How Rodney Lucas, the only Black director of a 2023 Super Bowl ad, approaches advertising

A childhood spent on the South Side of Chicago gave director Rodney Lucas an appreciation for his culture that translates to his work.

“Black Chicago was like a neighborhood full of superheroes,” he told us. “I thought that my barber was a superstar. I thought he was a therapist. I thought he was a doctor. I thought he was a source of empowerment. I’d always seen my community as more than what their title would suggest.”

That perspective has had an impact on his approach to filmmaking. “The second I got a chance to highlight them on a national and international level, it became so obvious: I always say that I don’t have to leave Chicago to be inspired.”

Centering Black and other minority voices is a common theme in his films: In 2019, he directed Portrait of a Place: Southside Forever—A Motion Picture of Black Chicago, a documentary focused on the Black community in Chicago featuring footage of and interviews with residents like Diane Latiker, founder of local youth organization Kids Off the Block, discussing the community’s hope and resilience.

In addition to his documentary work, Lucas has directed advertisements for brands such as DoorDash and Nike, which often highlight Black figures and stories. He was the only Black director of a Super Bowl commercial in 2023: An NFL spot featuring several of the league’s athletes.

Last year, he signed with production company Little Minx for commercial and content representation. According to Lucas, being able to create ads for different brands, as opposed to working with one specific company, provides him more creative freedom.

“I come in as someone who is, for better or worse, a disrupter. I go in with a fresh set of eyes, not a part of the culture of that company. I haven’t been drinking the Kool-Aid,” he said.

Make room

Lucas hasn’t spent his entire career in filmmaking; he’s also worked in music as an artist and songwriter, as well as an on-air host for Vice News.

As a director, much of his work has focused on telling local stories about real people. Lucas worked on a series of mini-docs for tech company Square, one of which told the story of Black-owned Chicago bakery 5 Loaves Eatery and its owner and operator, Constance Simms-Kincaid. Similarly, a documentary he directed for DoorDash, Southside Magnolia, featured the owners of a Chicago barbecue restaurant that temporarily shut down during the pandemic.

Lucas told us he’s always wanted to be a commercial filmmaker. “I saw advertising as a tool within my passion to empower my community,” he said, adding that commercial filmmaking has historically “been built up to be this good-old-boy exclusive club.”

“For so long, it was like this exclusive golf club. You needed the right person to recommend you to get in…I wanted to destroy all that. I wanted to destroy it through highlighting the beauty of everyday people,” he said.

That approach has informed his casting decisions. “I cast with the imperfections…When you go to your local store, everybody isn’t these beautifully sculpted, just-left-the-gym creatures. It’s real life, and I love real people.”

Eye on the ball

Sports have also played a key part in quite a bit of his advertising work.

Earlier in his career, he worked with social impact media agency Good Worldwide on a number of short films for Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of which chronicled how Missouri’s Normandy High School grappled with the murder of former student Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Another commercial for Dick’s features the Bad Girls Club, a New Orleans boxing club that sought to empower women through self-defense in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

He’s also directed ads for Nike, including one starring track and field sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson. One of his most recent sports-related endeavors is the 2023 Super Bowl ad he directed for the NFL, which features a number of NFL athletes and their efforts to give back to the community through acts like supporting veterans and visiting hospital patients.

Lucas said he centers Black athletes in his works because they are often influential in society.

“I’ve always thought that society meets at the intersection of athleticism and social movements. I don’t think the brothers have no choice but to be activists…I’ve always thought that I could find a really cool sweet spot for social conversations that met at the intersection of athleticism and social movements,” he said.

However, despite the NFL’s controversial treatment of athletes like Colin Kaepernick, Lucas said he wanted to use the platform to help uplift other Black directors in the future.

“Ultimately, I saw it as a moment for me to be able to use my talent as a device to open up doors for more Black directors that want to be a part of moments like this,” he said. “I saw the act itself as being more powerful than the racist institution or the flaws of the institution. That was actually a part of the act, if that makes sense.”