Most people would give an eye to wiggle their way into a creative position at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. But Rob Reilly, VP/associate creative director, and one of the partners in Burger King's massive and ongoing success, was inches away from wiggling out following his first few weeks at the Miami agency.

"I wanted to quit after five weeks. I just didn't get it at first, the process is very different," says Reilly. "I didn't really get along with [executive creative director] Alex [Bogusky] and I wasn't having much success. If you're talented and your work is not getting picked up, it's hard on your ego. I think that anyone who starts here has to go through understanding how this place works and accept it."

The thing that made it a bit difficult for the New Jersey native was that he came to the agency after many years at Hill Holliday in New York, which he describes as much more traditional than Crispin and where he was most recently interim executive creative director. Moving to Crispin meant a pay cut and rather sizeable demotion - he was hired on as a senior copywriter.

But just over two years and a promotion later, the burger-loving masses that have been entertained by the BK office staff and the stiff-faced King are pretty glad Reilly didn't jump ship just as it began to show signs of taking water.

So what changed? "Alex is tough but talked to me about how he likes to work and once you figure that out, you begin to roll. You just have to figure it out quick. There are a lot of people like me that have worked in good agencies and then you put them in a great agency and they do great work."

In fact, great work is Reilly's prime target. According to CP+B creative director and Reilly's creative partner, Andrew Keller, his greatest strength is "convincing people something is great or pushing until something becomes great. He never settles. Never."

This quality was no doubt key in helping making the words Burger King synonymous with great advertising, a feat many thought unachieveable. Reilly gives props to the client for having an appetite to make its work remarkable ("[BK] has the vision and guts to know that in a competitive environment they just have to go for it"), and to CP+B for not being bound by, well, anything.

During their watch, Reilly and Keller, in concert with Bogusky, have been responsible for Burger King hit parade that includes the inaugural Office campaign, Subservient Chicken, "Wake Up With The King", Dr. Angus, Ugoff, "Fantasy Ranch", the recently released Coq Roq (see pg. 11) and more.

As an associate creative director, Reilly aims to ensure that creative teams are motivated. He says creative teams never have to compete against creative director teams, even though he still actively writes in his role. The fact that everyone is given an opportunity to work with the King probably helps. "We don't have groups here, we just assign people to BK projects. It's the gang-bang strategy," Reilly says before dutifully extolling the virtues of all the other clients that creative teams have the chance to work on.