Iowa Nice

CLIENT: ESPN
ROLE: DIRECTOR, Co-WRITER
PRODUCER: Scott Siepker

(NSFW: contains adult language. At work? View the clean version)

The Iowa Nice Series began as a web film Paul wrote during the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. The video received over 1.8 million views and its character, the “Iowa Nice Guy,” quickly grew into a hometown hero. He was featured for two seasons as a segment on ESPN’s College Football Daily, as well as in live appearances on multiple national networks, including MSNBC and CNN.

The weekly ESPN segments were written and produced locally by the Iowa Filmmakers team. Their challenge was to create original commentary on the week’s happenings in college football that would be aired the following day.

The original Iowa Nice was parodied and quoted across platforms from Buzzfeed to the Colbert Report. Rachel Maddow called it “the single most entertaining political ad to come out of Iowa.” It was an official Honoree at the 16th Annual Webby Awards.