A 44 year's old perspective on 50

This image was stolen from my friend Susan A. (I didn't ask permission, so I won't use her full name) whose photographic abilities far exceed mine.

Truth is, I could have have taken the exact same picture but I have no knowledge of focal lensing. Moreover, Susan's red oak hardwood floors are cleaner and in much better condition than mine. (Note to self:rent a sander.)

My book, a celebration of 50 years of Chiat/Day, arrived last week. 

It literally took me ten minutes to figure out how to open the precision-cut cardboard box, which appeared to be handcrafted like one of those Hansari Kitana swords featured in every Quinton Tarantino movie. 

Oh sure, I could have just ripped through the corrugation like an overly excited kid on Christmas/Chanukkah morning, but I wanted to savor the opening. A lesson I learned from my daughter upon revealing any new Apple product.

As Lee Clow often says, even packaging is an extension of the brand, and to be sure there is something special about the Chiat/Day brand.

Even now, 4 days after receiving the book, I have yet to go through the book in its entirety. I'm haunted by my own self knowledge and my tendency towards klutziness. I just know that in the schlemiel/schlemazel folklore, I'll either spill coffee all over this prized jewel or I'll somehow fumble it and it will end up in my blazing fireplace. And we haven't lit the fireplace since November.

My sense of caution has been been heightened by social media, where I learned that not every alumni of C/D was lucky enough to get a copy. And that only a limited number of these books have found their way into print.

As you might imagine, I feel incredibly fortunate. As well as undeserving. 

Chiat/Day -- I've learned from another alumni never to leave out the Day competent as it's a sleight against Guy Day -- always felt like the 1927 Yankees. With a Murderer's Row of the ad world's top talent: Clow, Hayden, Gorman, Johns, Stein, Robaire, Penny K., Yvonne Smith, Sittig, Rabowsky, Siltanen and so many more.

Ever since I began my copywriting career at Bernard Hodes, penning 15-20 crappy recruitment ads a day, I had heard of their fame. And their dominance of the ad world. Naturally, I aspired to be there. But after attending classes and events showcased by Lee Clow and Bob Kuperman, I never really thought that would happen.

It was always too intimidating. They were out of my league. This is not false modesty, by any means. Because at the time they were. They broke boundaries and patterns and did with their minds and craftsmanship things I could only dream of.

To this day, I still have to pinch myself and remind myself I actually 'got in.' And partook a unique espirit de corps, that I never experienced at any other agency. 

As I told Lee in an email I dashed off following receipt of the book, the time I spent at Chiat/Day, including my first stint 1990-1993, before I left, 1996-2002, before I got fired, and 2004 - 2008, when I was a permalance writer with a desk in Central Park, was simply the "pride of my professional life."

His response was priceless.

I can't speak for the current landscape, but in many ways the ad agency world of the past was like high school. 

And for a brief moment in time, I got to sit at the cool kid's table.

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(Today's post is dedicated to Ilene Clow, Brent Bouchez and Joe Hemp, all members of the Chiat/Day family who have recently left us, may their memory be a blessing.)