Whether you wanted to or not, you’ve seen his work. Tons of it.

After graduating from Boston University’s School of Public Communication, Bruce Van Dusen moved to New York aiming to make documentaries. A week before he ran out of money, he got hired to work on a commercial and discovered a business he never knew existed. Within two years, he was directing commercials.

Over the next four decades, he became one of the industry’s busiest directors. His work with movie stars, athletes, politicians, child actors and semi-trained animals took him from New York to Los Angeles, Milan to Manila, Rio to Rome, and Miami to Montevideo. He’s known for his unique skill with actors and telling emotional stories.

His commercials have won awards, but since all commercials win some kind of award, that’s not much of an accomplishment. He’s also directed three feature films and a documentary. The first film, Cold Feet, was a Sundance finalist, a critical failure, but a commercial success. The other films didn’t do so well. Proof that commercials were right where he belonged.

His memoir about the ins and outs of his career and life, 60 STORIES ABOUT 30 SECONDS: How I Got Away with Becoming a Pretty Big Commercial Director without Losing My Soul (Or Maybe Just Part of It), was published by Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster in September 2020.  

Bruce Van Dusen was born in Detroit and lives in New York City.