Advertising

Just Do It.
Be Different.

Sage advice, or merely revolutionary advertising slogans? Or both?

Art & Copy is an entertaining new documentary that steps inside the world and minds of some of the most legendary creative advertising executives in history. Having worked in and around the advertising industry during my career, I was quite interested in learning more about the visionaries who mastered the art of selling - and who made a significant impact on our culture (whether we like it or not). In particular, I've long admired Mary Wells Lawrence (featured in the doc) for her gutsy nature and groundbreaking advertising work - check out her colorful autobiography, A Big Life in Advertising.

I'm also still engrossed in the ever sublime Mad Men show on AMC, which is set in the world of New York's Madison Avenue advertising in the '60s, but is really about the peeled-back layers of society as it was then - with some lessons for the present. It's simply television at its finest.

During the Art & Copy panel, the film's director Doug Pray mentioned that when asked about Mad Men, the consensus from the real ad icons who lived that life in the '60s was that the show - while an excellent series - doesn't truly capture the intensity and creativity of Madison Avenue during that era. Guess I will just have to make do with great television and a little imagination.

I ♥ NY (revolutionary advertising slogan and truth).