Priceless video: father and son grappling with the past, present and future of design
Alex Bogusky, legendary poster boy for the ad business, rashly decides to interview his dad online. The outcome reveals what looks like a stormy relationship between a ‘designer parent’ and a ‘designer child’
Bill and his brother (Alex’s uncle Albert) were also legends in 1960s (they were known as ‘The Brothers Bogusky’) and self-confessed design-junkie Bill has been doing his stuff on crowdsourcing site 99designs (for a lot less than it’s worth).
How it all began:
“A windsurfing copywriter from Minneapolis named Chuck Porter began to freelance for a tiny Miami ad shop named Crispin.
It is there that Chuck met Bill Bogusky.
As the story goes, Crispin sent a project up to The Brothers Bogusky, when it returned back to the agency, Chuck remarked to Bill, “who did the design and art direction on this piece?”
Bill remarked, “my kid Alex, why is there a problem?”.
Nope.
Chuck offered Bill’s son Alex a senior art director job at what became Crispin & Porter and eventually Crispin Porter+Bogusky”
Professor/Program Coordinator of Creative Advertising at Seneca College @ York University campus in Toronto
Alex’s career is inextricably bound up with his father’s.
But there’s plenty of more recent developments:
Alex Bogusky Tells Fast Company He’s Never Going Back to Advertising: Meet the New Gang at Crispin Porter
Here are some background details on the agency:
Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), a member of publicly-traded MDC Partners is an advertising agency that currently employs around 1000 people.
The agency is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado and Miami, Florida, with additional offices in Los Angeles and London.
CP+B Europe opened its doors in June, 2009 after acquiring Swedish agency Daddy, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. In July, 2010 CP+B Canada opened after acquiring the Toronto based agency Zig.
CP+B experienced rapid growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s, achieving notoriety on the strength of work for Burger King, BMW MINI, and anti-smoking campaign TheTruth.com
The agency’s current client list includes Burger King, Coke Zero, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows Phone, American Express OPEN, Best Buy, Domino’s Pizza, Old Navy, Jose Cuervo and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
As an agency, they are known for using viral marketing techniques, including the Burger King Subservient Chicken and Whopper Sacrifice campaigns.
In September 2008 the agency created a high profile television spot for Microsoft featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates that received negative media attention.
The ‘I’m a PC’ campaign that followed fought back against Apple’s Mac vs. PC campaign and contributed to Windows 7 becoming the fastest selling version of Windows to date.
Some Bogusky books:
Baked in (all about their ideas on brands and marketing strategy)
Hoopla (loads of ideas, useful for inspiration purposes)
and a book about the fact that the plate that you eat from may be the wrong size for your health
In March 2010, Andrew Keller, Rob Reilly and Jeff Benjamin were promoted to chief creative officers.
CP+B has been named “Agency of the Year” 13 times in the trade press.
On December 15, 2008, CP+B was named Creativity’s agency of the year.
They were also named Adweek’s 2008 U.S. Agency of the year.
In December 2009, CP+B was named Advertising Age Agency of the Decade and Boards Magazine’s Agency of the Year.
In 2010, CP+B was named Interactive Agency of the year at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the third time the agency has won the award since 2005.
This isn’t the only important video of Alex talking to a senior figure in the advertising world, there’s one where he’s talking to none other than Lee Clow, the mind behind Apple’s groundbreaking 1984 commercial (often claimed to be the best TV ad of all time)
Don’t forget to watch rest 2 parts from the conference panel with Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky, they really do get even better.
Alex points to the fact that interaction with customers is the step in right direction. Totally agree with that, people nowadays just love to interact and compete with each other in virtual world, and an ad campaign using newest techniques and solutions is most likely to successful.
Hey Greg,
I agree with you. People love to compete in the virtual world. I guess the fact that they don’t have to face their competitors in person has made people more competitive. That’s why ad agencies are capitalizing on this. Of course, the downside is, even smear campaigns (e.g. among politicians or celebrities) are done this way and some ad agencies are paid to these too.
Absolutely Grace – when there is a demand there is a supply. Nothing changed in business principles I quess.
Lee Clow, in 3rd part of the panel, says:
‘[...]from monologue to dialogue.’
It’s interesting to see him, from different generation of advertising people, noticing same things as younger Bogusky does. And actually doing it in his job – like in Nissan Qashqay adverts. Some people do get lost in new era of things – not in this case apparently.
Sadly, this is true. As they say, “Business is business.” That’s regardless of who gets hurt. Makes me think sometimes, as human beings progress with technology, it seems that good manners and right conduct are on the decline.
Yeah, ‘rat race’ and money seems to drag worst behaviours in people. Don’t think much can be done about it – there are some things in life that we have to learn to live it.
[...] you loved that awesome video of advertising icon Alex Bogusky and his dad, reserve yourself some time to watch two generations of Stanford stars tell how their vocations [...]