By Jacqueline Tobin

A new campaign created by Milwaukee-based ad agency BVK focuses on CITGO gas station owners across the country and portrays their involvement in their local communities. “Research showed that given a choice, consumers would much rather patronize a local business that provides local jobs and invests back into the community,” explains BVK creative director Joel Mitchell. “One of CITGO's competitive advantages is that every station is locally owned. Just like the local barber, the local plumber or the neighborhood restaurant, every CITGO owner is invested in the community he or she serves. If the neighborhood thrives, the CITGO owner's business thrives.”
 
To illustrate CITGO's connections to communities, Mitchell and fellow creative director Scott Krahn hired photographer Jason Lindsey to "capture very real moments"—like getting a haircut at the local barbershop in Corpus Christi, Texas or watching a marching band performing on a school field in Key West, Florida—"and then elevate those moments through dramatic framing and lensing."

One other, but crucial consideration in hiring Lindsey, says Mitchell, is that they needed someone who could work fast and be creative on the go. "The print components of the campaign called for a lot of images. Whomever we hired for this campaign was going to live out of a suitcase for a few months, and not repeat all those quintessentially real moments town after town after town. Jason demonstrated a tremendous work ethic, first understanding the essence of each of the towns and neighborhoods we descended upon, and then shooting, shooting and shooting some more until we had a library of images. Plus, he's funny, and when you pile into the van for the 49th day in a row well before sunrise, funny becomes just as critical as lenses."

The campaign consists of 5 single-page magazine ads, outdoor and point-of-purchase executions.