Spike Lee is a writer, director, actor, producer, author and philanthropist who has revolutionized filmmaking. Widely regarded as today’s premiere African American filmmaker, Lee is a forerunner in the 'DIY school of independent film'. His last film, Inside Man opened at #1 it’s first week at the box office. Lee is an academy-award nominated filmmaker who has made over 20 films and documentaries ranging from Do the Right Thing to When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. He began his commercial advertising career with the iconic Michael Jordan/Mars Blackmon campaign for Nike. The campaign is one of the top 10 most-recognized ad campaigns of all time. As Founder, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer of Spike DDB, Mr. Lee has supervised countless campaigns and directed over a dozen commercials including two consecutive Superbowl spots for Pepsi and Frito-Lay.

Joel Johnson is responsible for managing the agency, new business development and strategic planning.

Johnson has worked broadly for the DDB and Omnicom network, including DDB Chicago on brands like Anheuser Busch, Dell and Qwest. He most recently spent time as a lead Planner at BurkittDDB (London), as well as for design-planning firm, E-lab (now Sapient).

At SpikeDDB, he has developed the agency’s newest offering, branded entertainment and original content. Early branded entertainment clients include Major League Baseball and Viacom. Johnson maintained a planning consultancy specializing in developing strategies to target youth, urban and multicultural markets.

His consultancy's clients included Diageo, Mullen, DDB, Rapp Collins, and Red Tettemer—client brands included Guinness Extra Stout, New Era Cap Co., State Farm, Sony Playstation, New Era, and MTV among others. At BurkittDDB, Johnson was lead planner on Drambuie and Energizer Europe, which included planning in over five different European countries, as well as lead planner on Schwartzkopf UK.

A professional ethnographer, Johnson has a MA in Performance Studies (Cultural Anthropology) from Northwestern University and a BA in Theatre from Swarthmore College. Johnson is an avid playwright whose work has been seen in London and New York City.