You are on page 1of 5

A Creative Director's Life, Part 16, Hangin' with Kong

Passing thoughts:

Sign in a 2nd Ave. laundry: " We do shirts better. Cost the same as your favorite
grand latte."

Advertisers who insist on casting kids to spout complicated financial copy in


their TV commercials end up with gibberish and are wasting their money. Cutesy but
totally lacking credibility. Might as well use a parrot and save on residuals.
Would you buy life insurance from Ian, my eight year old grandson? AIG thinks you
would.

How did P&G ever transition from kindly old Mr. Whipple, who with a wink would so
politely ask customers to refrain from squeezing Charmin, to animated bears in the
woods. At a lunch with ad people the other day not one of us could rationalize the
current Charmin campaign other than to consider it an outgrowth of the well known
expression, "Does a bear poop in the woods?" This from Procter&Gamble, the most
politically correct of all advertisers? We could only conclude if it’s selling
toilet paper don’t ask.

At a floor high in the fifties of the Empire State Building in 1956 I went to work
for Ralf Shockey and Associates. Shockey was a sales promotion outfit with a
handful of creative people, writers and art directors. Ralph Shockey was a well
known sales promotion specialist who because of his reputation and connections
attracted blue chips who desperately needed promotion help that they were not
getting from their ad agencies. So it was here that I got to create ideas and
colateral material that would supplement the advertising produced by ad agencies.
. Accounts included Chrysler, Corning, G.E, various Seventh Avenue fashion houses.
I remember writing a booklet for G.E to be distributed to retailers entitled, "
Thirty One Ways to Promote G.E. Small Appliances In Store." Believe me it was a
strain to reach thirty one and I wonder if any store ever even implemented half
the ideas. We even designed sales meetings for our accounts. I was finally working
on some big league stuff, a far cry from Winthrop’s Vacuum Cleaners and
Stenchever’s Shoes in Paterson.

And the views from my office in the Empire State Building were spectacular. At
Shockey I learned to do writer’s roughs, visualizations of the copy I wrote and
how I expected it to complement the planned illustrations and folds of a mailing
piece for example. Size, number of pages, where pictures fit, headlines and sub
headlines. I was not doing the art director’s job but was pointing him or her in
the direction the finished layout should take. As a copywriter I thought that my
turf was the wording and the layout and visuals were the exclusive province of the
art director. Instead I began to see the importance of thinking visually even
before a word was ever written. Verbalization and visualization in advertising are
intertwined and any good copywriter is skilled in visualizing and vice versa for a
good art director. In my career I have seen art directors write some of the best
lines and copywriters come up with the most arresting layouts. For example an art
director came up with the line for P&G's Rely tampons, "It Even Absorbs the
Worry." An ad I wrote while at Y&R began with a tight close-up of a bowl of Jell-O
Chocolate Pudding to depict smoothness, "Jell-O Believes You've Taken Enough
Lumps In Your Life."

One day while in the john on our floor in the Empire State in came Joel Frede who
was Shockey's right hand man. While standing at the urinal next to me, he says, "
How you doing Alvin? You know we just lost one of our biggest accounts. We're
going to have to cut back. I'm sorry Alvin but I have to ask you to leave." Here
I was taking a leak and suddenly I'm in shock at Shockey. " "Are you kidding? But
Joel you just hired me about three months ago."

" I know Alvin but it's LIFO, last in first out."

"All I could say was, ' I can't belive this. The clients are buying my
work.Everyone thought I was doing a good job."

A little later back in the office, he comes over, nudges me with his elbow and
quietly says, "Hey Alvin forget what I told you in there. It's a mistake.
Apparently when word got around the office that I had been fired the creative
people practically assaulted Joel and let him know he blew it. "You fired the
wrong guy." So about fifteen minutes after I was fired I was rehired. And as for
the method of dismissal, Joel Frede really pissed me off.

Russ was a public relations specialist at Shockey. One day he invited me to join
him for a drink after work when he was meeting Walter Weiner, head of public
relations at Young & Rubicam. "You'll like Walter and maybe he can help you get a
hearing at Y & R." At the time I felt "Well another one of those help you get a
job introductions, but what the hell I'll go and meet the man."

August 05, 2008 in advertising | Permalink


Comments
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:


Your comment has been posted. Post another comment
The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see
in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Post a comment
If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In

You are currently signed in as (nobody). Sign Out

(URLs automatically linked.)

Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the
comment.)

Name is required to post a comment

Please enter a valid email address

Invalid URL

A Creative Director's Life, Part 16, Hangin' with Kong


Passing thoughts:

Sign in a 2nd Ave. laundry: " We do shirts better. Cost the same as your favorite
grand latte."

Advertisers who insist on casting kids to spout complicated financial copy in


their TV commercials end up with gibberish and are wasting their money. Cutesy but
totally lacking credibility. Might as well use a parrot and save on residuals.
Would you buy life insurance from Ian, my eight year old grandson? AIG thinks you
would.

How did P&G ever transition from kindly old Mr. Whipple, who with a wink would so
politely ask customers to refrain from squeezing Charmin, to animated bears in the
woods. At a lunch with ad people the other day not one of us could rationalize the
current Charmin campaign other than to consider it an outgrowth of the well known
expression, "Does a bear poop in the woods?" This from Procter&Gamble, the most
politically correct of all advertisers? We could only conclude if it’s selling
toilet paper don’t ask.

At a floor high in the fifties of the Empire State Building in 1956 I went to work
for Ralf Shockey and Associates. Shockey was a sales promotion outfit with a
handful of creative people, writers and art directors. Ralph Shockey was a well
known sales promotion specialist who because of his reputation and connections
attracted blue chips who desperately needed promotion help that they were not
getting from their ad agencies. So it was here that I got to create ideas and
colateral material that would supplement the advertising produced by ad agencies.
. Accounts included Chrysler, Corning, G.E, various Seventh Avenue fashion houses.
I remember writing a booklet for G.E to be distributed to retailers entitled, "
Thirty One Ways to Promote G.E. Small Appliances In Store." Believe me it was a
strain to reach thirty one and I wonder if any store ever even implemented half
the ideas. We even designed sales meetings for our accounts. I was finally working
on some big league stuff, a far cry from Winthrop’s Vacuum Cleaners and
Stenchever’s Shoes in Paterson.

And the views from my office in the Empire State Building were spectacular. At
Shockey I learned to do writer’s roughs, visualizations of the copy I wrote and
how I expected it to complement the planned illustrations and folds of a mailing
piece for example. Size, number of pages, where pictures fit, headlines and sub
headlines. I was not doing the art director’s job but was pointing him or her in
the direction the finished layout should take. As a copywriter I thought that my
turf was the wording and the layout and visuals were the exclusive province of the
art director. Instead I began to see the importance of thinking visually even
before a word was ever written. Verbalization and visualization in advertising are
intertwined and any good copywriter is skilled in visualizing and vice versa for a
good art director. In my career I have seen art directors write some of the best
lines and copywriters come up with the most arresting layouts. For example an art
director came up with the line for P&G's Rely tampons, "It Even Absorbs the
Worry." An ad I wrote while at Y&R began with a tight close-up of a bowl of Jell-O
Chocolate Pudding to depict smoothness, "Jell-O Believes You've Taken Enough
Lumps In Your Life."

One day while in the john on our floor in the Empire State in came Joel Frede who
was Shockey's right hand man. While standing at the urinal next to me, he says, "
How you doing Alvin? You know we just lost one of our biggest accounts. We're
going to have to cut back. I'm sorry Alvin but I have to ask you to leave." Here
I was taking a leak and suddenly I'm in shock at Shockey. " "Are you kidding? But
Joel you just hired me about three months ago."

" I know Alvin but it's LIFO, last in first out."

"All I could say was, ' I can't belive this. The clients are buying my
work.Everyone thought I was doing a good job."

A little later back in the office, he comes over, nudges me with his elbow and
quietly says, "Hey Alvin forget what I told you in there. It's a mistake.
Apparently when word got around the office that I had been fired the creative
people practically assaulted Joel and let him know he blew it. "You fired the
wrong guy." So about fifteen minutes after I was fired I was rehired. And as for
the method of dismissal, Joel Frede really pissed me off.

Russ was a public relations specialist at Shockey. One day he invited me to join
him for a drink after work when he was meeting Walter Weiner, head of public
relations at Young & Rubicam. "You'll like Walter and maybe he can help you get a
hearing at Y & R." At the time I felt "Well another one of those help you get a
job introductions, but what the hell I'll go and meet the man."

August 05, 2008 in advertising | Permalink


Comments
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
Posted by: |

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Your comment could not be posted. Error type:


Your comment has been posted. Post another comment
The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see
in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Post a comment
If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In

You are currently signed in as (nobody). Sign Out

(URLs automatically linked.)

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the
comment.)

Name is required to post a comment

Please enter a valid email address

Invalid URL

You might also like