Hasta La Creative!

George Zimmer, who founded Men's Wearhouse in 1973 and served as its CEO and ad spokesman until two years ago, was fired in June by the company's board of directors from his new role as executive chairman because of disagreements over the retailer's future. Zimmer, of course, was a fixture on TV with his gravelly voiced tagline, "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." Below is the first post-Zimmer spot. It's only 15 seconds long, and it has a charity angle, so it's atypical for the company. Yet you feel Zimmer's absence palpably. That's because, without him, there's no real brand voice left at all, literally or figuratively. Zimmer's ads weren't very special, but he was unapologetic about that. "I apologize to those … who are going into the advertising or marketing business," he told BusinessMakers last year, "but what really drives success, in my experience, is repetition and consistency, not creativity. I think people who are in the [ad] business tend to get more hung up on the creative aspects. They start to think of themselves more as artists and less as businessmen. We have the same problem with tailors, by the way."