To bring the goals to life, our Citizens’ Advisory Committee (CAC) teamed up with Brickhouse Creative, a Bozeman-based ‘strategic design’ company (www.brickhousecreative.com). Brickhouse was the clear choice for us because their principal, David Thompson, is a passionate fly fisher and outdoorsman who was a guide here as a college student back in the mid 80’s, and he was immediately interested in taking on this pro bono project because of his (and his team’s) love of Montana’s rivers. Brickhouse was tasked with communicating the goals, and given free rein to be as creative as they felt appropriate—and they certainly did just that.

Their proposed concept was “Respect Your Rivers,” with the ‘spokesmodel’ being “Granny Trout.” Granny Trout would patrol the rivers and catch people who, knowingly or unknowingly, were not respecting her river in some way, or not respecting the people around them.

At the center of the campaign are the four video ‘spots’ or commercials, which were filmed in early July 2009 on the Lower Madison River outside of Bozeman. Local actors and friends played the parts, and Molly Thompson, one of the original cast members of “Broad Comedy,” plays the part of Granny Trout.

Superb videographers Justin Lubke and Shasta Grenier of Story Road Films (makers of the Emmy-award-winning documentary ‘Class C’) were behind the camera, and without their input and creativity, the spots wouldn’t have worked.

The Granny Trout theme song, a quirky swing number, was written just for this campaign by David Thompson of Brickhouse Creative. He and his musical cohorts from his popular FISHING MUSIC project (www.fishingmusic.com) performed the tune: Leon Hunt on banjo, Mike Dowling on guitar, Ben Winship on mandolin, and Thompson on the upright bass. You can download a free version of the entire song by clicking here.

Keep an eye out for Granny Trout to appear in more spots, on the radio, on shirts, and who knows where else– she gets around…