Press
The One Club’s “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue—
Their Impact on American Culture” Exhibit Travels to Chicago
Timely exhibit on the legends of American advertising opens at Columbia College in Chicago –
New York, NY (March 22, 2010) – “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue,” an exhibit that celebrates the contributions made to advertising and popular culture by the real stars of Madison Avenue, will travel to Chicago for its first public showing outside of New York City. It opens at The Congress Gallery at 33 E. Congress, 1st Floor Gallery in Chicago on April 7, 2010 and will run until the end of the month. The exhibit will then be traveling to San Francisco and Toronto.
A presentation of The One Club, the world's foremost non-profit organization devoted to elevating crea-tive work in the industry, the exhibition is being hosted and sponsored by Columbia College Chicago with additional sponsorship being provided by DDB Chicago and Leo Burnett. An opening night reception for invited guests and members of the advertising community will kick off the exhibition at The Congress Gallery on Wednesday, April 7th, from 6 to 8 PM.
“The Real Men and Women” highlights the work of several dozen creatives, mostly copywriters and art directors, who created great advertising for a living, whose iconic ad campaigns influenced the course of the American economy, who often made advertising entertaining and fun and who put their stamp on popular culture long before ‘branding’ became the buzzword it is today. While the exhibition uses Madi-son Avenue as its starting point, it also includes the western expansion of creative advertising and profiles such famous figures as Chicago’s Leo Burnett and Minneapolis’ Fallon McElligott. Classic ads by Leo Burnett showing early versions of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger and The Jolly Green Giant are on display. The exhibition spans over eighty years of advertising history, but the creatives profiled in it share the same accolade: induction into The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame, formerly known as the Copywriters Hall of Fame.
“We’re thrilled that the first showing of ‘The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue’ outside of New York will be here in Chicago,” says Mary Warlick, C.E.O. of The One Club and the show’s curator. “This city has played a seminal role in the growth of the ad industry in the US, and for many years has been considered its creative capital. The exhibit will be of tremendous interest not just to the local crea-tive community, but to Chicagoans from all walks of life.”
The exhibit first appeared at the New York Public Library Science, Industry and Business Library, where it drew over 150,000 visitors who spent, on average, 40 minutes reviewing the classic TV commercials, interacting with the kiosks and studying the panels. The version of the show that will appear in Chicago will include much of the original content of the New York exhibition.
“The Real Men and Women” features the work of over 50 individuals, ranging from Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, who penned such lines as “Smart to be thrifty” for Macy’s in 1929 to the legendary art director and designer George Lois, who gave us “I want my MTV!” to Lee Clow, who created Apple Computer’s “1984” in the 1980s to Goodby, Silverstein & Partner’s famously popular “Got Milk?” from the 1990s and Apple’s silhouette ads of the 2000s. There are over 150 examples of print and TV commercials, as well as a series of blown-up quotes that remind the audience of some of advertising’s most famous copy lines, such as, “Think different” and “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.” The content in the exhibit is organized under headings such as: “Early Pioneers in the Twentieth Century,” “The Modern Day Empire Builders” and “The Creative Revolution.” Each heading is followed by a written summary of the era, the people, the trends and what made the work stand out.
About The One Club
The One Club for Art and Copy is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the craft of advertising. Founded in 1975, The One Club has approximately 1,000 members, including copywriters and art directors. As part of its mission to promote high standards of creative excellence, The One Club produces the advertising industry's most prestigious awards program, The One Show. Judged by a panel of the advertising indus-try's elite creative directors, this annual event acknowledges excellence in art direction and copywriting in a variety of categories, including tele-vision, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards and public service announcements. The coveted One Show "Gold Pencils" are regarded as the zenith of achievement in the advertising world.
About Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is an urban institution that offers innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 12,000 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs. An arts and media college committed to a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, Columbia is dedicated to opportunity and excellence in higher education. For further information visit www.colum.edu.
The One Club’s “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue—Their Im-pact on American Culture” Exhibit Travels to Chicago
The One Club
Apr 05, 2010
Timely exhibit on the legends of American advertising opens at Columbia College in Chicago –
New York, NY (March 22, 2010) – “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue,” an exhibit that celebrates the contributions made to advertising and popular culture by the real stars of Madison Avenue, will travel to Chicago for its first public showing outside of New York City. It opens at The Congress Gallery at 33 E. Congress, 1st Floor Gallery in Chicago on April 7, 2010 and will run until the end of the month. The exhibit will then be traveling to San Francisco and Toronto.
A presentation of The One Club, the world's foremost non-profit organization devoted to elevating crea-tive work in the industry, the exhibition is being hosted and sponsored by Columbia College Chicago with additional sponsorship being provided by DDB Chicago and Leo Burnett. An opening night reception for invited guests and members of the advertising community will kick off the exhibition at The Congress Gallery on Wednesday, April 7th, from 6 to 8 PM.
“The Real Men and Women” highlights the work of several dozen creatives, mostly copywriters and art directors, who created great advertising for a living, whose iconic ad campaigns influenced the course of the American economy, who often made advertising entertaining and fun and who put their stamp on popular culture long before ‘branding’ became the buzzword it is today. While the exhibition uses Madi-son Avenue as its starting point, it also includes the western expansion of creative advertising and profiles such famous figures as Chicago’s Leo Burnett and Minneapolis’ Fallon McElligott. Classic ads by Leo Burnett showing early versions of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger and The Jolly Green Giant are on display. The exhibition spans over eighty years of advertising history, but the creatives profiled in it share the same accolade: induction into The One Club’s Creative Hall of Fame, formerly known as the Copywriters Hall of Fame.
“We’re thrilled that the first showing of ‘The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue’ outside of New York will be here in Chicago,” says Mary Warlick, C.E.O. of The One Club and the show’s curator. “This city has played a seminal role in the growth of the ad industry in the US, and for many years has been considered its creative capital. The exhibit will be of tremendous interest not just to the local crea-tive community, but to Chicagoans from all walks of life.”
The exhibit first appeared at the New York Public Library Science, Industry and Business Library, where it drew over 150,000 visitors who spent, on average, 40 minutes reviewing the classic TV commercials, interacting with the kiosks and studying the panels. The version of the show that will appear in Chicago will include much of the original content of the New York exhibition.
“The Real Men and Women” features the work of over 50 individuals, ranging from Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, who penned such lines as “Smart to be thrifty” for Macy’s in 1929 to the legendary art director and designer George Lois, who gave us “I want my MTV!” to Lee Clow, who created Apple Computer’s “1984” in the 1980s to Goodby, Silverstein & Partner’s famously popular “Got Milk?” from the 1990s and Apple’s silhouette ads of the 2000s. There are over 150 examples of print and TV commercials, as well as a series of blown-up quotes that remind the audience of some of advertising’s most famous copy lines, such as, “Think different” and “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.” The content in the exhibit is organized under headings such as: “Early Pioneers in the Twentieth Century,” “The Modern Day Empire Builders” and “The Creative Revolution.” Each heading is followed by a written summary of the era, the people, the trends and what made the work stand out.
About The One Club
The One Club for Art and Copy is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the craft of advertising. Founded in 1975, The One Club has approximately 1,000 members, including copywriters and art directors. As part of its mission to promote high standards of creative excellence, The One Club produces the advertising industry's most prestigious awards program, The One Show. Judged by a panel of the advertising indus-try's elite creative directors, this annual event acknowledges excellence in art direction and copywriting in a variety of categories, including tele-vision, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards and public service announcements. The coveted One Show "Gold Pencils" are regarded as the zenith of achievement in the advertising world.
About Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is an urban institution that offers innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 12,000 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs. An arts and media college committed to a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, Columbia is dedicated to opportunity and excellence in higher education. For further information visit www.colum.edu.