TV's Todd Sampson: I'm an ad dad!

He’s clever, funny, kind and always curious. A high achiever, he climbed Mount Everest unguided and went on to co-create the global phenomenon of Earth Hour.

On paper, advertising guru-turned-TV star Todd Sampson sounds very nearly perfect. But there’s one thing about The Gruen Transfer favourite that nearly drove his wife Neomie mad. ‘It’s funny, but I got annoyed because Todd was always leaving the lights on around the house,’ explains his Burmese partner.
‘In the end, I was so sick of it I made him a T-shirt saying: “Turn off the lights” – so I think I should get credit for giving him a great idea!’

Changing attitudes
Four years on, Earth Hour inspires a billion people in 4000 cities worldwide to celebrate 60 minutes of eco-friendly darkness. From Sydney to San Francisco and Rome, the lights go out in landmark buildings, office blocks and homes.

Todd gets by with a little help from his three-year-old.

Now even Todd remembers to save on power around the Sampsons’ refreshingly modest Bondi home, with a little help from three-year-old daughter Coco.
‘She’s the one who reminds me not to leave the water running while we clean her teeth,’ laughs the laid-back ad man, who is also a proud dad to Jet, one.

‘Neo is really the environmentally conscious person in this household. She’s the one who pushes it and educates the kids. We rarely buy anything new, because the kids mostly have pre-loved clothes and toys. Neo cycles everywhere and recycles everything. I just follow her lead.’

It’s all the more ironic that, as CEO of award-winning ad agency Leo Burnett Australia, Todd spends most of his time tempting people to splurge on goods and services they might not even need.

‘And I’m the problem at home for sure, because commercials affect me too,’ he cheerfully admits, chasing his little girls around the room. ‘Only eight per cent of advertising is processed consciously, which means we’re all unaware of the rest.

‘But that’s one of the things I love about The Gruen Transfer. It makes you think about the strategies and techniques used to sell stuff, and that just makes people better family shoppers. ‘I think the show highlights that advertising works in a world of grey. Sometimes we save lives, sometimes we create insecurity. It’s my job to use imagination and creativity to make money for my clients, and I enjoy it, but within that comes compromise.’


Humble beginnings
Todd never aspired to TV fame – he appears on Channel Ten’s The 7pm Project, too – growing up without much money on Canada’s windswept Cape Breton Island.

His father was a factory worker for Coca-Cola and his mother a checkout girl for KFC – ‘two products I never buy’, he jokes – but Todd won a scholarship to university at 16, followed it with an MBA in South Africa and finally found the advertising industry.

He also discovered beautiful Neomie, once he settled here in Australia. ‘We crossed paths at work but didn’t see each other for five or six years. And then one day I woke up and thought: “I wonder what that woman is doing?”
‘I remembered that she lived near Broadway shopping centre, so I went there one Saturday and saw her at De Costi Seafoods. She’s quite forthright and asked me for my number, and the minute she walked away, I knew.’

Three years later he proposed, outside the same fish shop. ‘It took forever to get her down there – we started at the bookstore on the top floor – and that ring was burning a hole in my pocket,’ he recalls.

His wife-to-be was so astonished she started to cry, and a crowd gathered, cheering and clapping. ‘It was a great commercial for De Costi,’ Todd quips.

So what sold Neomie on tying the knot with him?
‘Well, I don’t want him to get a swollen head,’ she smiles. ‘I was obviously attracted to his looks, but he has a great sense of humour and he’s smart. I always felt I could trust him. He’s calm and I’m very fiery, so we’re complementary. I love watching him on TV, because that’s another dimension I get to see.’

By: Jenny Brown
Photos: Nigel Wright

• The Gruen Transfer screens Wednesdays at 9pm on ABC TV, with 45-minute specials airing during the election campaign.