Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I spent 35 years at Campbell-Ewald, the Chevy ad agency, starting as an art director in the sales promotion group. Corvette lore was beginning to take shape with the help of a fellow named Barney Clarke, the writer for ads from day one. My first assignment was the first issue of the CORVETTE NEWS magazine. Fifty years later the magazine is still being published and you can buy it at most places magazines are sold. Now it has more color, more pages, and more of everything just like the Corvette of today and is titled CORVETTE QUARTERLY. I produced direct mail and other promotional material before getting a chance to do a series of ads. After I became a creative director I reluctantly passed the ad efforts to others but kept a close eye on what was being produced. Everybody wanted to work on Corvette and I'll try to give the proper credits. David E. Davis Jr. was the writer that followed Barney Clark and the one I worked with to produce most of my ads.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Jim -- I had the pleasure of working with your son, John, at Bates. I love these old ads, many of which I've seen in Collectible Automobile magazine over the years. It sounds like you worked on the Chevy account when guys like Claire McKichen and Ed Cole and DeLorean were there -- what great stories you must have!

    I recall an mid-sixties Corvette ad whose headline I still love: "Only a Man with a Heart of Stone..." Was that one of yours?

    With best regards, Tony LaHood

    ReplyDelete
  2. JIM -- Very glad to discover your blog via an article in Hemmings. My favorite Corvette adds were the Walter Mitty series. If you had anything to do with those I would really enjoy reading about them. Got hooked on Corvettes when I saw a 1956 model on a rotating platform at Steel Pier in Atlantic City. I took a few years to acquire my first, a 1964 convertible. I am currently bringing my 1967 convertible back to road worthy and am blogging about it at http://chazimages.com/blog/. Tune in.
    Chaz

    ReplyDelete