Monday, November 16, 2009

Nothing changes.

Today's NY Times has a business piece titled: "In Detroit, agencies compete to sell city as a creative haven". I was in that story over 40 years ago when I wrote the same campaigns. I won the right to advertise Detroit by doing a United Way campaign that used Peanuts characters for the very first time in advertising. My line was: "Don't turn down Charlie Brown". But for the City of Detroit I wanted to go one step farther since I knew the sociology of the place extended far beyond by office at Campbell-Ewald (who is in today's competition). I did a campaign based on the youth of the city (mostly black) called "Detroit is getting well". My bosses turned it down flat as too controversial. And it probably was since the place went up in flames a year later. I did get a kick out of a recent episode of Mad Men where the creative team was trying to come up with a proposition for Western Union. After some false starts Peggy the copywriter said something like, "A telegram is cheaper than a phone call and makes the sentiment last longer". My very first assignment at Campbell-Ewald was for FTD and the headline was: "Flowers last longer than a phone call, smell better than a card and look better than a telegram." Can history repeat itself? Of course it can Old Sport. Dear Old Detroit, please come up with a winner.