Amy Grant "I Will Be Your Friend"

There's a strange connection between TOMS Shoes and Amy Grant. Back in 1999, Blake Mycoskie convinced the city of Nashville to allow his company (Mycoskie Media) to put billboards up around the city. Mycoskie convinced local politicians that these new billboards would not be billboards, per se, and wouldn't be advertising. Instead, Mycoskie sought to put album art from musicians on the sides of buildings. He successfully convinced the Nashville city council that the "ads" would contain no call-to-action, so therefore it was more art than advertising. Guy Raz artfully covers this in his podcast interview with Mycoskie on How I Built This. Mycoskie Media's first client: Amy Grant. After selling his billboard company to radio behemoth Clear Channel, Mycoskie later appeared on The Amazing Race and eventually launched TOMS Shoes.