embodied Chuck’s view that “popular culture is currency”. You just need to capture it. And you needed someone with Bogusky’s own rebelliousness to push the envelope, sometimes dangerously close to the edge. “There was no rulebook, although when they came to write their own, its definition of advertising was ‘anything that makes our clients famous’.” So began the glory years. Chuck’s next mantra was “Don’t feed the gorilla.” He was puzzled that the default strategy for challenged brands was always to bend over backwards trying to behave like a category leader. In fact, you need to do the exact opposite. When BMW’s Mini Cooper launched in the US, the default instinct was to behave as with any other car launch, and so run a large outdoor campaign. However, they put together a 22-city pre-launch tour of Minis on top of SUVs with banners that asked: “What are you doing for fun this weekend?” Not only was this a celebration of the Mini’s small size, but also made the statement that fun stuff goes on top of a car, whether it’s your mountain bike, surfboard or camping equipment. Work like this did set part of the agenda for the digital age. It never started with television: Bogusky would refuse that brief. Chuck and he always thought in terms of “fame”: what would this idea be if it were a press release? They did so because they had to. There wasn’t enough money to do anything else. Chuck always believed that they both benefited by not having ever worked in an advertising agency before. There was no rulebook, although when they came to write their own, its definition of advertising was: “anything that makes our clients famous”. As the business grew, Miami started to feel confining. It was difficult to attract staff there. The tipping point was when their chief recruiter got three refusals in a row from digital producers whose families did not buy Miami. They huddled, and decided to open a place that would be the exact opposite of Miami – and remain true to their inner challenger. They looked at Santa Fe (poor links), Portland and Boston (not different enough), and then, Boulder, Colorado. Both Chuck and Alex were skiers: they fell in love with it. And it certainly was the opposite of Miami: it’s small, it’s tightly integrated; everything’s closed by 9.00 p.m. The only escape is nearly an hour away in Denver. And it’s the “most granola place you could find in the US”. At