I just had the great good fortune to enjoy a sumptuous Italian lunch with Sandy Torano of SCANDAL MUSIC.
Sandy is the guy who did the music for the legendary REAL MEN OF GENIUS radio campaign for Bud Light. The music — over the top metal balladeer, back up singers etc — were a large part of that campaign. The writing was awesome but it was the totality of the idea that put it, literally, over the top. The ads were big confident productions. Most radio ads are the diametric opposite of that: panicked and antic.
It struck me at lunch that Bob and Sandy are two of the nicest people you will meet. And that their energies are very evident in the work they created together. The RMOG campaign is a reflection of them: very positive, very likeable, very fun.
So here’s to you two Rajahs of the radio! Good luck and thanks for happy times.
As promised, an interview with legendary Ally and Gargano art director Mike Tesch. I had the great pleasure to meet Mike at the Clio awards in Miami a few years ago.
I found his responses to my questions refreshingly candid and in some cases very surprising. Thank you so much Mike.
For some great insights into one of the greatest agencies ever, read on.
(And don’t forget to buy the book. It’s an absolute necessity if you work in advertising or marketing. Lots of great stuff to absorb. 11 pounds of great stuff to be precise)
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To pontificate
to express opinions or judgements in a dogmatic way
to go on and on and on
to lecture
to preach
i’m warning you vinny
i am not going to do that
in and out…not on and on
to the point.
How did you first break into the industry?
it was 1965 i met my first wife Dolores at Chermayeff & Geismar associates
One of the best design firms in America. We were both designers .
She had a friend Elaine Pafundi …Elaine had a friend Amil Gargano. They
eventually married. we doubled dated… in those days that’s what they called it
Amil owned an advertising agency along with Carl Ally and Jim Durfee
He asked me if i ever thought of leaving the design firm and joining him at
his agency. I said yes. He had me interview with Ed McCabe and Ralph Ammirati. McCabe asked me a few questions i had very few ads in my book
He was reluctant. He took a chance. He and Ralph hired me. Simple as that.
In the book, Amil was lavish in his praise for both you and Patrick Kelly. That must have felt good. You got your own double page spread!
Amil’s lavish praise for Patrick and myself… I was surprised. And yes it felt good
We contributed but honestly it made me feel self conscious. Other people were worthy of that spread. They might have contributed a lot more than us.
You were at Ally and Gargano for a very long time. You must have had tons of offers to leave. Why didn’t you?
Yes I had offers…maybe thousands. not tons. Chiat/Day for one
And I came close. why didn’t i leave??? Two reasons
1. I was too loyal to Amil…my friend…the man who jump started my
career. And 2. I was too scared.
It’s my opinion that your FedEx work was the first truly modern US TV advertising. You used and abused the medium. You instinctively got it. Why do you think you (and Patrick) were so good at TV?
First and foremost I loved film…always have… always will.
Patrick felt the same way…it was always his intention to make a movie
Why was i good?? and i thank you for thinking that… to be truthful ….Patrick made me good. He forced me to look at people differently…..find something special about themsome little nuance some distinction…and record it… and take it to another level. Take real life situations…be irreverent, make fun of it… make the audience laugh.
For Fedex, for instance, we explored the anxiety of people in business who
depend on the quick reliable delivery of small packages …..what our
spots were about were the business world and how it is run.
People related to our spots in terms of there own emotional responses and
experiences in business …and when you get some one to laugh at the
situation….they’ve known someone like that…its always the other guy,
it’s not them.
How did FAST TALKING MAN for FedEx come about? Sorry but I have to ask.
Patrick and i both were watching “That’s incredible” on tv when john moshita came on. we both looked at each other and hence the fast talking man…
We got our producer to call John in LA.
I did a board 2 days later
Went to Amil and Hugh McCloy the acct guy… flew to Memphis that week presented to Tom Oliver sr vp marketing
he bought it in 60 seconds
we were confident we had something 60 seconds after
that tv show ended.
Joe brought it to life.
Board was exactly duplicated…uncanny
PS: When i was inducted into the One Club hall of fame
after my speech i had the fast talking man thank all my friends even my enemies in speed talk…… 60 of them ……”mike asked me to thank you all…….thank you Billie ,thank you Stephen, thank you Tom” etc etc
Joe Sedelmaier was the perfect choice to direct “Fast Talker”. Where was he in his career when you first used him?
Ah yes ,the genius of Joe. Where was he in his career when we first started using him?
He was doing commercials for brands people hardly knew nationally and he
did it with the help of some great writers like Jim Weller.And art directors like Nancy Rice. Clients like Pacific southwest Bell…Mr Steak …Fisher office furniture
When did you last see Amil Gargano? How is he doing?
Three months ago i had lunch with Amil, his wife Elaine, and son Matt in
South Beach
One month ago i had one of the best times of my life at the Ally Gargano reunion and Amil’s book signing at the One Club in New York.
6 days ago i e mailed him with an idea on how to get his book sold
5 days ago he sent me an e-mail about it.
How is he doing?
You’d have to ask him
He seems happy
He’s got a great wife
He’s got a great kid. He’s got great grand kids
What can i say …He’s Amil and i love him.
Unfair question but I’ll ask it anyway. Who was the best ever writer at A&G? And why? Completely understand if you don’t want to answer this one.
The best writer ever at Ally and Gargano….i am too smart to answer that
question. The best writer i personally worked with… i’ll answer.
I worked with ten of them and I’ll probably get a few mouths to open.
Curvin O Rielly.
Patrick Kelly.
Tom Messner.
In that order
Why?????
One was smart and had insight.
One was funny and had insight.
One was cunning and had insight.
Who would play Carl and Amil in a movie of Ally & Gargano?
Carl … if Nicholson gained 20 lbs for the part. Or James Gandolfini.
Amil…if Pacino wore elevator shoes for the part.
What is your favorite Ally and Gargano campaign?
Favorite campaign: Federal Express.
Two reasons 1. Business. Average nightly package count 1973…2500.
Average nightly package count 1986 ….700,000.
2. Emotional Made millions of Americans laugh.
Second favorite, early Volvo campaign ….why ? Smart
3rd…Pan Am why? Smart 4th….. Hertz why? Smart
What ad/campaign that you created there is your personal favorite?
Federal express. I didn’t start it…George Euringer John Danza and Patrick (Kelly) did. I just came in and finished it.
I saw BEER early on when I actually worked on beer. I loved it. WHIP OUT YOUR NORBECKER! was a brilliant beer line. What is your memory of Patrick Kelly? What was he like?
Lets put it this way… in my wallet i have a picture of my wife Billie
my grandchild Luke my dog Dillion and …Patrick.
How much closer do you want me to get to the man. What was he like?
brilliant. funny loving big, raw ,enormous, engaging, calming, intuitive. No better friend did i have. God, do i miss him.
What is your recollection of Carl Ally? He seemed like a trip.
Define the ultimate leader that’s Carl
Define untidy that’s Carl
Define paving the way that’s Carl
Define erratic that’s Carl
Define insecure that’s Carl
Define some of his favorites…..not me
Maybe because i never had my nose up his ass
He was definitely a trip…like you said
Amil Gargano comes across in the book as an obsessive and driven guy. Is that fair? What was he really like?
Amil obsessive? Not true. Because if you define obsessive it reads like dominated, controlled, ruled, monopolized, fixated, one tracked
absorbed preoccupied. Why dont we try another WAY to describe Amil
SELF ASSURED…..or just plain…sure of one self. He’s a good man ….Amil Gargano.
I personally think the Ally and Gargano book is instantly the best book ever on advertising. What is your opinion of it?
I cant be anything but prejudiced ……..i think its the best book ever
written about advertising. part of my guts are in this book. and i will never forget
Amil asking me to join the best advertising agency ever made .
Thank a lot Mike. Anything you’d care to add?
Now there IS something i’d like to add….of course when you ask me if there is anything I’d like to add…. i jump at the thought …..i am an intense man with a
definite point of view….and as Ralph Ammirati once said of me …….”Mike
is the kind of guy that never lets go …when he goes for it”
I agree with (Tom) Messner’s opinion of Barry Vetere as one of the best ad guys in
the business. but to blatantly say that Amil’s dismissal of Vetere was
probably intentional is fucking absurd …sour grape shit. Awfully small for a man as big as he is and besides when vetere was producing all that work for the agency who was buying into all that stuff…and okaying it …none other than…… Amil Gargano. Misspelling of Vetere ….get off it….that was a typo…no one could
possibly get off on that…
I have been lucky enough to have had a lot of creative freedom throughout my career. I like to think some of that luck is down to me putting myself in my client’s shoes. And imagining what they view as success. And then doing my damnedest to achieve that.
Creative freedom means the freedom to respond to your first impressions and act on them without too much interference. A certain amount of self- filtering is just necessary and good. But after a while nothing gets through the sieve!
And most problems simply aren’t that complicated. They just aren’t. And there’s a lot to be said for taking the path of least resistance.
Therefore all you’re left with is execution. So hire people who can execute really well.
While we creatives would like to think that advertising is ALL about the idea, it really isn’t. It’s about doing something. It’s about being a presence in the minds of folks.
here’s a good example. every day i pass this billboard for Maker’s Mark whiskey. the somewhat childish and cartoonish premise of this ad is that the beverage is so desirable that someone (Tom or Jerry?) is sawing the floor beneath the bottle, presumably to steal and drink it.
no new ground being broken here.
but does it REALLY matter?
Arguably not. It’s a nice looking bottle with a fake wax top and whatnot. and i like whiskey. so this is ad is bringing me marginally closer to buying a bottle of Maker’s Mark.
Not Jack Daniels. Or Jim Beam. Because they aren’t running an ad that i know of. They aren’t doing anything as far as i know.
Maybe they’re thinking about doing something. Maybe they just can’t agree on what medium or message they should use.
It doesn’t really matter to me. They haven’t tried to reach me.
Maker’s Mark wins the day because they ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING.
I have never been one to shy away from the wholesale theft of something that makes complete sense. It is in this spirit of larceny that i present this article from BBH chairman Jim Carroll. I espyed it in the latest CAMPAIGN magazine.
This is a bad idea on pretty much every level. It’s a virally intended video to promote reducing carbon footprints by ten per cent.
It’s a series of vignettes where the idea of this program is introduced in various situations: a school, an office and, bizarrely, a professional soccer ground. In each scenario anyone who disagrees with the idea is exploded via a magic button that blows them up. That’s right, they all get blown up. Splattering blood everywhere. So we have children, office workers and a soccer coach automatically getting blown up simply because they disagree with this environmental initiative.
Thanks to Simon Billing for letting me this existed. And to Ben Kay for putting it on his blog.
This was one of the questions that Carly Ally and co wrestled with early on. They opted for the idea of advertising agency as maker of valuable product. And were one of the first to do so.
That distinction persists. The agencies who put all their energies into their creative product vs the agencies that are good at making their clients feel good. The former is a much harder life than the latter. But also much more rewarding.
Can you imagine anything worse than sucking at doing advertising? I can’t. What a horrible notion!
At the very least produce fragrant-smelling poison gas that blisses people out, is my thinking.
After a while in advertising you realize that the only thing worth pursuing is effectiveness.
What is effectiveness?
Here is effectiveness.
When a bricklayer builds he wall he gauges his “effectiveness” by this criterion: is the wall level and straight? very simple.
similarly the only thing that matters in advertising is: “did it sell?”. very simple.
but it’s HOW you do “effective” that makes you effective. this is not so simple.
Continuing my lonely vigil to promote Amil Gargano’s most excellent new book about seminal New York ad agency Ally & Gargano, I have asked legendary A&G art director Mike Tesch to do a blog interview (blinterview?).
And guess what kids. He agreed!
I am working on the questions right now. If you have any for him, just leave them in the comments section.
Among many other things, Mike was part of the team responsible for this gem. Amil Gargano correctly calls it “arguably the best ad of all time”. And you know what, he is 100% correct.
It’s as fresh today as it was 30 years ago. It predicted the future and it will never get old. Just amazing.
ESCAPOLOGY (the escape pod’s blog)
ESCAPOLOGY (the escape pod's blog) 