Sometimes, you need to get away from the hectic world of advertising to refresh your thinking and recharge your batteries.  In September of ’79, in the middle of trying to save the Jack in the Box account at Wells, Rich, Greene, my wife Carol realized that I was very stressed. So she planned a quick [...]

I got into this business because I love being creative.  I’ve worked on just about everything there is to work on from cars to coffee, fast food to fashion, snacks to satisfy people’s hunger and antacids to put out their fire. But the greatest rewards have come from helping worthwhile causes. Over the years, I’ve [...]

Many ad agencies reward their best talent with big salaries, large bonuses, and fat expense accounts. Mary Wells did all that. But she also showed her generosity in unique and personal ways. With the popularity of our Alka Seltzer campaign, Bob Pasqualina and I were riding high.  “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” [...]

When we’re young, we’re bold, brazen and think we know it all. This can actually be helpful to the young creative person in finding the courage to push the limits and come up with the big ideas that have never been done before. But that doesn’t mean those ideas are always right or smart. It’s [...]

Most advertising lines are disposable.  They do the job and get flushed away, never to be thought of again. But once in awhile, a line will take on a life of its own.  Lines like “Where’s the beef”, “Wassuuup!” and “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” not only helped move the goods, they [...]

Mark Johnson was my partner for twelve years at Cohen/Johnson, but our relationship could have ended before it began due to a little incident at TWA. We were working together at Wells, Rich, Greene on the Ralston Purina account, Mark as the lead account guy, and I as the creative director.  This meant many uncomfortable [...]

After many years of creating ad campaigns that helped make other people rich, I decided to launch my own product and make myself rich. It was based on a killer chopped liver recipe handed down from generation to generation by my Polish-Jewish ancestors.  I learned to make it at my mother’s side in the tiny [...]

The ad business is all about new business.  If you’re not growing, you’re shrinking.  If you’re not winning, you’re losing. New business brings in new money, fresh talent and tells the world your agency is still viable – which means you’re still viable.  That’s why admen will do anything to win — as evidenced by [...]

The last episode of Mad Men found Peggy under extreme pressure to come up with a creative idea for Samsonite luggage.  Not an easy task with Don Draper trampling her ego and forcing her to pull an all nighter. Of course, any creative person in this business knows that nights like that come with the [...]

LA is a tough town for new business.  There are just too many agencies and too few accounts to go around. So, when a “live one” comes along, every agency in town gears up for battle and pulls out all the stops.  Such was the case when the word spread that a big account from [...]