Hasta La Creative!

In his second career, Peter Mayle became one of the most famous expats from advertising, the author of the wonderfully witty and charming Provence series of autobiographical novels describing his new life in the south of France.

But Mayle had been an advertising great as well. He first entered the sphere of Madison Avenue an ocean away from it, as a creative director at the new London office of Papert, Koenig & Lois in 1964. When he later joined BBDO in New York, he made a then-27-year old Tim Delaney creative director of BBDO London.

Now that Mayle has died this month at age 78, Delaney’s typically flawlessly-written eulogy to his former boss has made me think. In his piece, Delaney describes the ever-impish Mayle as somebody whose greatest and most salient quality was that he never really took advertising seriously. He did it for fun.

Continue reading at AdAge.com