Six Things You Didn't Know About Evolution Bureau's Steve Babcock

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Evolution Bureau exec creative director-partner Steve Babcock helps lead the charge on the agency's digitally-and socially-minded campaigns for clients ranging from A&E to Zynga. Before his current post, he helped steer numerous notable efforts as an exec creative director at CPB, for clients like Volkswagen, American Express OPEN, Best Buy, Guitar Hero and Domino's Pizza, including the super useful "Domino's Pizza Tracker."

But his digital smarts aren't limited to the confines of the office. A couple years ago, he crafted a totally endearing ploy to appease his biggest client ever -- his wife. Because of work, he couldn't be home for her birthday, so he devised this crafty way to let her open her presents -- on Facebook.

But his digital ingenuity is just one of the interesting bits about Mr. Babcock. You'll learn more of them in this week's episode of Six Things.

1) When he and his wife and decided to have children, he came up with the concept to name them all after cities -- 'cause that's what creative types do, right? Their first was a girl, so they settled on the name Berlin. Two years later, they had a son. They found that city names for males were a little more difficult. Steve, however, proudly suggested the name Cleveland. He thought it sounded like someone who would totally shred on guitar. He was sternly overruled by his wife, her family, her friends and most of his own family. They ended up naming him Jamison. But, as luck would have it, there's a quaint little town in Pennsylvania called Jamison. Point, Steve. Their third child was another boy. The moniker? Graham. And thanks to the great state of North Carolina and Google, he was able to see the concept all the way through to production.

The receding hairline is a dead giveaway.
The receding hairline is a dead giveaway.

2a) He spent the better part of the early 2000s in a rock band called Hudson River School. The band got its big break when it was flown out to New York City to perform a showcase for Clive Davis. The band rocked and everyone felt really great about it. Steve flew back home and eagerly waited by the phone. A couple days later, the phone rang. The message was that Clive had decided to pass on the band because he had just signed a similar outfit called Maroon Five and "the age of the band was an issue." He was 27! And that's when he realized that his male-pattern baldness was most likely the culprit. In a pit of angst, he shaved his head and has never let his hair grow back. And he never will. Because its inability to properly cooperate with rock is something he will never forgive. Never.

2b) As for his hair care regimen, he shaves his head and face once a week, every Sunday. Therefore, his appearance is somewhat of a timepiece for his coworkers. If he's cleanly shorn, they know the week has just begun and it's all business. But as the week and hair progress, the business turns to party. Also, as an aside, he has saved all of his hair clippings in a box for the past seven years. #supergross

3) Speaking of Sundays, he teaches Sunday school to a class full of teenagers in Colorado every week.

4) But if he could have any job in the world, it would be as a talk show host. He's secretly hoping this advertising thing will somehow lead to gainful employment in the talk show host industry. If you are reading this and own a talk show and have any host positions available, please tweet him @stevehappens.

5) He lives in three places: Boulder, Colo.; San Francisco; and on Southwest Airlines.

6) He was born and raised in a small town in Idaho called Jerome. If you've seen "Napoleon Dynamite," you have a pretty good idea of what it was like. He graduated from Jerome High School in 1995. And, as is customary, took part in the "senior pictures" tradition. Instead of having his photo taken in a nice studio or on a saturated patch of flora overlooking a flowing river or a waterfall, he chose to have his taken in a junkyard. Standing,err, rocking, on top of an old truck wearing very large pants. This was all done sans irony, unfortunately (see picture).

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