Praise be Dan Wieden
The legendary Advertising exec passed away last week and we're tipping our hats to a real mensch | Vol. 15
Dan Wieden passed away last Friday. He was 77. For anyone that’s worked in marketing and advertising in the modern era. You know of his shop Wieden + Kennedy’s reputation much less of Wieden himself. If you don’t know of W+K let me drop a little knowledge.
Wieden + Kennedy was started by two gents. One was Wieden. The other was David Kennedy. These two northwest hippies started a little shop in Portland and started doing advertising work for a little company called Nike in 1982.
Here’s the first Ad they ever did with the legendary tagline Just Do It in 1988.
All that amazing culture-shifting-market-making work that shaped Nike in the 1990s was Wieden + Kennedy. Nike’s Air Jordan that’s made Michael Jordan hundreds of millions of dollars? Wieden + Kennedy. Fast forward to today and they’re an international powerhouse with offices throughout the world.
On a personal level, Dan definitely influenced my life and career from a distance. When I was just out of college working in the mailroom at a talent agency in Beverly Hills I befriended the head of PR. She was an awesome mentor at the time giving me an audience on all my dreams and aspirations. One day she showed me this video and said “I think you belong in place with a guy who thinks like this.”
I had no idea what this dude was talking about but I did know that I liked it. I liked it a lot. And sure enough not too many years after I saw this video I moved to New York City so I could be in the heart of the Advertising industry.
While I never met Dan nor worked at W+K I’ve always held him and the shop in very high regard. Whether it be the inspiring work W+K did for Levi’s Go Forth campaign in 2011, the legendary Old Spice The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign, or gaining new strategic inspiration and knowledge from their legendary W+K Ad Planner Martin Weigel or the former Chief Creative Office John Jay. Wieden and W+K’s fingerprints are all over how I view advertising and in some ways, my overall business life. It’s safe to say from a long-distance Dan impacted my life and how I approach the work. I know in that light I am not alone. There are so many people’s lives he positively impacted.
So I want to hat-tip one of the greats of their era. Of any era really. I’m sorry for the loss to his family, friends, and colleagues. He was truly magnificient. And I thank him for the long-distance push.
Amen to that.
Have a great week and stay safe out there.