Yo, Boyko

I've been writing in this space for almost eighteen years. What started as a short walk in the woods has turned into probably the single most-significant accomplishment of my long and mediocre career. After all these years, this blog has brought me more attention and renown than any ad I've ever writ, any award I've ever won, or any creative director I've ever impressed.

Evidence of that is below: A thoughtful blog post from Rick Boyko, a creative leader who's been doing great work, leading teams and teaching people since before many of my legion of readers were even born.

By the way, it's only fitting that a creative leader like Rick is responsible for perhaps my longest single post ever. Rick's scope is vast. His career is still ongoing. Like the Everyready bunny, he keeps going and going.

Also, Rick's post is here the day after the presidential inauguration. Whatever you feel about what's next, Rick's passion, intelligence, humor, craft and dedication resonate hope for making things better.

Thanks, Rick.

In Dec of 2020 George reached out and asked if I would contribute to AdAged his blog. I of course said I’d be happy and honored to be part of his long list of interviews. Needless to say its taken some time to actually get around to it. So thank you, George, for your patience. 

Having created a documentary series called "Inspiration" in conjunction with the Advertising Club of New York, I suggested to George that we delve into some of my inspirations. 

ed. note: My questions and Rick's answers follow.

How did I find my way into the ad business? Was it on purpose, or like so many, by mistake? Who or what then inspired you to follow your path? 

On purpose. My father had his own little agency in Fontana, CA, and I would routinely sit by him after dinner as he did layouts and ads in our garage. From then on I knew I wanted to do the same thing. 

In school the only subject I cared about was art. When looking at magazines or watching TV, I would analyze the ads. Helmut Krone, Mary Wells, George Lois, Roy Grace and Sam Scali, were my inspirational teachers while magazines and television were my classroom. 

Do you have a single “all-time favorite” ad? Because I’m a nice guy, you can choose three. 

My all-time favorite ad or ads. Loving ads and advertising as long as I have it’s impossible to select an all time favorite from the many that have inspired me, but in the interest of time, I’ll stick to three, here goes: 

1: In my estimation Helmut Krone is, and was, absolutely the best art director of all time. Everything he did was unique and from his amazing body of work I found this Polaroid series, the pinnacle of his art.

2: Speaking of art, Hal Riney and his art director partner, Jerry Andelin, teamed up with director Joe Pytka to weave this beautifully crafted story for Perrier that elevated the brand while cleaning up in the awards.

3: Last but not least, after Steve Jobs returned to retake the helm of the company he founded, he discovered there were no new products in the pipeline. So he called upon the agency who helped him launch the brand, Chiat/Day, and creative partner, Lee Clow, for a stop-gap campaign to buy him time to develop a new product line. 

The Think Different campaign they created not only bought him time, it re-positioned Apple and set it on the path to become one of the biggest brands in the world. 

This poem created by the agency became the mantra for the company and the execution using mostly outdoor media was truly inspired. “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” 

Where do you look for inspiration?

I have always found inspiration for any problem to come from staying open to all input, not being closed-minded, and keeping my eyes open to new possibilities. Example; creativity is not structured, there are no steps to it, it is not a science, it is art. Yet, clients are always asking for the steps we take in creating, they want to know the “process”. You see a MBA is taught that risk is dangerous, that you must analyze every step, and build metrics around your decision. Creatives are taught just the opposite, we are taught to think outside the box, color outside the lines, and failure is ok, to quote the Wieden & Kennedy mantra “Fail Harder”. 

Two different ways of thinking and being taught or to put it another way two different languages. And when you don’t speak the same language what happens? You can’t understand what the other is saying which can lead to mistrust. So how to bridge the gap? 

I found in looking at Universities around the country that there were no schools teaching MBA’s and creatives together? No where. So while being on the Board of the VCU Adcenter, I realized and posed the idea that there was need for both to be taught collaboratively. So I stepped down from my position at Ogilvy and with the help of Mike Hughes CCO of the Martin agency, and patron of the Adcenter, I set out to create a curriculum that did just that. 

To the art direction, copywriting, and strategy tracks I created and added a new Creative Brand Management track followed shortly thereafter with the Creative Technology track. We then designed a curriculum that not only had them practicing their individual disciplines but also had all the tracks working together in collaboration in two classes each semester. In so doing we changed the name of the school from the Adcenter to the Brandcenter and began to mint creatives who better understood the client mindset and potential clients who better understood the creative mindset. 

The inspiration for this came from my keeping my eyes open, realizing a need, and not being closed-minded enough to think there wasn’t a solution. 

Do you ever get stuck? Do you have those moments where a deadline is looming and you feel “your have no more ideas? How do you “break” your “stuckiness”. 

I love your word “stuckiness” it’s so descriptive. So true. We all get stuck at some point, usually when the deadline is getting short. I think Calvin said it best: 

That said, when I get stuck, I get out in search of new input, go to a museum, to a movie, or read a book, anything to take my mind off of the problem. Then, when not thinking about it, something comes into my head. Often prompted by some new input I experienced when not thinking about it. 

How many times have we each lost the name of someone or something, and no mater how hard you try you can’t call it to mind, then twenty minutes later when thinking about something else there it is. Damm, that was the name. Distancing myself from the problem is when I most often find the answer. 

When you have a problem to solve, what “implement” do you reach for? I worked with Milton Glaser once and he doodled with a pencil with four colors of lead in it. I write longhand. What do you do to start wrapping your head around a problem? 

Like Milton Glaser, I too pick up a pencil, although not one with multiple colors. It’s how I learned. Long before there were computers, you had to put your ideas down on a piece of blank paper. Nothing fancy or tech about it. The brain moving the hand. A craft sadly that has been lost by many art directors today. 

Interestingly you mentioning Milton Glaser, I began thinking I wanted to be a designer. Not an art director. Because designers work on brands' identities and to me that is the true advertisement of a brand. A brand is imbued with meaning that is much more than its ads. 

Early on Mary Wells demonstrated this best when she took Braniff Airlines and was able to influence the entire brand, including the planes being painted wild colors. It’s why I hired Brian Collins to create the Brand Integration Group (aka BIG) within Ogilvy which allowed us to influence our clients brands like Motorola, American Express, Barbie, and Hershey’s to name a few. 

The first time I ran across your name was probably 1985 when I saw your handgun control ad. Which came first? The data? The “clincher” God Bless America. Or the “American Flag” gun? Was it a hard-sell? 

See the :30 TV spot here. 

The gun control ad came out of the feeling of impotency after the assignation of John Lennon. I was and still am a big Beatles fan and John in my estimation was the genius of the group. After hearing of his death, I like so many was totally depressed and was trying to find meaning in it. 

One night a week or so afterward I sketched out the flag on the gun. The next day I showed the sketch to the writer I was working with Steve Diamont. We instantly decided to make an ad and came up with the idea of comparing US gun deaths to other democratic countries. 

Problem was when we begin looking there was no one source for the gun death statistics, so with the help of a friend, Steve began working with Interpol to collect the numbers. Once we saw the numbers side by side for the first time, the last line “God Bless America” wrote itself. 

Then Dennis Manarchy, a good photographer friend had the gun painted and photographed it. Given this was all being done by the two of us, I did the entire paste up and then we looked to find a media source to get published. I had been working
freelance doing the layout for for a small local newspaper called “Chicago Lawyer”. The owner agreed to run the ad, but more importantly was good friends with Christie Hefner, the President of Playboy publishing. He got us in to see her, and she loved the ad and agreed to run it in the magazine as well as make 250,000 posters. 

Her only requirement was that we find an organization to add its name for a call to action. So off we went, and again serendipity helped, a cousin of my wife’s was associated with Handgun Control of America, and introduced us to its founder Pete Shields. When we met with Pete, he was excited but fearful of the flag painted gun and asked if we could just have the gun without the flag. No was my answer. 

Later, Cosimo a director in NYC saw the ad and said he’d like to do a commercial with us. We did one but with no real dollars it only ran a couple of times on a few local networks. Sadly they did little to move the country when up against the wealthiest lobby in the country. I have often said our politicians should be forced to wear coats similar to race car drivers, emblazoned with patches of all who sponsor them. 

I saw a commercial not long again white people sitting on a sofa watching a football game. Someone brought out Tontonno’s pizza rolls and it was declared “genius”. I’d imagine you have a more stringent denition of “genius”. Have you worked with any “geniuses”? Did their game raise yours? 

This question reminds me of that terrific “Real Men of Genius” Budweiser radio campaign created by DDB. I have been fortunate to have worked for and several real people of genius throughout my career. There are three in particular, whose game indeed raised mine. 

In Chicago I was hired at Benton & Bowles by David Kennedy and for one year prior to his moving to Portland to work with Dan Wieden, he taught me the importance of attention to detail and the meaning of craft. 

At Chiat/Day Lee Clow’s leadership style and “good enough is not enough” philosophy inspired everyone in the agency to think creativity and in doing so, differently. From him I learned the importance of an agency culture and was something I worked hard to emulate and create while I was at Ogilvy. 

Finally, I would include my partner of 14 years, Bill Hamilton in my real men of genius. A writer who’s real genius was in understanding the clients' business better then they did. There simply was no one who raised my game more than he. 

Would you let your kids go into advertising today? Related, what are your thoughts on the current holding company merger and agency consolidation and its effect on the business? 

Funnily, two of my three daughters did find their way into the business. One was an art director at Y&R, BBDO and Radical Media who after becoming a mother, left. 

The other was a producer at Chiat/Day NY and then after having survived the continued agency consolidations at McCann since before Covid, found the workloads put upon the reduced workforce demoralizing and untenable so she left the industry in 2024. 

That said, if my kids wanted to enter the business today, I would suggest they find a small independent agency that attracts clients who are looking for and need creative problem solving. Agencies the likes of Mischief, Arts & Letters, HighDive, and least we forget the king of independents, Wieden & Kennedy. 

As for your question, on my thoughts of the holding company and industry consolidation and what it has done to the business; let me just say, nothing good. 

George, I thank you for asking me to share some of my inspiration with you and your readers. I hope you find it to your liking.   

--

One last thing from me. 

Like Rick, I grew up in the days before advertising schools. I learned by looking at the work of others. Before I was making any money whatsoever in the business, I would take what little I had and head down to the Strand bookstore at lunch and buy used annuals.

These were my Harvard and my Yale College, to steal from Melville. In these books, I assimilated what makes a great ad. I was also able to construct my pantheon of ad heroes--people whose work I admired and felt I could emulate and learn from.

Rick, is responsible for putting together a series of videos that everyone in the industry who cares about advertising should watch. In fact, they should be required viewing--and learning. They are among the best films on advertising that you'll ever see.

Find them here. No password. No fee. No end to the wisdom.