The advertising industry lost one of its icons with the September 30 passing of Wieden+Kennedy cofounder Dan Wieden at the age of 77.
As I wrote last October, when Wieden’s agency cofounder David Kennedy died at the age of 82, if there was a Mount Rushmore of American advertising, doubtless both Wieden and Kennedy would be there. Sure, Wieden famously came up with “Just Do It,” but the Portland, Oregon, agency they started has since spent the past four decades creating iconic ads and campaigns for Nike, Honda, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, ESPN, and many other major brands. As a result, W+K has become the world’s largest independent advertising network with offices around the world and more than 1,500 employees.
What makes the agency’s story even more compelling is that scale was never really the goal, but rather an outcome of a separate aim. Wieden’s intention wasn’t to build a huge advertising agency, but rather a place where creative people from all backgrounds could, in his words, do the best work of their lives.
A big part of the Wieden+Kennedy origin story is that because they refused to leave Portland, the agency couldn’t compete for ad talent against major agencies in places like New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. So they didn’t look for ad talent specifically. They just wanted creative people who could apply their ideas to brand problems. Wieden’s belief was that the agency wasn’t successful despite its location and non-traditional talent pool, but because of it.
The advertising industry is practically unrecognizable from the one in which Wieden launched his career and built his company. Our fragmented media landscape no longer provides brands and advertisers with a small handful of options in order to break through to pop culture. Instead, it’s a 24-7 firehose of content from all directions, endlessly demanding our attention.
Now, creatives like Hallie Tut and Estée Lalonde use such tools as YouTube, SoundCloud, TikTok, and more as the new launchpads of creative brand work. Then there’s the pull of tech platforms, attracting creative minds that in previous generations may have migrated to adland. Even within the industry, agencies now compete for the best and brightest with—and within—giant public holding companies, global consultancies, as well as the brands and tech platforms themselves.
So as the industry continues to mourn the passing of one of its modern legends, where does the next Dan Wieden come from, and what is the path they might take?