The independent agency world — news, work, people and thinking.
Why Van’s General Store Turns 1 Brief Into 16 Films
Scott Carlson and Liev Schreiber built a 14-year-old bi-coastal shop on a simple premise: respect the ask, then make it bigger
Scott Carlson, co-founder of Van’s General Store, had run big agencies and logged the airport miles to prove it. In 2012, he and actor-director Liev Schreiber launched VGS so Carlson could be home in Brooklyn, working with friends on creative projects while his son watched.
The name has a family history, and Carlson’s son’s name is Van, so the name seemed a natural extension.
Fourteen years later, the agency’s résumé includes Pepsi’s Sierra Mist relaunch, Chevrolet, Minted, Cadillac and an oncology client that started as a logo job and grew into a full agency-of-record relationship. The model is built on stretching one idea into many.
“It will remind me every day of why I go to work,” Carlson says of the name. That’s a sturdy reason to stay independent.
A hardware store, a grandson and a reason to go home
The name carries two generations. Carlson’s grandfather ran a chain called Vans Hardware in Santa Monica and Ventura. When the founding team kicked around names, the general store idea fit: walk in and you can get a lot of different things.
Carlson had spent years at agencies like Deutsch and Mother. The pivot was personal. He wanted his son to see him making things with friends — “not spending his youth in airport lounges.”
Van’s General Store it was.
What VGS is known for: story arcs, not one-offs
Carlson admits storytelling is a layup answer. Every agency claims it. The difference at VGS is how they map it.
The team looks at brand story arcs — where a brand sits in its story and where it needs to go next — whether they’re starting from a blank page or rebranding a product for Pepsi. “We look at where you are in your story,” he says, “and how we can best tell that story.”
A production arm handles the film side, much of it documentary in style. That’s where the stories get their legs.
3 things VGS does differently
First, brand building. Carlson thinks brands forgot how to be brands while chasing follower counts. VGS strategists start with who you are and how you behave.
Second, design — a team he calls one of the agency’s strongest.
Third, what VGS calls regenerative media: one core idea that spiderwebs into 15 or 16 pieces. Sierra Mist’s relaunch began as an experiential project with artists in Chicago and Detroit and produced a year of work, including 50+ films. A single Chevy film at America’s oldest Chevy dealership in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, became 16 films on the same budget. A Minted web banner brief turned into a 50-day art program that ended in a charity auction.
The power of saying yes (without an Excel sheet)
Independence, for Carlson, means control. Nobody looking over his shoulder with an Excel sheet telling him he can’t spend that money.
He inherited a make-stuff-for-yourself culture from his years at Mother, and VGS keeps it alive. The agency helped launch Honeybrains, a brain-health restaurant started by a neurologist and his brother. Carlson lost his mother to Alzheimer’s, and he knew going in it wasn’t a money project.
“I want to be able to say yes to that,” he says.
Clients may never ask about it. They still benefit from a shop that doesn’t just check boxes.
Why brands should work with VGS
“We’re going to respect the ask,” Carlson says, “but we’re going to look at what the objective is.” Projects open like a writers’ room — a habit Schreiber brought from film — with sneaker designers, sociologists or Broadway lighting designers at the table before the ad people translate it for the brand.
Carlson’s other rule: “We’re only as good as our clients.” His current favorite is an oncology company that came in for logo, color and brand guidelines. VGS is now agency of record, shooting films on cancer research and survivors, building websites and doing 3D modeling.
Why talent calls VGS (and not the other way around)
VGS runs with 10 to 12 full-timers and scales around the project. It has been as big as 60 people, dropped to around five during COVID and now has 20+ working with the core group.
Carlson calls them makers. Lately, many are people he admired for years, freed up by holding-company mergers — senior talent who “aged out by age, but not by brain.” They call him with ideas for films, sculpture series and nonprofit work.
What they share is a fondness for the big idea. Influencers can be an arm of it. They’re never the start.
Weirdos and misfits — the original job description
“I would say we’re the weirdos and the misfits,” Carlson says. Not underdogs.
He and creative consultant Andy Spade have been partners for years — Carlson helped launch the Kate Spade brand. They like to point out that before ad schools existed, advertising belonged to poets, painters and illustrators. Andy Warhol, for one.
After 40+ years in New York’s downtown art scene, with stops at Interview and Paper, Carlson still sees the job as building culture.
Dear automotive CMOs: tell the story beyond the car
Carlson’s first shout-out goes to Justin Swartz at Pepsi. He already knows Carlson — this one is a thank-you to a client he admires as a partner.
The second goes to the whole automotive category. “We’re kind of small, so people don’t look at us,” he says. But Bridgeville showed what happens when a car brand tells the story of the people around the car.
Any automotive CMO who wants to try something a little different knows where to find him. He promises he answers his own email.
Learn more
Van’s General Store
Scott Carlson LinkedIn
Van’s General Store LinkedIn
Contact: scott@vgsny.com | hello@vgsny.com
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
