Jim Tozzi
Jim Tozzi grew up in a small town just outside Boston. The most distinctive thing about this little town called Everett was the smell of freshly roasted peanuts courtesy of the Teddy Peanut Butter factory. The factory’s icon a grinning cartoon bear with a bucket would be one of the first influences of advertising on Jim.
He went to Everett public schools, always an outsider, he preferred drawing weird cartoons and watching monster movies to playing sports. In his early teens, Jim borrowed a super 8 camera from his Aunt and began experimenting. Lacking a tripod, he would tape the camera down onto the kitchen table and animate various toys, Star Wars figures and clay monsters. He also created a live action series staring his little sister as “Chico” the heavily mustachioed drug dealer who would meet an unlikely demise in every episode. Jim went on to study film and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. He continued doing both animated and live action films creating a short film parody of an afterschool special called “Sunday School Girls” which tackled the subject of what Jesus really looked like.
Jim moved to New York and started working at Broadcast Arts inking and painting animation cels. He also started directing music videos for obscure alternative bands. One of the first was for Mercury Rev and featured Ron Jeremy as a floating space traveler. Jim approached Nick at Nite with his reel and some promo ideas; he was brought on to TV Land to come up with a new promo campaign. This campaign conceived, written and directed with his wife Vezna, developed into the award winning “Twip” series. “Twip” was an imaginary product in which it’s evolution was traced in commercial parodies from the early 1950′s through the 90′s. Now as a directing team, the “Tozzi’s” signed on to Bob Giraldi’s company and began directing spots for Miller Lite, Sprite and Florida’s anti-tobacco campaign. The “Tozzi’s” split up and Jim went solo; joining M-80 he directed an award winning campaign for Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats for Leo Burnett. He went on to direct comedy spots for Sony Playstation, Nick at Nite and Miller. In his free time Jim likes to draw, paint, take long quiet walks and is a member of the art collective PFFR. Jim is now signed with THEM and living in New York.