In October of 2015, the 2016 US Presidential election was in full swing. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were already running, and Vice President Joe Biden was expected to declare any day.

The first debate was to be broadcast live on CNN on October 13th from Las Vegas. It was widely anticipated that Joe Biden would join the debate stage at the last moment, and news reports said that a podium was ready for him.

A grass-roots group wanted to publicly urge Joe to enter the race, as well as to organize public support for him. They decided to run an ad during the CNN debates on Tuesday, only a few days away.

With just a few days to go, Mark Putnam needed to create an ad from scratch. Mark quickly focused on the inspirational speech that Joe Biden gave at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

On that Sunday, just two days before the ad would air, Mark hired me to photograph this family in Delaware that perfectly echoed the Biden family's story of struggle and resilience that Joe spoke of so movingly in his speech.

I regularly work with non-professional models, and my approach here was to give as little direction as possible and keep the mood low-key and relaxed.

Mark and I talked with them, I played on the floor with the boys, and we finished getting all of our shots. Mark and his team now had less than forty-eight hours to finish the ad.

The ad ran on CNN and garnered tremendous earned media. In the end however, Joe felt that "the window had closed". On October 21st, with President Obama at his side in the Rose Garden, Joe announced that he would not enter the race.

Title: "Joe, run".
Client: Draft Biden 2016.
Director: Mark Putnam

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