– Blimey, has that ever been more true than today?
Big day here – at last Sell! Towers has a copy of the hefty tome that is Ally & Gargano. It represents a collection of some of the best work produced by any agency in the Twentieth Century.
Why do we seem so obsessed by Ally & Gargano? Well I suppose, along with Papert Koenig Lois, they represent the approach that we feel the most affinity with - these were street-fighting adfolk who used creativity to directly try to achieve things. They attacked problems head-on; they sold product, took-on competitors, challenged opinion.
They were unashamed of their obvious intent to accomplish commercial ends. We feel we have a lot more in common with that, than with the current fad for a touchy-feely, brand-y, sofly-softly, pretend we aren't-even-advertising approach. And I suppose seeing that others have worked this way, and that it can work, gives us a bit of hope that maybe we aren't the lunatics in the asylum.
I recommend you get hold of a copy. Or, if you're nice, you can come round here and read ours.
I worked at Ally & Gargano from 1990 to 1995. It was a seriously wounded agency at that time, but even so, it had standards and a philosophy.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, the halls were roamed by giants. And if you made yourself open and available you could learn from them and hear their war stories.
That was two decades ago.
I still miss the place.
I was lucky enough to get that book when I was a student. It's better than any textbook, and most other books, I read during those years.
ReplyDeleteThree pages stand out the most. "The last thing we do is make ads" "If it's legal to buy, it's legal to advertise" and this one.