“I’ve never really viewed myself as a football player,” he said on a recent visit to the Adweek office. “I’d never worked for anyone else until I got to the NFL, and this will be my last time working for someone else.”
Bennett said creativity has always been a big part of his life, and he connects his childhood love of drawing and writing to the decision, three and a half years ago, to launch a multimedia production company called The Imagination Agency. So far, the project is best known for its interactive book series “Hey A.J.,” which was inspired by his young daughter.
The entrepreneur, whose work to date landed him on Adweek’s 2017 Creative 100 list, has big ideas for the future of a business that he hopes will outlive and transcend his pro football career.
More adventures for A.J.
“When my daughter was born, I was reading a lot of children’s books, and there weren’t any characters who looked like her,” he said. “For all the content that’s out there, there aren’t many African-American protagonists. I looked at it like, if there isn’t someone else creating it then I have to do it myself.”
He created the interactive book and app “Hey A.J., It’s Saturday” not to tell a story about the black experience but simply to spin a tale of “kids having fun and going on adventures.”
“What if Macauley Culkin were black in Home Alone? Most people would write it differently … but I would write it the same way,” said the self-described Harry Potter fan.
Given the first volume’s success, Bennett has a second app and book planned in addition to educational mobile games and a miniseries documenting more of A.J.’s adventures.
Bennett’s daughter, who didn’t realize at first that she was the inspiration for the character, has since become more actively involved in the creative process. “She always gives me feedback,” he said, adding, “When my friends come over, I give their wives wine and take their kids downstairs to the Imagination Lounge to have them be my focus group.”
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