Buddy Mackeson has had an extraordinary and illustrious career in advertising so we were delighted when he accepted the honorary but important position of Chairman Emeritus (Fictional) at the Brooklyn Brothers. He is our consigliore, our lighthouse and wise counsel. For those of you who have never met Buddy, and there can only be a very few of you if you’ve ever wandered the corridors of the industry’s largest agencies, you will undoubtedly know his work.

Buddy was born in 1940 in Brooklyn, New York (and is the inspiration for us naming ourselves the Brooklyn Brothers). His break in advertising came in 1955 when he joined what was known, before the acronymization of Madison Avenue, as Doyle Dane Bernbach. Acknowledging that working directly for Bill Bernbach was the best training a man could get, Buddy has always maintained that his learning curve has pointed downward ever since.

Yet Buddy is not without his own skills and talents. Rising to lead Bernbach’s formidable account service team in 1960 there is a story, that he refuses to confirm or deny, that Buddy was the inspiration for the original VW ad. The story goes that when Bernbach turned to him in a creative meeting and requested his opinion. Buddy replied “I like the work. But if I gotta be honest, Bill, I think it’s small.”

And long before the famous lunar module ad, Bernbach was often heard in meetings muttering after his head of account management “He’s ugly but he gets you there.”

It was this talent for execution that caught David Ogilvy’s eye and in 1963 Big Red managed to lure Buddy away. Once again, Buddy had a hand in creating ad lore. When returning Ogilvy’s Rolls Royce to him Buddy mentioned “that it sure was a bootiful car but that focking clock drove me focking crazy. Even when I gunned the engine that’s all I could focking hear.”

The direction for Hathaway Shirts was also changed forever by Buddy when he appeared at a client meeting sporting both a brand new Hathaway shirt and an eye patch after a hunting accident.

Ogilvy himself was unwittingly the catalyst for Buddy’s next big move.

In an effort to keep his legendary lieutenant Ogilvy sent Buddy on a fact-finding trip to Puerto Rico and it was here Buddy met with Rosser Reeves who was looking for a big-hitter to head the Marlboro account.

Reeves had originally intended the Marlboro Cowboy to be a kind of forerunner to the Village People. Images of an Indian, a leatherman and a cop were due to follow the cowboy but in a mix-up with the media buyer, the cowboy image stayed up far longer than anyone intended. “A campaign that runs for forty focking years based on an order that I fucked up. But what did get me? Focking fired.” says Buddy now.

The mistake did indeed lead to his dismissal but rather than return to his native New York, Buddy continued his journey west. “It was the 70s and to be honest I don’t remember all that much that happened. Except for meeting Guy and Jay. Boy those guys could party but we got some shit done too, you know?”

The Guy and the Jay were, of course, Jay Chiat and Guy Day. And the ‘shit’ he refers to is Nike and Apple. And while the 1984 ad has as many authors as a Hollywood screenplay, those who were there at the time attribute much of the original thinking for the ad to the brief penned by Buddy, although his original line “the computer for the rest of yous” was eventually amended by copywriter Steve Hayden.

“All Steve did was drop the and y and the o” says Buddy.

Buddy remains an influence on advertising to this day not only at the Brooklyn Brothers but to many of the industry’s leading lights. Chuck Porter calls him ‘Pappy Mack’ and legend has it that beneath that chicken suit is none other than Buddy himself - “Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty, knowwhatimean?” John Hegarty still asks Buddy to cast his eye over a layout. And even Lee Clow bows down to the man that taught him to think different.

We are proud to have his imaginary eye watch over us. And though he may not do as many meetings as he used to, he’s still up for a martini or two at lunch.

gb 10/25/06