On Sunday afternoon I was back at the San Francisco International Film Festival, this time to see Doug Pray's latest documentary, Art & Copy and following that a panel discussion called The Real Mad Men, who are "advertising industry Hall of Famers known for their singular innovation, brilliance and charisma."
Panelists: Jeff Goodby cochairman, creative director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Rich Silverstein cochairman, creative director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Dan Wieden, co-founder of Wieden+Kennedy.
Here's what I wrote for the San Francisco Film Society's "Scoop du Jour"...
Pop Culture Brilliance
Advertising industry executives are usually maligned in documentaries shown at independent film festivals. Renowned documentary filmmaker Doug Pray’s Art & Copy takes a different, perhaps more difficult journey- instead showcasing the creative talent and wry wit of those who “grew flowers in hell.”
Pray’s interviews with some of the most iconic and iconoclastic personalities in the field (Dan Wieden, Rich Silverstein, Jeff Goodby, Lee Clow, Hal Riney, George Lois, Mary Wells and more) are often laced with humor and lightheartedness. The film goes on to celebrate some of the most acclaimed and memorable ad campaigns ever run, displaying them as a sort of modernist art form that helps define and shape pop culture. The result: a refreshing and inspiring film that brought the sold-out house down Sunday afternoon and had the audience belly-laughing, cheering and tearing.
Advertising, its purest sense, can be a transcendent and shared experience that has the ability to take us away from our troubles and sell us shoes at the same time. While introducing his film, Pray declared “Advertising creates our culture, for better or worse.” Despite- or perhaps because of- the massive transformations the advertising is currently experiencing, Jeff Goodby remains optimistic about the future of the advertising business.
When asked by some self-identified students during the Q&A when he thought the best time to enter the advertising industry was, Goodby said simply “The golden opportunity is right now. It’s tomorrow morning.” In other words, Just Do It.
“It’s a Love Fest”
An enthusiastic, sold-out crowd greeted some of the most influential creative minds of our era at The Real Mad Men panel discussion following the West Coast Premiere of Art & Copy. Panelists Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby (“Got Milk?”) and their sometimes fierce competitor Dan “Just Do It” Wieden delighted the audience and each other with their wit and charisma Sunday afternoon.
Using video clips of clever, sometimes majestic advertisements (including their own) to enhance the discussion, the collective creative energy of Goodby, Silverstein and Wieden illuminated the room.
In a relatively free-ranging discussion, the luminaries dished about the creative spirit, the importance of space and atmosphere, looking always toward the future and their own storied careers. Wieden, when asked how he got into the very career he vowed to avoid, recalled that for him watching the famous, transformative Volkswagen Beetle ads of the 1960s was “like stumbling on a different kind of intelligence” and he was drawn in.
The panelists had pithy words of wisdom like “don’t hold onto the past” and “the key is personal relationships” for the next generation of advertising professionals. Their genuine sense of pride in their work and respect and admiration for one another and for their competitors was obvious. In Goodby’s words, “It’s a Love Fest.” As it turns out, the gentlemen who dominate the West Coast ad scene are also likable and funny.
