The board for this Eggo spot was a little boy’s morning routine that ends with him making Eggo French toast sticks. Creative director and director Bo Barrett wanted a hero with a point of view, and a cowboy quickly became the answer: someone who does things their own way. He opened casting to any gender, and Jax sent in a tape that changed the spot. “Cowgirl” shows that the best version of an idea often turns up in casting, if you leave room for it.

Role: Creative Director & Director

Uncommon Goods is the spot where Bo Barrett became a comedy director. The situations are absurd, but the people aren’t: everyday men making everyday mistakes, played honestly enough that you recognize yourself. In character comedy, one false beat sinks the whole spot. Through auditions and on set, Bo let each actor find their own specific brand of dumb instead of forcing a preconceived read on each vignette. The talent drove, and the outtakes alone could fill another hundred spots.

Role: Director

For Rocket, director Bo Barrett had cast his leading man but couldn’t find the right actor to play his wife. On a whim, he asked the actor if he knew anyone. He did: his own wife, who is also an actor. A spot about a real relationship facing a real life moment got the one thing casting can’t fake, which is a real couple and their real chemistry. Casting shapes the story throughout Bo’s work, and here it made the spot.

Role: Director

For Expedia, director Bo Barrett tells an intimate story about two sisters at the moment one leaves for college and the other stays home. The spot lives in the space between them: the realities of leaving, the quiet left behind, and the love that holds through both. One shoot day, 46 setups, and a story where every beat carries weight. There were conversations about cutting it down. Bo argued for keeping every moment, and the finished film shows why.

Role: Director

A tight timeline, and a client who wanted real people but was nervous about casting them. That’s where director Bo Barrett does his best work. For 7-Eleven and Dentsu, Bo set up actual blind dates between real singles, and he checked each person’s social media himself to confirm they were single. He kept the couples hidden from each other until it counted, put them at ease on camera, and handed second unit to the art director for half the day to make the schedule. Bo plays matchmaker in all his casting; this time it was literal.

Role: Director

The boards for JustFoodForDogs showed one man acting like a dog, head out the car window. Director Bo Barrett saw a bigger idea: if the story was about that particular kind of freedom, other people needed to feel it too. He cast a group of strong comedic actors and helped each one get as doglike as humanly possible. Then he shot loose, so the camera seems to catch the moments rather than stage them. From the start Bo knew the music had to carry as much of the spot as the picture.

Role: Director

Bo Barrett is a Los Angeles director who started out as an actor. This background helps him get the best performance from actors, after appearing in front of the camera in hundreds of commercials, including jobs with Sofia Coppola, Lance Acord, Tom Kuntz and Fredrik Bond. Watching those directors taught him how a performance gets made, and that shapes how he approaches projects. Bo casts for honesty. On set he gives talent room to find the moment on their own instead of forcing a read, and he shoots loose enough to catch what happens when they do. His work covers performance-driven comedy and quiet, intimate storytelling, and his rule is the same for both: if it doesn’t feel true, it doesn’t make the cut.

In addition to direction, he is often hired for his point of view as a creative director.