About two years ago, StrawberryFrog was pitching for the US Hyundai account. I was invited to attend a few events where the Hyundai management were speaking. One event was the introduction of Genesis. There, I sat beside a man named William K. Hopkins II, Willy for short. Turns out he was a rather extraordinary person. He had me glued to my seat listening to his stories for most of the session. He had worked on the agency side with some of the most respected car brands. He knew everyone in the room and they knew him. For someone who had recently moved from Amsterdam to start the US office of StrawberryFrog, I couldn't have met a nicer, funnier, more informed person. We kept in touch and then a few months later I started receiving "laughingman" emails from him, featuring articles which he deemed important to people building car brands. At first there was about 10-15 people cc'd on these emails. Two years later there are a LOT of names, too many to count. And the articles keep coming, sometimes a dozen a day. So for my next Lunchtime chat I thought it would be fun to interview the car adman turned "automotive daily candy man".
After Columbia, while I was waiting for my invitation to take Bill Clinton’s place in the United States Army, I joined a D production SCCA racing team as a wrench spinner, and built some very fast cars…nobody ever caught us cheating. After the Army (Medical Corps), I was living with Danny Sullivan in New York when his Rabbi, Dr. Frank Faulkner, sent Danny to England to learn how to drive, and got me an interview for the Technical Director slot at the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States. They gave me an air card, a phone card, and sent me around the world as the representative of United States automobile racing interests. (How do you improve on a job like that?)
Woodward and Bernstein convinced me go back to Columbia to study Journalism. Morris Holbrook (at the Graduate School of Business) gave my thesis an honors; and while I was running it around town in hopes of publishing same, Jack Grossman offered me a job as research director on the RJR business at The William (I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel) Esty Company.
Camel Lights was my first new product introduction. Esty’s brand new Datsun business was headed up by George Beach, who wanted to go racing. A year later, we were hanging around with Paul Newman in Bob Sharp’s trailer on our way to the SCCA, SSA North East Regional Championship…nobody ever caught us cheating. (How do you improve on a job like that?)
Bob Rees made me an account supervisor on the Porsche+Audi business at DDB (and let me continue racing with George); Helmut Krone made me a copywriter on VW; Carl Ally put me to work on Saab, Piper, Canadair, and whatever else needed help at Ally and Gargano; Bob Rees made me the management representative on the VoA business, and marketing director for DDB; Bill Backer brought me over to Backer & Spielvogei to pitch and launch Hyundai; Jay Chiat hired me to pitch Nissan; Arthur Einstein brought me in to pitch and run Saab; Jim Jordan brought me in to pitch anybody and everybody, and sent me off to consult for the likes of McKinsey and Co. (How so you improve on a job like that?)
After my neck “troubles,” Steve Levit brought me into Lunch during the Reed Bull launch, and then into Saatchi & Saatchi for projects such as the Prius and “Moving Forward” campaign launches.
It has been a hell of a ride.
- What have been the highlights: Work, People, Experiences ?
Good question.
Well…first; Five Effies; three Addies; two Agencies of the Year; one Clio; and the most successful new imported automobile launch, ever, could be considered highlights…but that is just other peoples’ perceptions.
I am enormously proud of the people I have had the honor of working with…all of them. There is no way you can pay…or frighten…people into putting in the kind of effort needed to produce the above mentioned quality or work…and there is no way you can do quality control after the fact. They do it because the want to, they do that because they know you will fight to get it published…they do it for each other.
Helmut and I became close enough to use each other as sounding boards…when I told Helmut I was leaving DDB to join Ally, his response was:
“Have you told anybody else yet?”
“Well…yeah, I told Bob Rees.”
“You dumb shit. Ally is only one floor up on the elevator…and nobody around here ever knows where you are, or what you are doing…you could have kept both jobs, and nobody would have ever known.”
That was a highlight.
Carl Ally taught me how to fly…and set up double dates with his most recent wife’s older sister
That was terrifying.
When the last love of my life cut me off at the knees, causing more than a bit of…distraction…Jim Jordan demanded a “command” appearance at Trader Vics, at 7:00 PM on a Friday evening…ostensibly for an update on the progress of our Amati pitch. When I arrived I found Jim sitting at a table with all six of his (then) unmarried daughters. Jim kept ordering me “Suffering Bastards,” with an increasingly funny excuse accompanying each one…easily one of the most memorable evenings of my life…to the extent that I can remember any of it.
What are your regrets..?
I regret that I allowed myself to be defined by a job for so many years.
I regret that I broke my neck.
I regret that I was physically unable to attend Hunter Thompson’s physical launch in Aspen.
I regret that so many of my friends and heroes have had the bad manners to shuffle off this mortal coil ahead of me.
I regret that I haven’t been able to use my “bonus time” more productively.
- What Defines You ?
My father was a theoretical physisciist out of CalTech, and did his post grad work in Germany in the 30’s…was arrested as an American spy, and subsequently spirited across the Swiss border on skis by the American “State Department.” He later worked on the “Manhattan Project,” and signed Einstein’s letter.
My mother was admitted to the University of Utah at the age of 16, earned a masters degree in “Microbiotics,” and spent the end of her career working in Calvin A. Lang’s lab at the University of Louisville on RNA research…and used up most of my high school summers learning and practicing the Scientific Method.
I grew up with the Scientific Method…the importance of being able to replicate results before you can claim cause…or spend other peoples’ money to produce same remains what defines me.
-What are you up to now?
Damn good question.
Editing and publishing the Laughingman news letter.
Still consulting for former clients, various media entities, and writing a column for Art Spinella.
The single best thing about being an advertising weasel is that it requires the commitment to be a perpetual student.
I have also been evaluating some reading and creative writing papers from Kentucky college hopefuls for the State…doesn’t pay much, but the insights into the next generation’s thinking is…inspiring.
-Five Years from now?
The way this economy is going? Probably playing the guitar in some New Orleans bordello, singing songs about the benefits of short term temporary indulgances…experience is not expensive…it is priceless.
-Who are your heroes, who inspire you?
Carl Ally, Bill Bernbach, Bill Backer, David E. Davis, Jr., Jim Jordan, Tom Messner, Helmut Krone, Bob Sinclair, Jimmy Williams…if you work hard enough, long enough, and smart enough to produce positive results, you earn the opportunity to do things your own way.
-What advice would you give to the agency world?
David Ogilvy went out and talked to consumers in the stores where they shopped…and sales went up. Bill Bernbach put an art director in the room with the copywriter, and revolutionized the business. Carl Ally put an account guy in the room, and sales went up yet again. Jay Chiat put an account planner in the room, and revolutionized the business yet again. Martin Sorrell put an accountant in the room, and the public has been reaching for the remote ever since. We are on the cusp of another creative revolution, and it has nothing to do with the internet…it will be driven by the same factors that drove the last creative revolution…the public’s longing for wit and wisdom in the work. Read Howard Gossage. Study Helmut Kkrone. Remember Bill Bernbach…”Today, everybody is talking about ‘Creativity,’ and frankly that’s got me worried. I fear least we keep the good taste and lose the sell. I fear all of the sins we may commit in the name of ‘Creativity.’ I fear that we may be entering an age of phonies.”
What an amazing man, with such an incredible story! I must say you are very lucky to have met him! These are the people that turn your life in to a much more interesting and fascinating affair :)
Posted by: truck rental | October 02, 2010 at 07:05 AM
Anything I didn't learn from Morris Holbrook I learned from Willy Hopkins.
Posted by: Randall Rothenberg | December 17, 2009 at 12:01 AM
absolutely fascinating conversation.
Posted by: Arthur Einstein Jr | January 13, 2009 at 03:26 PM