Creative Hall of Fame
Jeff Goodby
Inducted: 2004
Jeff Goodby And Rich Silverstein
It's... ironic to try to write something useful about Rich and Jeff's induction into The One Club's Creative Hall of Fame.
I mean, neither of these guys intended to commit their lives to advertising. They wanted to do something- some act of imagination and craft-and do it so well that it would create a better set of circumstances than were evident in the face value of the thing. They wanted to make work that was so good, so original, so imaginative, and so right that it didn't matter if it happened to be advertising. That was the idea.
Jeff could have been anything he wanted to be. There's a picture of him I can still see in my mind's eye. In the picture, Jeff is in his twenties, with his wife, Jan, and their first dog, Bryce. (I can still see the red plaid shirt he was wearing.) It's the "before" picture, an image of a young couple and a puppy, but it crackles with destiny: I can see Jeff's deep interest in people. His practical and considered optimism. His wicked sense of humor about the dark side of human nature. And Jeff's breathtaking, "Hell, we can do that," sense of confidence, without which there never would have been a Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
Jeff and Jan and Bryce came to San Francisco together from Cambridge, Massachusetts. (We all came from "back east," as they say in California.) And while Jeff looked first for a newspaper reporter's job, he really had no specific plans. He ended up taking the best course, as it turns out. Jeff followed his heart. He always did. It's strange and wonderful that it led him (and then so many others) to advertising.
Rich came to San Francisco from New York. One of the first art directors at Rolling Stone, he moved restlessly between graphic design and art directing, as though he had something specific in mind, something that he'd only find in his own company. Rich is incredibly conscientious. In that sense, he has always worked for himself. Rich working for Rich is an interesting idea, something you'd only think about as a result of trying to write stuff like this. Rich working for Rich. Hmm. I wonder if he'd ever ask himself who hired him or how much he was getting paid and why. I loved working with Rich because he had the natural antidote to my imaginative excesses. I heard the following words a lot: "It's not that good yet, Andy." And though you don't always enjoy hearing that, it made our work better. Rich has a piece of genetic information that makes him incapable of self-delusion. This is one of the most important elements in GS&P's success, and it would be a valuable gene to identify and splice into people who have leadership ambitions. It bears saying that it was Hal Riney who hired Rich and Jeff when he was running Ogilvy in San Francisco. He hired them separately, then put them together as a team.
Hal was the second client of the fledgling agency, reacting to our decision to start a competitive business 250 yards from his own by giving us a monthly retainer "to help out on stuff from time to time." Of course, it was us that got most of the helping out. Hal gave us something. He taught us subtle lessons of craft. And beyond craft, he taught us about emotional honesty in the work. He taught us how products and people's feelings about them could combine in people's heads to make the "thing" itself better. There was something beyond the face value of the work, which is just no good trying to pin down for risk of profaning it by getting it even slightly wrong. And there was Howard Gossage (to whom Hal introduced us, albeit post-mortem, when he assigned the three of us to revamp the San Francisco Advertising Award show to be more . . . substantive-this while he was being held hostage on a hijacked airliner in Central America). Jeff wrote the headline of the house ad we did in our first year in business: "An Agency Founded by a Man Who's Been Dead for 11 Years." Gossage demonstrated that it was possible to do advertising so well that it could be a respectable form of work, especially if you didn't take its face value too seriously. If Hal was Hemingway to us, Gossage was Hammett.
There are other reasons why Jeff and Rich are getting this honor. These reasons are more eloquently expressed by the work Rich and Jeff have done. The artifacts of their genius (the word is both considered and correct in this usage, though I know the guys will grimace when they read it) are there to be enjoyed in the form of ads and commercials.
I believe their biggest accomplishment is more interesting than the work and harder to describe. If you were ever at GS&P, you got it. If it ever touched you, even once removed, you could catch it. If you know them, you understand what I'm saying. It's an infectious sense of permission and encouragement -
an idea that you can do (and damn well ought to do) something great with your time at GS&P. This sense has always been alive at GS&P, which is why it has proved to be the most fertile, most long-lived, most vibrant and versatile agency of its time. The agency has passed on Hal's spark to many people and agencies. The thing is transmitted through the work, of course. But it is most potent when it comes directly from Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, my old partners, my friends.
GS&P has always been more of a shaper of culture than an ad agency, something immeasurably more potent for its clients. Mercenary art, before the historical revisions. GS&P has been practicing this long before the current overuse of the word "convergence" (largely by people wishing to emulate Rich and Jeff's abilities without sufficient understanding of what it is they do and how they do it). Rich and Jeff "do it" with advertising that is so wonderful, no one minds that it happens to be advertising. Which means, among other things, that it is controlled and crafted the way a story is written or a painting is made. It is not the hopeful result of a collage of different (and eventually competitive) interests and disciplines.
These guys do it. That's the best thing I can say. Everyone claims this in new business pitches, but Jeff and Rich actually do it. They do it consistently. They've been doing it for a long time and show no signs of letting up. And nobody does it better.
Congratulations, guys.
Andy Berlin
It's... ironic to try to write something useful about Rich and Jeff's induction into The One Club's Creative Hall of Fame.
I mean, neither of these guys intended to commit their lives to advertising. They wanted to do something- some act of imagination and craft-and do it so well that it would create a better set of circumstances than were evident in the face value of the thing. They wanted to make work that was so good, so original, so imaginative, and so right that it didn't matter if it happened to be advertising. That was the idea.
Jeff could have been anything he wanted to be. There's a picture of him I can still see in my mind's eye. In the picture, Jeff is in his twenties, with his wife, Jan, and their first dog, Bryce. (I can still see the red plaid shirt he was wearing.) It's the "before" picture, an image of a young couple and a puppy, but it crackles with destiny: I can see Jeff's deep interest in people. His practical and considered optimism. His wicked sense of humor about the dark side of human nature. And Jeff's breathtaking, "Hell, we can do that," sense of confidence, without which there never would have been a Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
Jeff and Jan and Bryce came to San Francisco together from Cambridge, Massachusetts. (We all came from "back east," as they say in California.) And while Jeff looked first for a newspaper reporter's job, he really had no specific plans. He ended up taking the best course, as it turns out. Jeff followed his heart. He always did. It's strange and wonderful that it led him (and then so many others) to advertising.
Rich came to San Francisco from New York. One of the first art directors at Rolling Stone, he moved restlessly between graphic design and art directing, as though he had something specific in mind, something that he'd only find in his own company. Rich is incredibly conscientious. In that sense, he has always worked for himself. Rich working for Rich is an interesting idea, something you'd only think about as a result of trying to write stuff like this. Rich working for Rich. Hmm. I wonder if he'd ever ask himself who hired him or how much he was getting paid and why. I loved working with Rich because he had the natural antidote to my imaginative excesses. I heard the following words a lot: "It's not that good yet, Andy." And though you don't always enjoy hearing that, it made our work better. Rich has a piece of genetic information that makes him incapable of self-delusion. This is one of the most important elements in GS&P's success, and it would be a valuable gene to identify and splice into people who have leadership ambitions. It bears saying that it was Hal Riney who hired Rich and Jeff when he was running Ogilvy in San Francisco. He hired them separately, then put them together as a team.
Hal was the second client of the fledgling agency, reacting to our decision to start a competitive business 250 yards from his own by giving us a monthly retainer "to help out on stuff from time to time." Of course, it was us that got most of the helping out. Hal gave us something. He taught us subtle lessons of craft. And beyond craft, he taught us about emotional honesty in the work. He taught us how products and people's feelings about them could combine in people's heads to make the "thing" itself better. There was something beyond the face value of the work, which is just no good trying to pin down for risk of profaning it by getting it even slightly wrong. And there was Howard Gossage (to whom Hal introduced us, albeit post-mortem, when he assigned the three of us to revamp the San Francisco Advertising Award show to be more . . . substantive-this while he was being held hostage on a hijacked airliner in Central America). Jeff wrote the headline of the house ad we did in our first year in business: "An Agency Founded by a Man Who's Been Dead for 11 Years." Gossage demonstrated that it was possible to do advertising so well that it could be a respectable form of work, especially if you didn't take its face value too seriously. If Hal was Hemingway to us, Gossage was Hammett.
There are other reasons why Jeff and Rich are getting this honor. These reasons are more eloquently expressed by the work Rich and Jeff have done. The artifacts of their genius (the word is both considered and correct in this usage, though I know the guys will grimace when they read it) are there to be enjoyed in the form of ads and commercials.
I believe their biggest accomplishment is more interesting than the work and harder to describe. If you were ever at GS&P, you got it. If it ever touched you, even once removed, you could catch it. If you know them, you understand what I'm saying. It's an infectious sense of permission and encouragement -
an idea that you can do (and damn well ought to do) something great with your time at GS&P. This sense has always been alive at GS&P, which is why it has proved to be the most fertile, most long-lived, most vibrant and versatile agency of its time. The agency has passed on Hal's spark to many people and agencies. The thing is transmitted through the work, of course. But it is most potent when it comes directly from Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, my old partners, my friends.
GS&P has always been more of a shaper of culture than an ad agency, something immeasurably more potent for its clients. Mercenary art, before the historical revisions. GS&P has been practicing this long before the current overuse of the word "convergence" (largely by people wishing to emulate Rich and Jeff's abilities without sufficient understanding of what it is they do and how they do it). Rich and Jeff "do it" with advertising that is so wonderful, no one minds that it happens to be advertising. Which means, among other things, that it is controlled and crafted the way a story is written or a painting is made. It is not the hopeful result of a collage of different (and eventually competitive) interests and disciplines.
These guys do it. That's the best thing I can say. Everyone claims this in new business pitches, but Jeff and Rich actually do it. They do it consistently. They've been doing it for a long time and show no signs of letting up. And nobody does it better.
Congratulations, guys.
Andy Berlin
Sonic Launch
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client: Chevrolet Category: Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign - 360
Year: 2012
OK GO
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Chevrolet Category: Branded Content / Music Videos
Year: 2012
Doritos Late Night Rihanna
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Frito Lay Category: Websites & Microsites / Consumer Goods
Year: 2011
Dali Museum & Hipstamatic iPhone app
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Dali Museum Category: Mobile Applications/Sites / Public Service/ Non-Profit
Year: 2011
Yahoo! Page Takeover
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Yahoo! Category: Interactive Advertising / Banners - Dynamic - Single
Year: 2011
5 Ingredient Outdoor Campaign
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / san francisco
Client: Haagen Dazs Category: Outdoor Design / Campaign
Year: 2010
Asylum 626
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Frito Lay Doritos Category: Gaming & Branded Applications / Online gaming
Year: 2010
Plug into the Smart Grid
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: GE Category: Websites & Microsites / Corporate Website
Year: 2010
Summit on the Summit Campaign
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: HP Category: Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign - Online
Year: 2010
Assurance
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client: Hyundai Category: Innovation in Advertising / Campaign
Year: 2010
Plug into the Smart Grid
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: GE Category: Craft / Interface Design
Year: 2010
Comcast Town
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Comcast Category: Websites & Microsites / Social Networks/ Community
Year: 2010
Summit on the Summit Site
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: HP Category: Websites & Microsites / Public Service/ Non-Profit
Year: 2010
Help the Honey Bees
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client: Haagen Dazs Category: Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign
Year: 2009
Wario Land Shake It!
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client: Nintendo Category: Banners - Dynamic / Single
Year: 2009
Help the Honey Bees
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client: Haagen Dazs Category: Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign
Year: 2009
Award:
2012 Interactive Gold Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Chevrolet
Title:
Sonic Launch
Category:
Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign - 360
Annual ID:
12066N
Award:
2012 Advertising Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Chevrolet
Title:
OK GO
Category:
Branded Content / Music Videos
Annual ID:
12095T
Award:
2011 Interactive Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Frito Lay
Title:
Doritos Late Night Rihanna
Category:
Websites & Microsites / Consumer Goods
Annual ID:
11005N
Award:
2011 Interactive Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Dali Museum
Title:
Dali Museum & Hipstamatic iPhone app
Category:
Mobile Applications/Sites / Public Service/ Non-Profit
Annual ID:
11040N
Award:
2011 Interactive Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Yahoo!
Title:
Yahoo! Page Takeover
Category:
Interactive Advertising / Banners - Dynamic - Single
Annual ID:
11049N
Award:
2010 Design Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / san francisco
Client:
Haagen Dazs
Title:
5 Ingredient Outdoor Campaign
Category:
Outdoor Design / Campaign
Annual ID:
10042D
Award:
2010 Branded Entertainment Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Frito Lay Doritos
Title:
Asylum 626
Category:
Gaming & Branded Applications / Online gaming
Annual ID:
10021E
Award:
2010 Interactive Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
GE
Title:
Plug into the Smart Grid
Category:
Websites & Microsites / Corporate Website
Annual ID:
10009N
Award:
2010 Interactive Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
HP
Title:
Summit on the Summit Campaign
Category:
Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign - Online
Annual ID:
10081N
Award:
2010 Advertising Silver Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Hyundai
Title:
Assurance
Category:
Innovation in Advertising / Campaign
Annual ID:
10080G
Award:
2010 Interactive Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
GE
Title:
Plug into the Smart Grid
Category:
Craft / Interface Design
Annual ID:
10086N
Award:
2010 Interactive Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Comcast
Title:
Comcast Town
Category:
Websites & Microsites / Social Networks/ Community
Annual ID:
10028N
Award:
2010 Interactive Bronze Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
HP
Title:
Summit on the Summit Site
Category:
Websites & Microsites / Public Service/ Non-Profit
Annual ID:
10020N
Award:
2009 Advertising Green Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Haagen Dazs
Title:
Help the Honey Bees
Category:
Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign
Annual ID:
09079G
Award:
2009 Interactive Gold Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Nintendo
Title:
Wario Land Shake It!
Category:
Banners - Dynamic / Single
Annual ID:
09006N
Award:
2009 Advertising Gold Pencil
Agency:
Goodby, Silverstein and Partners / San Francisco
Client:
Haagen Dazs
Title:
Help the Honey Bees
Category:
Integrated Branding / Integrated Branding Campaign
Annual ID:
09079G