The Art of Einstein

The Uses of The Past

I spent a day this week with my pal Bruce and his merry men at The History Factory in our nation’s capital.

Bruce and I have been friends since the day, about 20 years ago, when he first let me in on what he was up to.  He had been working at the Smithsonian where his job was saying “no” to companies who’d asked the museum to pull together historic material to help them celebrate an opening, an anniversary, a retirement, or milestone of some kind.  The Smithsonian, big and wonderful as it is, doesn’t do that kind of work.  But Bruce saw an opportunity.  The History Factory is now a global business.

 In our first conversation, Bruce knocked me flat when he said “The past is the springboard to company’s future” at which point a light bulb went on and  I said “A-men brother”.  So while The History Factory organizes and manages the archives of large corporations,  I’m convinced it’s really in the branding business.

Brand stories, after all,  are rooted in a company’s past – but for some reason the past embarrasses some corporations.   My first job out of school was at J Walter Thompson, then the world’s largest advertising agency.   I started there, as a copywriter, and soon  found myself working on Ford  advertising.  As a car enthusiast, I knew the history of the company and its cars fairly well.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that 70 years of Ford history, that included cars  hobbyists idolized, was out of bounds.  To my amazement I found that Ford was so rattled by it’s ‘tin-lizzie’ past that the famous Ford blue oval logo hobbiests revered, didn’t appear on their cars and was forbidden in their advertising. 

Muchas gracias, y'all

I got my butt kicked into the 21^st century last week.  It happened on my road trip  up the east side  of the US,  from Hobe Sound in south Florida to Katonah, just north of New York City.

I don’t do this often enough, and when the opportunity comes along I always try to route myself through North Carolina, ‘The Land of the Long Leaf Pine”  and land of my birth.

A few miles after crossing the NC/SC border I took at left at  Lumberton NC  and headed up Rte 211 to Red Springs, Raeford – destination Chapel Hill.   Two-lane blacktop all the way.  I love it.

As the miles ticked by I started to see interesting signs, like  “Se habla Espanol”  -“Iglesia Santa Maria”.  When I was in school at UNC the state was pretty much 100% black and white and while I had trouble with the accent at times, English was the first and only language.  Now this?

“What gives?” I asked my friend Sharon who has lived in Kinston NC long enough that I think of her as a native.   Her reply opened my eyes.

“North Carolina is home to the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country.  That's right -- not CA, or AZ, or TX, or NM.  The Old North State.  I sit on an advocacy task force for our Community Health Center with at least two Hispanic members and two Hispanic staff people; all of our public agencies have Spanish-speaking staff;  several churches now hold a Spanish-language service to their Sunday rosters.

Kinston is typical, and this is a town of only 24,000 people.  More than 5 years ago, I was driving cross country to a meeting in Wilmington and rounded the curve between Beulaville and Chinquapin -- and nearly had a wreck.  St. James Baptist Church had morphed into Iglesias Santiago. The state legislature is practically under siege to reverse a law it passed four years ago granting in-state tuition at state educational institutions (including Blue Heaven) to the American-born children of illegal immigrants. So that's what gives.

A friend and ex-colleague who lives in Chapel Hill added, “ ALL the service people -- plumbers, painters, electricians, yard maintenance--are hispanic.  A working knowledge of Spanish is becoming vital.  Why NC?  This a builder's mecca and one of the fastest growing states in the nation.  NC passed NJ last year as the tenth most populous and Raleigh is the new Seattle, a magnet for young people.  As a realtor said, "We are the new Florida (for retirees)."

The melting pot of our grand parents is bubbling all over again, in every corner of the country.  I imagine on my next trip there I’ll be having salsa with my hush puppies.

 

 

 

 

 

I Digress, momentarily

I have just posted a couple of new favorites to the Must Read list at right.  Julie Klam, blogger and Facebook diva, is a hoot.  So is George Parker.  I enjoyed both, vastly.

Julie writes about growing up, falling in love a couple of times, shopping, shopping, shopping, living in NY and her daughter Violet.  May sound ordinary but it's anything but.

George, the worlds most blasphemous  advertising blogger, writes a very funny history of the rise and fall of advertising in the 50-some years since Vance Packard wrote "The Hidden Persuaders". 

(Full disclosure - Julie grew up around the corner in Katonah.  I have known George since forever)

Remember Howard Zieff?

Howard died the other day after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.  I got to know him through my pal of 40 years, Dick Clark who worked for him as an assistant, collaborator, court jester, and sometime actor  (Dick was the voice-over in the unforgettable Alka-Seltzer commercial, “Spicy Meatball’ and ultimately became his rep).

In every one of the half dozen obits I’ve read (they’re all over the Internet) I’ve been struck by the raves for work he did 40 years ago (before inline skates, PC’s, iPods, the internet, or Miller Lite)  The half-life of outstanding advertising never ceases to amaze me.   

The Alka-Seltzer spot dates to 1970.  The Levy’s rye bread posters came earlier.  But none of the articles mentioned the posters he did for The New York Daily News (below) that established his reputation. The Daily News pictures didn’t need a headline - or copy for that matter.  The whole story, including dialog, was wrapped up in a photograph - like a Norman Rockwell illustration on film.  They campaign was done in the ‘50s, years before the ‘creative revolution’ of the ‘60s and ‘70s.  

Today it’s hard to realize how unique Howard’s vision was.  But if you can find an copy of LIFE from that era you'll get some idea.  The models in the advertising are right out of  “The Stepford Wives”.  Their pefect faces are wreathed in perfect smiles.  Their perfect bodies are perfectly groomed and dressed.  Howard broke that mold.  The pictures he took were populated with real people who made the advertising authentic in the same way headlines like “Lemon”  did for VW.  

His pictures had a sense of humor that’s missing in most advertising today.  The light touch, the result of exquisite casting and meticulously set ups - well - the ad just made you smile and feel good.  

There’s a new series about advertising on TNT called “Trust Me” and in last week’s episode the creative heros   

spent the hour scheming to get a high-powered director to film their spot.  In Howard’s prime, when an ordinary director’s job was to ‘shoot the board' as written, he was the first of the directors people schemed to get.  He picked the boards he wanted to shoot, and the fact that he’d take your job (at twice what you’d pay elsewhere) was an affirmation of your concept and a promise that the client was going to get a whole lot more commercial than he’d bargained for.  

Years after the creative revolution was put to bed  a hand full of writers, art directors, and agencies get credit for the work.  Howard left Madison Avenue at the top of his game, and went off to Hollywood and film career.  As a result, I think he gets much less credit than deserved for his influence on the advertising revolution