black indus-valley locks round my henna brown f’ index finger, I questioned the who, what ’n’ why’s and then something clicked; an epiphany: a moment of clarity, tearing my reel apart to scribble the blueprint for a new chapter. No more answering briefs, regurgitating references and giving them what they want. But presenting ‘ME’—the person with a purpose, wholly, unapologetically as the product, directing is just the packaging.

My story became my script, my POV my superpower, my otherness my USP… And by seeing my authentic goofy, high-energy, silly-swaggy-self in what I created, I did what all creatives dream of: Aligning the art and the commerce—they didnt’ need to be at odds!

I resurrected the “hustle” and the “hunger” that had once fueled me to land me a scrappy little NFL spot … no money but all the opportunity to cast a few friends and write a little ode to the the world I knew best: “the ends.”

“NFL, Around the Block” did the rounds (literally) and shortly after Nike came knocking, followed by a few awards. Again, I just wrote a thing about a homie, featuring a homie, doing things my homie did (booty calls!) pointing the camera in the style that came natural to me—fast ’n’ furiously fun, silly and not subtle about it ;p 

The rest is history, the scripts came knocking—you know the ones that just write themselves ’cause they connect with you; coming back to that unapologetic thing.

I found my voice because my purpose in and outside of shooting commercials aligned. I’m ignited by a genuine passion to shift culture by making things that spread smiles like jam, whilst opening a few doors for some mini-me’s along the way. 

So in conclusion I’m sharing my biggest tip here—a life hack for any director or creative. Treat briefs like a question, a really personal question, “Who are you?” and “What do you feel about xxxxx?” That's it, and trust me, if I can do it, so can these lil’ Gen-Z g’s.