A few years back when I was at Grey I had the occasion to work with one of the most talented people I have ever run across.
Advertising was in the process of undergoing a transition as the desktop computer as a tool took hold in the workplace and the way that work got done was rapidly changing.The computer was being implemented more extensively throughout the industry and it was causing dramatic change everywhere.
I have issues of Art Director magazine (or had) from that period or slightly before (early 90s) and what’s amazing is just how much things changed in such a short time.
Anyway, Grey was my entry into the world of big ADVERTISING!
Grey was huge and at the time one of the largest Ad Agencies globally and this was before the consolidation of the industry into the five companies that run most everything today.
Surprisingly enough, I’ve worked for three of the agencies on that list (through their subsidiaries) and I’ve worked on some notable campaigns and for clients you’d readily know. So, oddly enough though I don’t focus on it all that much or talk about it much either you’ve definitely seen my work and that’s if you’ve lived in the United States anytime over the last three decades.
So, back to Tom...
Grey was really a different place from the other places I had worked before coming there. Besides the fact that it was so huge, just the physical and organizational structure of the place was totally different from anything I had experienced before. It was in this huge skyscraper on Third Avenue where they had a majority of the floors and they did EVERYTHING.
If it was advertising, Grey did it.
Creative groups were structured with four or five Art Directors to a group they might include a writer or two and and be led by a Creative Director and overall they all answered to the creative head of the agency that everyone knew.
You didn’t have just creatives though... there were buyers (for print and television), photographers, billing, account. Simply put there there were a couple of hundred if not a few thousand people at this location and there were also sizable branch agencies within a few blocks of the mothership as well.
The Madmen era was already in the past and if anything it was the tail end of careers for the folks that had lived through it. People who had twenty or thirty years in had come up in that era through the sixties and seventies and if they were in the business it was because they were smart, talented and out and out good.
One group in the shop was four people who were all from that era... now, in some circles they were viewed as something of dinosaurs.
Seriously.
These folks who had a ton of experience had that experience held against them somewhat.
The funny thing was? I saw at least on one occasion where one of those folks single-handedly went in on a pitch and when all else failed was able to win the account on a simple, clearly executed idea... that would be Tom (and his partner George).
All the other teams used the new tool, THE COMPUTER! They went in with finely executed materials (near complete) and time and again, they hit a wall and the client was nonplussed. After flailing around, Tom managed to show a hand drawn comp with a cartoon and BOOM! That became a national campaign that ran for that client in print and on TV for the next decade.
It wasn’t really surprising though because Tom and George both were extremely talented and creative guys and I knew it because they had together been responsible for something I remembered from my childhood that had a big impact on me and a whole generation of kids.
Somehow, I even managed to score something from Tom that I still have to this day and it’s something that’s a precious treasure:
Tom and George were the guys who created Schoolhouse Rock! All the drawings which were animated are Tom’s very definitive style (actually by an animation studio I also have a connection to - the world was a much smaller place years ago).
Sometime during my days at Grey, someone in authority asked me if I would speak to a class of visiting college students. The thought had been I imagine since I was the person who was responsible for implementing the personal computer into the agency’s studio I would speak about it.
As is often the case, the demands of work didn’t allow me the time to prepare the way I would have liked for the event and right before I went up to speak to the class, I asked a peer if I could have a comp that Tom had given him to work on. I went up and showed the class Tom’s comp and explained that the computer, while a great tool wasn’t as good a tool as the one between their ears and the ability to clearly and effectively communicate an idea.
Tom really was a talent and man if he didn’t knock it out of the park on a regular basis.
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