Jeff Charney (MA journalism ‘82) is a titan when it comes to creating large-scale change in the public relations and marketing industry.
Charney founded his PR firm, MKHSTRY, in 2022 after serving as chief marketing officer at Progressive from 2011-2022. He built his agency on his mantra to “make history...or be history,” which drives him to create positive change in the industry.
“I wanted to do something even bigger because I'm not looking at this as the last quarter of my life. I'm looking at this as the newest chapter of my life,” Charney said. “I went to my desk and wrote down the word ‘history’ because I wanted to make history.”
Charney now serves as CEO of MKHSTRY, which is an abbreviation for “make history.” His goal with the agency is to “go higher, disrupt the industry, and revolutionize it into something extraordinary.”
Charney’s agency is invite-only, allowing the MKHSTRY team to choose clients that reflect the agency’s values. They have embraced the development of generative artificial intelligence and are leveraging this technology to change how they do business.
“So I started this disruption business, and then you have me as a disruptor and the people around me as disruptors. This technology is the biggest disruption you'll ever see, the biggest in our generation. You'll never see something like this again,” Charney said.
During his time with Progressive, Charney helped create memorable ad campaigns, such as “Flo” and “Parenta-Life Coach Dr. Rick,” with his mission to save people from turning into their parents. Charney said his mindset was about creating memorable characters rather than commercials.
Before Progressive, Charney served as the Aflac chief marketing officer from 2008 to 2010, where he helped promote the “Aflac Duck” through the 2008 recession.
Before joining Aflac, Charney was the senior vice president and CMO for the television network QVC from 2005 to 2008. He helped revitalize the brand by launching the “iQdoU?” campaign, which revamped the logo and featured celebrities like Justin Bieber, Whoopi Goldberg and Heidi Klum in commercials.
Charney has also worked with Realtor.com, where his favorite memory was finding the house former President Bill Clinton bought when he left office.
“We sent an article to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times that we found the president's house on Realtor.com,” said Charney. “[The] Secret Service called me asking us to shut it down. Later on, I saw former President Clinton again, and he said, ‘Charney, that was pretty funny.’”
Charney pursued his master’s degree in journalism at Ohio State due to his love for the Buckeyes and a fellowship he received to fund his education. Prior to Ohio State, Charney received his Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of South Carolina.
He now lives outside Cleveland with his wife and five children.
“I want to get better today. I want to be better, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, every day of the week,” Charney said. “And if you do that, you can make history ultimately, and you can do wonderful things.”
Article by student Kobie Parrish
