Then We Set His Hair on Fire - Essay Example

Without a doubt, Mr. Phillip "Phil" Dusenberry is one of the most prolific and influential individual in the advertisement industry. He joined BBDO as a copywriter in 1962 and has subsequently emerged as one of the world's most influential forces in the advertisement industry. His impact on the field is most memorable when examining the advertisement campaigns for General Electric and Pepsi-Cola. One of the most prolific turning points in his career was the employment of Michael Jackson and the ushering in of an era in advertisement where celebrities were the main endorsers of products. He is credited with the "Pepsi generation" and "The choice of a new generation" campaigns. Additionally, he was an integral part of the 1984 re-election bid of President Ronald Reagan and has been a critically acclaimed screenwriter credited with the writing of the movie, "The Natural," starring Robert Redford. In order to gain a full appreciation for the accomplishments of Mr. Dusenberry, it is prudent that we examine his underlying philosophy for success (Sampey & McMains, 2002). Mr. Dusenberry has been credited with some of the most famous and successful advertisement campaigns. Those campaigns include Pepsi Cola campaigns featuring celebrities which included Alfonso Ribiero, Billy Crystal, Don Johnson, Madonna, Michael Jackson, James Woods and Ray Charles. He has worked with other celebrities such as Michael J. Fox , Jason Alexander and Jay Leno. He is credited with having pioneered the age of celebrity endorsement which proved to be a very lucrative advertisement tool. The utility of celebrities in Pepsi-Cola commercials has undoubtedly been cited as the fundamental tool utilized by Pepsi-Cola as a means of competing with its very formidable competitor, The Coca Cola Company. His genius has effectively served as a means of establishing branding and consumer identification based on the users of a particular product (Dusenberry, 2005, 181-204). At the heart of his success is a clear and decisive method for facilitating insight which lead to his creative genius. In his autobiography entitled "Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights And Accidents from a Hall-Of-Fame Career in Advertising" which is an ironic statement which delineates Mr. Dusenberry's life's philosophy of taking the adversities and life and re-authoring them in such as manner as to facilitate positive change. The title of the autobiography says volumes. It speaks of the tragedy which occurred when Mr. Michael Jackson was filming a commercial for Pepsi-Cola. During the commercial something went horribly wrong and Mr. Jackson's hair was set on fire. Being the mastermind behind the commercial, Mr. Dusenberry could have easily seen this in a defeatist light and foresee the potential of a massive loss of revenue for the company he spearheaded, BBDO. Instead he choose to make light of the situation, accept it as a valuable learning experience and incorporate it into his ever-growing repertoire of inspirational tools for creative genius. In so doing, Mr. Dusenberry devised clear and concise guidelines for building a life of creative inspiration and insight. His guidelines include a series of steps which can be utilized in many diverse career and personal paths. First and foremost, Mr. Dusenberry delineates a philosophy of hard work wherein there is a need for an individual to be his/her toughest critic. In so doing, he/she needs to take a proactive stance against the production of inferior work product. He further delineates an anecdotal reference wherein an individual produces a work product which he has definitely worked arduously to produce, however, the product proves to be inferior based on the expert judgment of the producer. In lieu of fixing the bad work product, the individual opens a twelfth floor window and tosses it out. This allegory as delineated by Mr. Dusenberry was aimed at making the clear point that despite the pain experienced when starting from scratch, it is definitely more lucrative in the long run. He is of the opinion that sometimes it is more painstaking to fix a bad product than to start with a new concept. This philosophy is at the heart of his creative drive in the field of advertisement (McCarthy, 1999). Another principle Mr. Dusenberry contributed to his success is the notion that in a professional setting, it is imperative that a worker accept the responsibilities which accompany the job and do so without complaining. He felt that it is necessary for individuals to display a professional attitude at work. This professional attitude is one that delineates a distinct love for the tasks being undertaken and one which portrays an attitude that the company which is being solicited for new business is a great one to work for. Essentially, he feels that whatever uncertainties you may experience in the workplace with regards to your interaction with a client or a supervisor, it is prudent that you keep them to yourself and not vocalize your dissatisfaction. He embodies the notion that the only resultant of complaining is a deflation in the morale of the employees which can transcend to the client relationships and result in deleterious effects to the bottom line of a company. Additionally, he feels that complaining either in private to employers or to a client portrays a weakness in character, as well as effectively and efficiently creates an environment plagued with negativity (Gould, 1997). The notion that one has to be an impartial judge of his/her own insight is one that served as a guiding force in the advertising career of Mr. Dusenberry. According to Mr. Dusenberry, one has to be able to judge his/her insights in an objective manner and utilizing the notion that one has to step outside of himself and review the insight as if it were an entity separate from that individual. In so doing, an individual is free to gain insights of his/her own rather than to be forced to adapt the insight of others. He indicated that a vital part of gaining insight is the notion that creative individuals should be free to utilize whatever method fosters their creativity. It is prudent that creative individuals in a superior position not force other subordinate employees to utilize the methods utilized to boaster their creativity. Essentially, creativity is an individualized process and in forcing one's employees to utilize the same methods they use tantamount to hiring weaker individuals. This proves contradictory to the team approach as a weaker individual only works to the detriment of a team. This is much different from the notion that a team consists of players who complement each other. This complimentary relationship is vital to the success of an advertisement agency and the individual advertisement executives as well as employees (Comiteau & Garcia, 1995). In delineating his undoubted success in the field of advertising, Mr. Dusenberry identified an integral component of the team approach. That component is one which indicates that there is no room for competition in a team approach to advertising. This approach is one that dictates that there should be no competition between the individual team members. He points out that the biggest flaw in management styles is one which embodies the notion that there should be constant competition among the team members. It is one that fosters competition as a means of increasing the output of the team members. He feels that it is necessary for ideas conceived by a group to be presented as such. When examining the advertising ideas, it is prudent that the managers avert a practice which delineates the contributing members of the team as well as to avoid singling out individual team members. This strategy is one that works much to the detriment of the creative process. He is poignant about the fact that a manager who shares the spotlight with his/her employees is one who will excel. By sharing the spotlight, the employer ensures his/her employees that he is a strong and competent individual who is confident in his/her abilities and is not afraid to show how valuable his/her employees can be. Yet another key component of a successful advertising executive is the notion that an executive holds a duty to safeguard his/her advertising insights from the firms that compete with them. In so doing, the future interests of the company is protected and the bottom-line is not adversely affected. He indicated that there is no point in having an insight if one is unable to safeguard that insight from their competitors. He is adamant with regards to the fact that it is pointless to have an advertising insight if it cannot be protected from being radically altered in the process of compromise with a client or even worst being rejected by a client before being offered an opportunity to present the insight. The proactive method utilized in order to maintain custody of an insight until the appropriate time is to minimize the insight in such a manner that it appears to be a previously conceived insight. It is only common business practice to safeguard one's business secrets and ensure that his/her competition is not afforded an unfair advantage as a direct result of his/her failure to safeguard the strategies utilized as the products of a thriving business. or the copycats, is to build relationships. If you don't have that trusting relationship with the client, you won't be allowed to fail (Dusenberry, 2005, 29-33). Finally, one of the most prolific notions in the field of advertisement is the notion that the client should be free to own the insight of the advertiser. This is the key to a successful advertisement campaign. Essentially if the client thinks he/she is can take credit for the success of his/her campaign then it creates an image of mutual cooperation between the client and the advertisement agency. This image can serve to bolster future creative efforts. What it boils down to is a case of perception wherein an individual feels empowered because he/she has created an excellent work product. This feeling of empowerment works to influence future creativity in that if an individual does something successfully once, he/she has the propensity to think that this success can be repeated. It is merely a matter of the power of perception in overcoming adversities (Dusenberry, 2005, 33-35). One of the highlights of Mr. Dusenberry's career occurred in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. A mere six weeks after the terrorist attack on New York City, the then Mayor, Mayor Giuliani approached Mr. Dusenberry to create an advertising campaign aimed at returing tourism to New York. By this time it was apparent that city's economy was virtually devastated as much of the tourism industry had been crippled. The task of returning visitors to New York City was a vital one. It translated to the return of millions and possibly billons of dollars in revenue to New York. Mr. Dusenberry noted that the entire city was in the dumps at the time when he was approached by Major Giuliani. As the chairman of BBDO's North American operations, he felt a personal responsibility to change the image of the city and portray it as a safe place wherein tourists can enjoy the Broadway and many of the tourist attractions New York had gained notoriety for. In his autobiography he expressed the notion that the occurrences in New York were very personal to him in that his company operated in New York and he had intimate knowledge of at least one individual who perished in the attack. He indicated that he has been to many memorials and the project undertaken on behalf of the City of New York was one that held the potential to be cathartic. His view of advertisement was one that changed as a direct result of this project. He saw the pivotal role advertising played in increasing the morale of an entire city. In so doing, he decided to title his creative process "the New York Miracle." (Dusenberry, 2005, 128-132) The conceptualization of the "the New York Miracle" is one that had to be made salient. Now all we had to do was make that miracle concept stick. He delineated the conceptualization of an advertising campaign wherein celebrities would be portrayed in commercials doing atypical activities. One of the ideas conceived was the notion of Woody Allen taking part in the activity of ice skating in Rockefeller Center. The suggestions of famous people doing atypical activities in New York garnered great response. Some of the ideas included the political figure Henry Kissinger finding his way into an empty Yankee Stadium only to run the bases and slide into home plate head while dusting himself off and asking who is Derek Another suggestion that was entertained was the notion of the baseball great Yogi Berra seen while conducting the New York Philharmonic and Barbara Waiters auditioning for a spot in a Broadway show, "42nd Street." She is seen doing an awful rendition of the theme song. As a direct result of the advertising done by BBDO under the leadership of Mr. Dusenberry, tourists returned to New York in droves (Dusenberry, 2005, 128-132). Without a doubt, Mr. Dusenberry feels that insight is invaluable in the field of advertisement. During the course of his career, he noted that insight was a rare commodity and one that has been depleted over the course of time. In a retrospective look at his over thirty year career he indicated that there is an obvious lack of creative talent and this lack is one that has been increasing over the course of time and facilitated by the advent of the increase utility of the internet as a means of communication and information. Much of this can be attributed to the lack of appeal of the advertisement industry. In so doing, he had to be aware of the changes within the industry and the wide availability of a wide array of advertising medium. Much of the changes boil down to the fact that everyone in the communications industry has been placed in the unenviable position of competing for talent from the same narrowing talent pool. The competitors include individuals in broadcasting, publishing, promotions, Hollywood, the World Wide Web, all of the dot-coms, newspapers and trade magazines. The expansion of the communications industry has effectively led to the departure of many faithful clients who explore alternatives to the traditional approaches to advertising. In so doing, the traditional view of the advertisement industry is one that has undergone a metamorphosis than cannot be altered and holds the potential of crippling the advertisement agencies which are steadfast and cling to the old principles and methodologies of advertisement. He indicates that advertisement is increasingly becoming harder to sell as companies want to utilize all available mediums for the promotion of their products. One of the most poignant statements made by Mr. Dusenberry is the notion that advertisement can sell anything except for itself (Dusenberry, 2005, 120-124). Despite the fact that the advertisement industry remains in a state of depletion wherein very few new individuals enter the market while the aged population are lost to retirement and other forms of attrition the strong ethics still remain. These ethics indicate that the advertisement industry must foster an attitude which embodies the notion that are inherent good qualities in fun, pride, challenge, training, competition, fame, success, teamwork and security. In taking a retrospective look at his employment with BBDO he maintained that when he first became employed with BBDO, BBDO was an insignificant player in the advertisement market. He credits much of the success of BBDO to his strong work ethics, arduous work and dedication to insight and finally remarked that being in a AAAA agency is as good as it gets. It is one that makes it valiant effort worthwhile and serves to validate his existence (Dusenberry, 2005, 273-275). References Comiteau, J. & Garcia, S. (1995). What's in the pot Adweek Western Edition, 45(46), 42-44. Dusenberry, P. (2005). Then we set his hair on fire: Insights and accidents from a hall of fame career in advertising. London, England: Penguin Books Gould, K. (1997). The last free lunch. Adweek Western Edition, 47(2), 17-18. Mccarthy, M. (1999). Shop talk. Adweek, 40(48), 78-79 Sampey, K. & McMains, A. (2002). BBDO's Dusenberry to Step Down. Adweek, 43(11), 5. Read More