A Remembrance of Phil Dusenberry
By Mary Warlick, Chief Executive Officer, The One Club
I remember one of the first One Shows I ever attended, before becoming the One Club's executive director, and the tremendous excitement when a Pepsi ad featuring Michael J. Fox, "Apartment 10G," took home a One Show Pencil. For the first time, that commercial proved that Pepsi was truly a leader in the cola wars, breaking away from the jingles and generic young people that had characterized soft drink advertising up until then.
Phil Dusenberry led the team at BBDO that was able to make an emotional connection to the audience by casting a likeable and well-known actor, a 'celebrity' if you will, in a well-crafted storyline about the client's brand, Pepsi. That commercial, and others in the campaign, such as the famous "Library" spot, set the stage for the successful use of celebrities in advertising. They were brilliantly staged and filmed mini-movies that led the way for advertising as entertainment. You watched because it was entertaining; you bought the product because you felt good about it.
Several years later, as the editor of Advertising's Ten Best of the Decade 1980-1990, I included Phil's work for General Electric, specifically a corporate identity commercial entitled "Night Baseball" which he co-wrote and co-directed with his longtime colleague, Ted Sann. I loved the spot because of its believable story of a dedicated group of GE engineers who pioneered the idea of baseball under the lights. The commercial set the stage for the many brilliant nights to come. And when the book was published in 1991, I probably wasn't even aware of Phil's own personal connection with baseball, via his screen adaptation of Bernard Malamud's The Natural.
Phil Dusenberry was a leader, a charismatic, highly charged individual. Like any leader in an extremely visible industry, he's been subject to criticism, from the petty to the professional. If one naysayer was commenting on his year round perfect tan, another criticized the big, over-produced commercials that aired on Super Bowl Sundays. Phil was unapologetic, reportedly once explaining about these ads, 'the execution is the strategy.'
But if Phil didn't lead the way in showing clients the value of airing over-top-commercials on the Super Bowl, the media industry would be at a loss for consumer popularity surveys they publish every year. The commercials BBDO aired on Super Sunday created a whole new genre of advertising—the event spot—and gave not just the media, but the public a reason to engage with advertising.
The creative people worked hard and put in long hours at BBDO. And the agency was perceived by some to have perpetuated a 'boys' club' mentality' among the creative staff. But one thing is for sure: the pressure cooker environment that he was supposed to have fostered at BBDO bubbled over with adoration and appreciation on October 17, 2007, when Phil Dusenberry received not one but two standing ovations at his induction to The One Club's Creative Hall of Fame. That's the one thing about Phil I'll always remember: how he made advertising people feel about themselves and their work.
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