Janesville taxidermist makes it big with beer company
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Don Rich Jr. of Nature's Touch Taxidermy is the model in a Miller beer ad campaign that targets billboards in the midwest. He is posing with a 17 point buck he shot and mounted.
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Don Rich Jr. of Nature's Touch Taxidermy has a huge collection of animals he has hunted on his Janesville walls. Now he is the star of a new billboard campaign for Miller beer.
JANESVILLE — Janesville taxidermist Don Rich Jr. thought it was a joke when a consultant for MillerCoors called with a plea for help with a hunting-themed advertising campaign.
Now, Rich’s picture is plastered across billboards and tavern posters from one end of the state to the other.
He's not just a technical hunting adviser for Miller, he's the face of Midwest deer hunting for a series of national Miler High Life beer advertisements running this fall.
Motorists can find billboards with Rich's giant likeness near Madison and farther north, outside of Green Bay and Wisconsin's whitetail deer mecca, Spooner.
The advertisement, which also will run this fall in magazines nationwide, shows Rich clad in dirt-streaked camouflage next to a huge trophy deer. Below him is the Miller High Life slogan: “The official beer of you.”
“I've been telling people I’m a redneck rock star,” Rich, 43, said in an interview.
It all started with a phone call last spring from a photography props technician from Arc Worldwide, an advertising firm in Chicago that was working with Miller on photo shoots for a hunting-themed advertising campaign.
The props technician needed some deer and pheasant mounts that looked lifelike enough to double as the real, live thing. Or a hunter’s fresh kill, at least.
A colleague of Rich’s, Edgerton taxidermist Dan Rinehart, told the technician that Rich was up to the task. Rich, who owns and operates runs Nature's Touch Taxidermy in Janesville, was happy to oblige.
He packed his truck full of his own mounted deer heads, hunting gear and frozen pheasants and met the technician at Bass Pro Shop in Gurnee, Ill. It was a short audition.
“I pulled up with my trailer with all these deer mounts and gear and guns and stuff. She was in awe,” Rich said. “You could tell she was happy as hell.”
The technician called Rich as he was driving home. She told him the advertising campaign wanted to hire him as a “technical hunting advisor.”
Over the next several weeks, executives on the photo shoot pulled Rich into roundtable discussions on everything from the types of hunting attire blue-collar beer-drinkers wear to how to arrange a mounted deer head to make it look like a fresh kill.
For one of the campaign’s photo shoots, executives decided to use one of Rich’s mounts—a large trophy buck with unique, downward-pointing “drop tine” antlers. Rich found the deer road-killed a few years ago.
During discussions over casting “hunting” models for the photo shoots, Rich made a joke.
“I told them I didn’t want no non-hunters holding up my mounts,” he said.
The next thing he knew, Rich was cast as the campaign’s deer hunting model. He’d get to be pictured next to his own mounted deer head—on a national stage.
When he returned to downtown Chicago for the shoot, the photo crews instructed him not to shave. They dressed him in working-class hunting clothes: a sweatshirt and a blaze orange vest.
“They wanted the blue-collar, north woods hunter type, and they got it,” he said.
Afterward, Rich said everyone at the shoot hung around drinking Miller High Life beer. People took turns trying on one of Rich’s custom taxidermy creations—a full-body deerskin costume with a real deer head “helmet.”
Rich said he enjoyed the chance to show Chicago businesspeople how Wisconsin outdoorsmen do things. Of the more than 20 models cast in the advertising campaign, he was the only one with hunting experience.
“It’s a concrete jungle in that city. They don’t have any sense of hunting,” said Rich. “It felt good to be respected for what I do as a taxidermist and as hunter,” Rich said.
Rich said Miller High Life will use Rich’s advertisement in regional and local promotions, so people in the area might even see Rich pictured on beer cases.
The taxidermist of 30 years doesn’t have time to gloat over his gig with Miller. It’s fall hunting season; crush time for taxidermists. Rich says he’ll get over 50 percent of his business this year shipped to him in the next month or two.
Plus, Rich is expecting a whole giraffe to be shipped to him in pieces. It’ll be a three-week taxidermy project, but just another feat for a taxidermist who races stuffed, motorized field mice and makes wall-mounted bottle openers from the tail ends of deer.
Add beer model to the list.
Rich says he’s honored to be the everyman face of a national beer advertisement, but he’s humble about it too.
“Anybody I know could have done what I did,” he said.
Nov 15, 2011 at 4:11 p.m.
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(This comment was stuffed by the site staff)
Nov 15, 2011 at 3:55 p.m.
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WoW you are WAY off!!! Congratulations on makin assumptions about someone you know nothing about LOL!!!!!! Typical!!!!! I love beer! I just know first hand that alcohol and firearms DO NOT mix!!!! I teach this stuff....do You!?!?!?
Nov 4, 2011 at 10:29 a.m.
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Yes Jerk belongs in the category with those who don't want beer at ball fields. Vat you are exactly right, Jerk is one that believes society needs to teach right and wrong instead of parents doing their job.
Nov 3, 2011 at 10:06 p.m.
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I saw this billboard on hwy 14 and I didn't think "drunk hicks." I just thought...hmmm. nice deer.
Nov 3, 2011 at 4:20 p.m.
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You are truly a jerk, jerky.
Ever heard of responsibility? Or do want the government to tell you what to do?
Nov 3, 2011 at 4:03 p.m.
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Back to the article...Don is a great friend and neighbor of mine. He is extremely passionate about his work...and his work is excellent. It's not a job for him it's a lifestyle. He's the perfect example of "if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life". Having said that, Don does work his butt off at his profession, which makes him a role model, in that respect.
Congratulations Don !
Nov 3, 2011 at 3:41 p.m.
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Hunting is a sport. Some sportsmen like beer. Advertising targets demographics by getting their attention. Having a hunter on packaging gets hunters attention. Just like Packers cans and packaging gets football fans attention, or NASCAR packaging gets NASCAR fans attention. Where does it say get wasted and shoot stuff. To (too) bad you dont get that.
Nov 3, 2011 at 3:19 p.m.
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To bad this is just awful!! As a Hunters Ed instructor I know first hand that alcohol and hunting DO NOT mix!!! Way to go big business on reversing everything right we try to teach, and for giving anti groups ammo on pointing out how hunters are nothing but "drunk hicks"....Great Job!
Nov 3, 2011 at 1:04 p.m.
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FEAR-no problem.
Nov 3, 2011 at 10:54 a.m.
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WTG Don! I guess plastics weren't in either of our futures!
Nov 3, 2011 at 10:31 a.m.
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Fear
No problem fear.
Nov 3, 2011 at 10:25 a.m.
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Cruiser- THANK YOU!! That is what I was referring to. I made a mistake in my statements and please accept my sincerest apoloies. I am very happy to hear that is not Don, because he IS such a great guy and does such wonderful work.
I am always willing to admit when I make a mistake, and I made one here. Thanks for clarifying it for me. I am looking forward to working with Don again. I WILL absolutely bing my stuff to him again now that I know this thanks again for the clarity, and my sincerest apologies to him.
Nov 3, 2011 at 10:01 a.m.
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FEAR-HE ALWAYS PAY LOTS IN TAXES AND ON TIME. PLEASE SEE MY COMMENT BELOW. THANKS.
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:45 a.m.
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FEAR.....LOOK AT CRUISER'S COMMENT. THANKS
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:41 a.m.
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Not false vato. All ill say. Again happy for don. Good guy. I could continue but won't, leave it at that.
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:35 a.m.
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Do not libel anyone. Libel is writing something false about someone that damages that person's reputation.
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:35 a.m.
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Great story! Hopefully I will be bringing him a buck to mount for me this year and better yet, I hope its my sons deer that is harvested!
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:35 a.m.
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Great story! Hopefully I will be bringing him a buck to mount for me this year and better yet, I hope its my sons deer that is harvested!
Nov 3, 2011 at 9:21 a.m.
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Removed? LOL I did mention that I was bummed, guess what the gazette rules change depending on the story. All said here about don is true. Great guy and great at what you he does, happy for him, genuinely.
What I mentioned broke no rules andwas true as well, why is this low? Because I am conscious about whom I patronize?
All that said congratulations Don you are great at what you do. Aparantlylow for speaking the truth.
Nov 3, 2011 at 8:56 a.m.
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I know Don and he is an awesome person.
Not sure what fear said but you would think he/she would support people in the community.
Nov 3, 2011 at 8:40 a.m.
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Don does great work and is an awesome guy. Thanks for the article! Keep up the good work, Don!!
Nov 3, 2011 at 8:14 a.m.
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What a cool story! Good for Don! It's nice that a Wisconsin beer company uses a Wisconsin hunter to represent the blue-collar man. Nice work!
Nov 3, 2011 at 7:58 a.m.
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They did pick the right guy for this (I'm not too prejudice even though he is my son-in-law). Yes he does fantastic work!! And he is really a good guy all around. For the FEAR person-that tax list is not for NATURE'S TOUCH TAXIDERMY, INC., I know Don has received several mistaken phone calls re the tax issue as well, whom he believes is for another local business with a similar name.
Nov 3, 2011 at 7:37 a.m.
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Fantastic story and sounds like they picked a great guy to be the face of their campaign. Fear, I appreciate the last part of your post, it really speaks volumes of your mindset, I will make a note of it for future reference.
Nov 3, 2011 at 6:09 a.m.
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We shouldnt have this article on here, what if a kid reads it and sees the word "beer" and that it makes you famous. Yet we cant have a beer in a park here in town....lol.
Nov 3, 2011 at 4:46 a.m.
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Fear ! You are lower than a snakes belly !GEEEZ
Nov 2, 2011 at 10:16 p.m.
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Really!?! You had to go there, this guy is great at what he does, is doing something great and you go and bring that up? Wow, do you check that list to make sure YOUR name is still on there?
Nov 2, 2011 at 8:20 p.m.
Nov 2, 2011 at 7:44 p.m.
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Awesome!
Nov 2, 2011 at 5:53 p.m.
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Fab story! "right place, right time", ya got that right! Dan Rinehart has been "at it" forever. I have huge respect for this ART. Yea for Don Rich Jr., enjoy your fame. YOU deserve it!
Nov 2, 2011 at 4:47 p.m.
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Talk about being in the right place at the right time ! Good for you Rich....Now how bout that discount price on that fish I want mounted !LOL
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