The George Lois Interview... or "Run with George" and Follow the Conversation!

This will likely go down as the single most wonderful experiences of my AdGuy life.

The video above was recorded in at the Paley Center for the Arts on Sept 23, 2009 during an exclusive sit-down with my student from the Creative Advertising program at Seneca College in Toronto. It’s kind of NSFW (Not Safe For Work); to give you an idea of just how NSFW it really was, one of the lines that didn’t make on the video comes when he’s describing how he deals with difficult clients:

"So he came to me and said the client didn’t like it. “Didn’t like it?” I said. “Well first off, fuck you, fuck your mother AND your sister.”

Sadly we had no way of capturing the complete interview (more like "Run with George" and follow the conversation). This a small highlight of the event done by one of graduates Ryan Fox.

George Lois is often described as “An Advertising Legend”, “The King of Madison Avenue”, or the “Leader of the Creative Revolution”. And he knows it. It’s a role he not only fits into well, but wears like an old coat; it’s not flashy, it’s not trying to impress anyone, it’s just a part of who he is. Amazing!

I know he was a total inspiration to all, as he was to me when I was studying advertising.
Visit the George Lois Website for more inspiration and a run through his great career.

To view the video follow this link:

George Lois Interview Video

Thank you George.

Thats' Dr. Alexander Bogusky, LHD

Congratulations Alex...

Last year when I hosted Alex for lunch with my students here in Toronto, Alex told us about his college professor that would not grant him the opportunity to complete a "real" client project in place of a school project, forcing his hand and deciding that "this college thing just wasn't for me". And look who's got the last hurrah.

I reminded Alex of Jeff Spicolli (1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and his relationship with his teach Mr. Hand, indeed there were similarities.

Today, the University of Colorado at Boulder will hold its spring commencement ceremony beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Folsom Field, where 5,282 degrees will be conferred, but only one really stands out for me, CP+B's Alexander Bogusky (that's how they referred to him in the UCB newsletter) will be awarded an honorary degree, called Doctor of Humane Letters. Here's hoping they didn't expect the Advertising grads to there for that early wake-up call.

The UCB media release makes the understatement of the century, "Bogusky is an influential and creative advertising and marketing innovator and pioneer in the field of social marketing. Time magazine listed him among the "Visionaries of Tomorrow" in 2004. He is chairman of the Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertising agency, an award-winning agency with offices across the globe, including in Boulder. Bogusky will receive the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters."

According to Wikipedia, "The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (Latin: Litterarum humanarum doctor; D.H.L.; or L.H.D.) is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science. But advertising is a science, no? So maybe Alex should receive the Doctor of Science. How about the way he has turned the art and craft of writing in creative, certainly it has become some fo the greatest advertising literature, these individuals often receive a Doctor of Letters degree. And least we forget the Church of Alex Bogusky and the Latter-Day Advertising Saints (I am personally a holder of a Cardinalship), Alex has made advertising a religion and should indeed receive a Doctor of Divinity degree.

So I leave you with this; congratulations Alexander Bogusky, Esq. LHD, DS, DL, DD, BFF.

(Okay, the BFF, kinda of... he has been a good friend to my program and has personally helped guide curriculum and added to my teach significantly)

PS: As for the picture, it is a much more fitting look for a college guy!

Art&Copy - The Movie. A Review From An AdGuy.

"THIS IS NOT ONLY THE BEST FILM ABOUT ADVERTISING, IT MAY JUST BECOME THE BEST RECRUITMENT FILM EVER MADE FOR THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY"
- A View From An AdGuy

"AFTER SEEING ART&COPY, WHO WOULDN'T FEEL INSPIRED"
- A View From An AdGuy

Toronto Screening - HotDocs
Sunday May 3rd, 2009 - 4pm
Isabel Bader Theatre

This film turned out to be much more then expected.

I am not 100% sure what I expected after I viewed a 12 minute trailer at Shift Disturbers this past week, but it really was much more then a “History of Advertising”. Art & Copy is a perfect combination of ad clips and interviews.

From the opening sequence focusing on the primitive cave art, this certainly was a way to pay homage to Marshall McLuhan who described advertising this way; "Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century", and then immediately introducing us to a third generation “poster rotator”, who seems to be a “golden thread” throughout the film. We meet this young man who has a simple job, changing endless billboard ads. His great grandfather did it, and so on. He claims to have never met any of the creators of the ads his families long history has posted, but thanks them all when he proclaims; “for generations nobody in my family has ever been unemployed”.

Director Doug Pray takes us on a passage of those who created and lived the business during the golden “Creative Revolution” of DDB and Bill Bernbach, Mary Wells Lawrence, Phyllis Robinson and the legendary George Lois. Ah those who planted the seeds of today’s creative evolution.

And why shouldn't the craft of advertising be admired? "Art & Copy" begins in the late '50s and early '60s as big thinkers on Madison Avenue came up with the idea of pairing copywriters and art directors, melding a business necessity with creative talent.

Mr. Pray offers up a perfect Q&A with some of the greatest names in the field and recounts their successes. The interviews with titans of today like Dan Wieden, Hal Riney, David Kennedy, Lee Clow, Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby make it a complete celebration of creativity. Great advertising is great because it's great creative thinking and Art & Copy is essentially, an ad for advertising -- all of the attractive features of the business are shown in a glorious and shining light, with very little left unasked unless of course, you are a critic of the advertising industry. There have been a few critics of the film, which may come from the fact that the majority of support for Mr. Pray’s film came largely form The One Club, a non-profit dedicated to the craft of advertising based in New York.

Art & Copy offers that great advertising can be great art; great advertising can be artistic, to be sure, but the best ad in the world still has to sell. It’s a pretty simple mantra; “it ain’t creative unless it sells something”.

Many of the great moments of Art & Copy (and believe me I could listen to the rough, give-'em-hell George Lois for hours) came when hearing how many of the icon campaigns were created. Mr Lois is really offers the greatest moments in the film... too many quotable's to list here. He is truly "bow" that finishes the gift this film is. To learn now that Nike’s iconic “Just Do It” came from a headline when Utah convicted murder Gary Gilmore’s final words to his executioners, “Let’s Do It”, gave proof an idea can be found anywhere. I am sure Nike doesn’t have this story in its history books. The film is full of these little antidotes. As each is spoken, it really make the film worthy of our time.

It's unclear if advertising today is better than ever before, but we're certainly in the Golden Age of celebrating the Ad Man and it’s easy to see why AMC's "Mad Men," perhaps TV's finest “advertising based” show or TNT's recently cancelled "Trust Me" are so well received by the general public.

Art & Copy gives a very realistic portrait of the advertising world. It is likely the best recruitment film made.

The film will begin national screenings on August 21st when it goes into major distribution. In Canada the film is distributed by Mongrel Media of Toronto.

Art & Copy will have two more “exclusive” screenings in Toronto later this month when presented by 27Marbles. These screenings will be held at the Royal Theater (608 College at Clinton St.) on May 25th and 26th. The first evening is an “industry screening” at 7pm with all profits supporting Art Building Children’s Dreams (ABCD), a grassroots, not-for-profit, charity that uses art to fund the education of third world children. (www.abcdreams.ca). Tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance online (click on logo below for ticket purchase). The second evening is a "student only" screening and tickets are available by contacting Stacey Farber at sfarber@icacanada.ca.

Got Ads? Got Film?

Art & Copy Comes to Toronto and HotDocs to Inspire this weekend.

I attended Shift Disturbers today, and got a see an amazing 12 minute trailer/teaser of Art & Copy. Amazing.

One of the great insights came from David Baldwin, Chairman of the Board, The One Club for Art & Copy, who stated, "the film was more or less Chapter One in the historic perspective, and we currently writing the future chapters".

Love the opening sequence of the trailer (below) and the cave art. There was a famous quote from Marshall McLuhan, "Ads are the cave art of the twentieth century", what a perfect start to the film.

The 12 minutes was a walk down memory lane seeing , George Louis, many vintage images of Bill Burnbach (my advertising hero and birthday partner) and DDB who single-handedly rewrote the rules of advertising, and then hearing legendary ad women Mary Wells Lawrence and Phyllis Robinson sahre their thoughts, was more then heart warming, it was down to earth inspirational.

Reminder, Art & Copy plays May 1st and 3rd in Toronto during HotDocs.

Here is my original BlogPost. Watch the video when you're done. Inspiring.

Originally Posted On A View From An AdGuy March 28, 2009

Got creativity?

Got manipulation?

Got art?

Is great advertising actually a rare and rebellious accomplishment more akin to—dare we ever say it—art?

Advertising has without question has made a profound effect on modern culture. This goes without question or debate. You see an average of 5,000 ads every day. Most of them suck. Handfuls are good, only a few look and feel like-and indeed really are-art.

Slow Dissolve, ECU full screen, Art & Copy The Film.

Living in Toronto places us in the center of the Canadian Advertising Universe and this in turn puts us in the center of culture and art. Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary festival, conference and market. Each year, the Festival presents a selection of more than 150 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe and runs April 30th to May 10th and this year we get a look inside some of the innovative advertising campaigns of our time and the creative rebels behind them are the fascinating subjects of acclaimed filmmaker Doug Pray.

Toronto screenings at Hot Docs will be held at the Isabel Bader Theatre on May 1st at 930pm and 3rd at 4pm. Tickets are on sale now.

Mr. Pray (Scratch, Surfwise) weaves a web heartfelt and dazzling footage of TV satellites being launched and billboards being erected with some of the most remarkable ad campaigns of all time. Like the talented subjects he profiles, Pray creates a rousing synthesis of art, commerce, and human emotion.

ART & COPY reveals the stories behind and the personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of our time and their campaigns, including Lee Clow (Apple Computer 1984, and today’s iPod); Dan Wieden (“Just Do It”); Phyllis K. Robinson (who invented the “me generation” with Clairol); the late and great Hal Riney (Pepsi Choice of A New Generation and also helped President Reagan get elected); and George Lois (who saved MTV and launched Tommy Hilfiger overnight).

The movie was filmed and edited during a four-year period and had an unusual source for its funding — The One Club, a non-profit organization dedicated to the craft of advertising headquartered in New York.

Art & Copy provides a window into the creative process and the individuals who have changed our lives in ways we may not realize,” said Mary Warlick, CEO of The One Club. “The movie looks at advertising not as products flying off the shelf but as the work of a few American heroes who feel passionately about their craft, ideas, and the ability of ideas to change how people feel.”

Art & Copy takes us inside a powerful, yet surprisingly unknown, industry to reveal the most influential creative forces tapping the zeitgeist of our time.

Think of those commercials we can never seem to get out of our heads. Each one is the brain child of an industry typically associated with pandering and manipulation.

Beginning in the 1960s, a creative revolution revitalized the advertising industry. Bill Bernbach launched the Volkswagen Beetle, prompting viewers to "think small." Dan Wieden coined "Just Do It" and forever changed the way we motivate ourselves athletically. Phyllis Robinson empowered the "me generation" with a Clairol tagline. Hal Riney all but insured Reagan's reelection with heart-tugging TV ads. Mary Wells Lawrence reinvented the big bad apple via her "I love NY" campaign. George Lois gave Tommy Hilfiger the makeover of a lifetime, while Cliff Freeman wondered "Where's the beef?" and Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein asked, "Got Milk?"

Yes, we sell widgets and wackiness, but just these are the artists, they tap zeitgeists and rouse emotion that have allowed to "Think Different" and "Just Do It".

Pray's captivating tribute- like an ad itself-sells you on the undeniable art of advertising.

Thanks to Aviva Cohen a former student of mine for bring the Toronto Hot Docs presentation dates to my attention.

Video Roundtable from the Sundance Film Festival:

Doug Pray, Filmmaker of Art and Copy, Rich Silverstein of Goodby Silverstein (Got Milk), Lee Clow of TBWAChiat/Day (Think Different), Dan Wieden and David Kennedy of Wieden + Kennedy (Just Do It), and the legendary George Lois (I Want My MTV).

Also see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju0Fq_QltPw

Five Ways For Brands To Use YouTube

Ever wonder if there any rules to all this social media and branding that seems to change everyday.

This is from the good folks at Fallon Advertising in Minneapolis. Fun read. Enjoy! Five Ways For Brands To Use YouTube.

Fallon ECD Al Kelly, told Creativity that:

"Our new brand identity is "We are Fallon." It's about pride in who we are and what we do, so "You Are Fallon" was conceived as a way to honor the creative legacy of the agency and honor the people behind the work over the years."

Before you go... watch this video and it will give you good feel for the corporate culture that lives within Fallon.