denouncing research as the enemy of creativity. This may have irritated some of his clients, but it made him the hero of the creative fraternity. Of all his wonderful campaigns, those I most admire are Volkswagen and Avis. He was less successful with package-goods clients who tried to impose orthodox disciplines. I have often wondered if his output would have been less elegant if, like me, he had started as a door-to-door salesman. He spoke in a quiet voice and looked modest. But he wasn’t. The last time I saw him, he and Rosser Reeves were my guests at lunch. Bill lectured Rosser and me as if we were trainees in his agency. When some of his stodgier competitors started raiding his agency in search of swingers, Bill told me, ‘They don’t realize that these people will be helpless without my guiding hand.’ And guide them he did, always insisting that their advertising, however clever and original, should make the product the hero. He was a philosopher. He lived without ostentation, and organized his time with a self-discipline that is rare among heads of agencies. He once told me that he never stayed in the office after five, never took work home, and never worked at weekends. ‘You see, David, I love my family.’ Shortly before he died, Bill was asked what changes he expected in advertising in the eighties. He replied, ‘Human nature hasn’t changed for a billion years. It won’t even vary in the next billion years. Only the superficial things have changed. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with unchanging man – what compulsions drive him, what instincts dominate his every action, even though his language too often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man, you can touch him at the core of his being. One thing is unchangingly sure. The creative man with an insight into human nature, with the artistry to touch and move people, will succeed. Without them he will fail.’ A gentleman with brains. If I had to choose five more giants to complete my All-Time All- American team, they would be three copywriters – James Webb Young of J. Walter Thompson, George Cecil of N. W. Ayer, and Jack Rosebrook