my famous campaigns I’ve run Wordbright since the mid-90s. Before that, I was creative director at Aalders Marchant Weinreich Ltd and the Kirkwood Company and vice-chairman and executive creative director of two top 30 agencies. Wasey Campbell Ewald and Burkitt Weinreich Bryant & Co. How many ads have I conceived, written or directed? Heaven knows, but here are a dozen that made waves. WAY IN In swinging 60s, stuffy department stores became aware that they needed younger customers. Bob and I launched Way In, Harrods’ innovative boutique, setting an irreverent new style soon to be copied all over town. HEADLINE: “BUY THIS FOR NEXT TO NOTHING” EXCERPT COPY: “… It costs a paltry sum for something worn over little but a strategic dab of cologne. And that’s the naked truth.” AGENCY: PAPERT KOENIG LOIS ART: BOB MARCHANT COPY: LEN WEINREICH CHARNOS When tights/pantyhose were first introduced, we cheekily launched Charnos’ brand new range and inspired a clutch of raunchy cartoons. HEADLINE: “CYNTHIA ISN’T WEARING PANTIES“ EXCERPT COPY: “She’s wearing something much better. Charnos Hold-Me-Tights. Crepe, sheer and stretch, with a built-in ‘Lycra’ pantie… AGENCY: VERNON STRATTON ART: BOB MARCHANT COPY: LEN WEINREICH DEBENHAM & FREEBODY BRIEF: hustle traffic for failing store, snooty Debenham & Freebody. SOLUTION: suggest that sedate Wigmore Street is less common than nearby Oxford Street. RESULT: increased sales, but too late to salvage a Saturday-closing store. Gullible BBC TV News asked for footage of sheep in Oxford St. Years later, ad reappears at V&A D&AD Exhibition. HEADLINE: “ARE YOU A SHE OR A SHEEP?” EXCERPT COPY: “Some London shopping streets make you feel like an extra in a cast-of-thousand’s spectacular. Some London shopping streets make you feel as though the whole world is treading on your toes, grabbing your bargain, hailing your cab and screaming down your ear. That’s some London Streets. Migraine Alleys. Not Wigmore Street….where four minutes walk from Oxford Circus, you’ll find Debenham & Freebody. A quiet shop. A calm shop…” AGENCY: VERNON STRATTON ART: BOB MARCHANT COPY: LEN WEINREICH MARY QUANT Mary Quant Cosmetics has developed range of no-smudge colours, ‘Make-up To Make Love In’. Launch attracts fame, sales and awards. HEADLINE: “IF YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE YOUR HEART, DON’T LOSE YOUR FACE.” EXCERPT COPY: “Love is the great destroyer of the beautiful face…this has worried Mary Quant. Why should a girl look her most frightful when she should be looking her most beautiful? And that is why she has come to your aid. With incredible cosmetics that love can’t shift...” AGENCY: AALDERS MARCHANT WEINREICH ART: BOB MARCHANT COPY: LEN WEINREICH FERNET-BRANCA Fernet-Branca tastes awful, but alleviates hangovers. Our campaign is runner-up for D&AD Silver, wins Punch’s Award for Year’s Funniest Ad, appears in Graphis Annual and immortalised in book of 100 Greatest British ads. HEADLINE: “YOU MAY WINCE AT YOUR FIRST SIP OF FERNET-BRANCA.” EXCERPT COPY: “The first time you try Fernet-Branca, you’ll be feeling under the weather. Hardly the state in which to receive a vicious shock. Because the first sniff of Fernet-Branca may remind you of childhood cough mixture. With an overtone of dank caves. But there’s something worse than the smell. The taste….” AGENCY: AALDERS MARCHANT WEINREICH ART: BOB MARCHANT COPY: LEN WEINREICH VLADIVAR I’m asked to write cinema campaign for unknown vodka brand from Warrington. In cod-Russian accent, Vladivar from Varrington sounds memorable and makes ad history. Vladivar nabs a large chunk of Smirnoff share and I nab both D&AD’s Silver Pencil and Cannes’ Silver Lion. HEADLINE: “VLADIVAR WODKA FROM WARRINGTON...” AGENCY: KIRKWOOD COMPANY ART: PAUL LEEVES COPY: LEN WEINREICH DIRECTOR TOM BUSSMANN PENTAX PROBLEM: Asahi Pentax cameras perceived as wimpish. SOLUTION: Approach David Hockney, Terence Conran, Spike Milligan, David Bailey and use their cool, battle-scarred Pentaxes in ads. Opinion changes overnight, brand thrives and ads scoop Campaign’s top award. HEADLINE: “DAVID BAILEY’S PENTAX” COPY: “Your Pentax becomes part of you”. AGENCY: KIRKWOOD COMPANY ART: PAUL EASTWOOD COPY: MARTIN HODGES & CREATIVE DIRECTOR LEN WEINREICH GOODYEAR By revealing all the evidence, we convince recently retired top cop, Sir Robert Mark that new Goodyear Grand Prix S is a major contribution to road safety. Sir Bob becomes star presenter, donating fee to police charities. RESULT: the most successful campaign in tyre advertising history, multiplied by massive free media news coverage. EXCERPT SCRIPT: Sir Robert Mark (standing on motorway bridge, directly addressing camera): “I have never allowed my name to be used in advertising before, but when I heard about Goodyear’s new Grand Prix X and safety, I demanded to see all the evidence….I firmly believe that Goodyear’s new Grand Prix X is a major contribution to road safety”. AGENCY: WASEY CAMPBELL-EWALD: CONCEPT & CREATIVE DIRECTOR: LEN WEINREICH COI DRINK & DRIVE Young males impervious to Christmas drink/drive appeals share one weakness: fear of harming girlfriends. I help finesse the team’s cinema scenario (girl prepares for date, boy drinks one too many, boy crashes car with girl as passenger) by adding Carol Bayer Sager soundtrack uniting the film’s strands. Result: sobbing audiences; a wall-full of Public Service ad awards; and fewer people dead from booze-sodden accidents that Christmas. A decade later, distinguished writer Barbara Nokes declares it ‘best-ever road safety ad’. STRAPLINE: “THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK BEFORE YOU DRIVE” AGENCY: WASEY CAMPBELL-EWALD: CREATIVE DIRECTOR: LEN WEINREICH ART: BARRY DABORN COPY: NICK SHACKLETON PIANO PUBLICITY COUNCIL Client requests me to extol the virtues of the acoustic piano, a brief from Heaven. D&AD give the ad special awards for both copy and illustration. HEADLINE: “EVEN BEETHOVEN HAD TO START SOMEWHERE” PARTIAL COPY: “… Playing music is the quickest way to start understanding music. And understanding music is a wonderful way to enrich your life…you don’t have to be a virtuoso in order to create music. But a knowledge of chords, keys and harmonies does help. The piano gives you all that…” AGENCY: WASEY CAMPBELL-EWALD: CREATIVE DIRECTOR & COPY: LEN WEINREICH ART: PETE RIVERS ILLUSTRATOR: PETER BROOKS PIAT D’OR At creative briefing I tell team about our supper guests who’d arrived an hour early. They hijack my story, relocating it to Parisian apartment where premature guests create havoc and settle with gift of Piat d’Or (then UK No 1 wine brand). D&AD featured it in The Commercials Book. STRAPLINE: “THE FRENCH ADORE LE PIAT D’OR” AGENCY: BURKITT WEINREICH BRYANT CLIENTS & COMPANY CREATIVE DIRECTOR: LEN WEINREICH ART: NEWEY BROTHWELL COPY: MARTIN HODGES DIRECTOR: MIKE SERESIN BAILEYS ORIGINAL IRISH CREAM Some years post-launch, Baileys stumbles. To revive the brand’s fortunes, we produce 90 sensual TV seconds (haughty Persian cat greets couple back from opera. Bowtie unties. Baileys swooshes into brandy glass. Cat gets cream. Lady gets Baileys. Lady’s shoe falls to floor) accompanied by Offenbach’s Baccarolle. Commercial celebrated worldwide. Baccarolle enters Christmas charts. Baileys becomes world’s No 1 liqueur. STRAPLINE: “BAILEYS. THE CREAM” . AGENCY: AGENCY: BURKITT WEINREICH BRYANT CLIENTS & COMPANY CREATIVE DIRECTOR: LEN WEINREICH ART: JEFF SUTHONS COPY: BRIDGET JENKINS DIRECTOR: EDUARDO MCLEAN