Advertising Icon Dan Wieden Dies
Dan Wieden died Friday, age 77. Wieden was the other half of the creative team of Wieden + Kennedy (David Kennedy was an art director and left the agency in 1995).
Dan Weiden’s miracle was not so much writing “Just do it” for Nike (apparently grabbed while watching one of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dirty Harry’ movies one Sunday afternoon), as it was carrying a small agency — and a small shoe company — in Portland, Oregon into the world spotlight.
In 1982, when the agency was founded, advertising was ruled by Madison Avenue. Wieden + Kennedy, founded and operated by two creative people, became a part of a league of small creative shops in cities across the nation, who shocked New York madmen by producing smart, strategic, brilliant creative advertising as well as they could. Or better.
These agencies produced advertising that set people’s hearts and brains on fire.
Chiat-Day (now TBWA-ChiatDay) in Los Angeles produced the Apple “1984” Super Bowl spot. And “Think different.” Hal Riney in San Francisco produced Goodby who created “Got Milk?” The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia produced strings of award-winning local and regional ads, then finally goshed the national award shows with internationally acclaimed work for The Kennedy Center and more. (These days, Martin is probably best known for its Geico gecko.) Fallon…
