Three industry luminaries will gain their rightful place in The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame on Oct. 17 at a black tie gala at the Metropolitan Club in New York: Tim Delaney, CEO and founder of Leagas Delaney, London; Phil Dusenberry, former chairman of BBDO North America; and the late Paul Rand, a pioneering figure in American graphic design and creator of some of the world’s most iconic corporate logos ranging from IBM to UPS, ABC and Westinghouse.
While Dusenberry wasn’t available for comment at press time, a noted creative colleague in his own right–Allen Rosenshine, chairman of BBDO Worldwide–provided insights into the soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee. Perhaps what stood out most for Rosenshine was how Dusenberry’s approach to his work offers lessons today for grappling with an ever evolving advertising landscape in which new media and forms of content are just starting to take shape.
Similarly Delaney offered a salient observation as to how a creative mind-set with respect for the consumer bodes well for those looking to be relevant in the brave new media world.
Rosenshine said that Dusenberry’s approach to traditional media carries a valuable lesson today for those entering the new media world. “Phil always put the strategic objective of the work from a business standpoint first,” related Rosenshine. “He was never concerned with what’s going to make him or the agency look good. He always insisted that we have a solid, insightful, workable strategy before we ever think of creative.
“Too often creative talents are ego driven, motivated by what will put them and then the agency in the best light,” continued Rosenshine. “Phil was as great a creative talent as you’d ever meet–but he wasn’t like so many others who wanted to be unbridled creatively, to do whatever they wanted. His belief was that in the absence of a sound, meaningful, differentiating strategy, the creative would never be any good.
“That’s why he insisted that account and research people work harder to bring information and strategies to him. And if you based your creative on a meaningful, relevant strategy, the client would be successful–and that’s how you truly make the agency look good. The client’s success is a reflection of the creative team and the agency. It’s an approach that’s relevant today, with all the new media opportunities. That mind-set is what’s lacking in so much of the mindless advertising we see around now.”
Dusenberry began his career as a copywriter at BBDO in 1962, rose up the ranks to become chief creative officer, then chairman/CEO of BBDO New York, and finally chairman of BBDO North America. He was responsible for lines such as “We bring good things to life” for General Electric, “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” for Home Box Office and “The choice of a new generation” for Pepsi Cola. He became synonymous with Super Bowl advertising, helped create “Morning in America” for the 1984 re-election of President Ronald Reagan, and was the co-screenwriter for the Robert Redford-starring film The Natural.
Rosenshine recalled that Dusenberry was a taskmaster. “He created a creative culture where you worked your ass off until the thing is on the air. Don’t ever walk away from making a job a little better if you can, even if it has to be done at the last minute. Don’t shrug off the chance to improve something, even if it’s just by a little bit. Phil is a perfectionist. He worked longer hours than anyone else…It was quipped that with Phil running creative, the initials BBDO stood for ‘bring it back and do it over.’
“But it was great to work with him–because he made you make the work better. He also made us laugh with a sharp sense of humor that he often aimed at himself…And he made it a point to share the credit with everyone who contributed, not only from creative but also from research, planning, account management and media. Plus, he was always committed to championing the careers of creative people.”
Delaney If Tim Delaney, CEO and founder of Leagas Delaney, London, had not become one of the industry’s greatest copywriters, he said he would have liked to be a Washington correspondent for The Guardian because he’s always been fascinated by American politics.
“When you leave school at 15 you have no idea what you can do or can’t do. In my case, you only discover it by simply putting a pen to paper and seeing what comes out at the other end. I didn’t have a structural sense of where I was going with anything, but I knew I was naturally a writer of some sort for whatever reason,” Delaney said.
Quite a writer indeed.
“Tim had a tremendous influence both in the U.K. and particularly in America, championing the format of long elegant copy,” related Mary Warlick, president of The One Club. “He really did reinvent the idea of retail advertising, that it could be elegant, as elegant as the goods in the store. His work for Harrods department store became as famous as the store itself. His work tells a story and I think that for really good advertising that is important today,”
Of Dusenberry, Warlick observed, “Phil’s creative input restructured how we think about advertising and entertainment. He made mini movies and he also told stories–whether it was a mini movie with Michael Jackson for Pepsi or a mini movie about the story of General Electric. And he is responsible for that phenomenon we recognize as Super Bowl advertising.”
The road to success
After leaving school, Delaney began his career in advertising in the mailroom at Rex Publishing.
He eventually worked as a copywriter at Papert Koenig Lois, BMP and Y&R. He eventually joined BBDO London, where he became creative director at age 27 and managing director at 31. He founded Leagas Delaney in 1980.
“I may have built an agency and we have branches in different countries but I’m still a copywriter,” said Delaney. “I still do the same things I did then now. Clients are interesting, often inspiring, intelligent human beings. They were then and they still are now. It’s funny though they have this blackened name, that’s usually given by people who aren’t very good at advertising and get annoyed at being found out.”
While he has worked with numerous clients in varied categories throughout the years, Delaney said that he has always wanted to work for Amnesty International.
Delaney believes that the industry is amazingly interesting and diverse now. “Because technology is profoundly changing the nature of the relationship between consumers and brands, it makes it even more exciting,” he said.
He points out that with technology the industry gets exactly what the advertising giants who changed the face of the trade in the ’60s advocated.
“The thing they always advocated was intelligent advertising, respect for the consumer and relationships which are more involved out of that respect.
“With technology you have this kind of deeper relationship, which is based more on mutual respect. And that’s what was the essence of all those great campaigns that prompted the change in advertising in the ’60s.
“Technology now says that other people can be involved, even consumers. So people who have always believed in the concept of mutual respect will prosper and those people who have never really paid attention to that and think it’s kind of a form of social engineering and quasi manipulation, they won’t prosper.”
On Oct. 16, the One Club Gallery will be transformed into an American living room to honor the work of Creative Hall of Fame inductee Phil Dusenberry, former chairman, BBDO North America.
This installation will replicate the experience many families had, thanks to Dusenberry, of spending Super Bowl Sundays glued to the TV watching Pepsi commercials.
Emanating from the living room TV will be such memorable spots as GE’s “We Bring Good Things to Life,” Gillette’s “The Best a Man Can Get” and the all-singing, all-dancing Pepsi “Choice of a New Generation” spot starring Michael Jackson in one of the more elaborate productions ever staged for a TV commercial.
Dusenberry’s work, along with that of advertising legends Paul Rand (1914-1996) and Tim Delaney of Leagas Delaney, will be on display to the public as part of a rare, three-week exhibition, curated by BBDO’s director of print services, JD Michaels, honoring their induction into The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame.
“Each of the three honorees has made ground-breaking contributions to the contemporary culture,” said The One Club’s Warlick.
“To view their work within the context of a single exhibition is equivalent to taking a master class in the tenets of creativity–from an advertising and design perspective.”
Other exhibition highlights include Rand’s distinctive imagery for IBM, UPS and ABC, which will be on display for the first time in many years. This comprehensive retrospective of poster and collateral will showcase the iconic logos that made Rand a pioneer in the field of modern corporate identity.
His work for NEXT led former client Steve Jobs to declare him “the greatest living graphic designer.” Rand’s work is part of the permanent collection of MOMA.
His career spanned almost seven decades and numerous chapters of design history.
Rand worked as an art director for Esquire and Apparel Arts magazines from 1937 to 1941, where he transformed commercial art from craft to profession. Adopting what he called a ‘problem-solving’ approach, he drew on the ideas of European avant-garde art movements such as Cubism, Constructivism and De Stijl, and synthesized them to produce his own distinctive graphic language.
The exhibition will also show the work of Delaney, whose elegantly written ads for clients such as Harrods, Timberland and the Courtauld Institute in London elevated long copy ads to an art form. Also notable, is his work for adidas, which made it one of the most powerful brands worldwide.
The One Club is a non-profit organization for the recognition and promotion of excellence in advertising. Founded in 1975 and based in New York City, The One Club produces three annual awards competitions: the One Show, One Show Design and One Show Interactive, which culminate in awards ceremonies that are held in New York City each May.
As part of The One Club’s mission to support the next generation of advertising professionals, the non-profit organization nurtures emerging talent through scholarships, portfolio reviews and an annual student exhibition and competition. The One Club maintains a full-time exhibition gallery, hosts an ongoing series of lectures and events and produces publications that include the quarterly one.a magazine and the One Show, One Show Interactive and One Show Design annuals.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More