Monday, July 13, 2009

50th Anniversary of the Corvair !

Off to...
I worked at Campbell Ewald in Detroit on the Chevrolet account for a few years starting in 1956, first as head art director on Chevrolet sales promotion, then on the national magazine ads. After that I was working with Fenton Ludtke in a special group called PLUS ONE. We were in direct competition with the regular Chevrolet group and were encouraged to come up with wild ideas.That lasted about a year for me. Jim Hastings was moving up and offered me his job as creative director. I decided against it as I wanted to pursue an illustration career and I quit the agency. I was also weary of agency politics. Upon quiting, I was immediately rehired to work on a very secret project, the Corvair announcement ads. Hastings set me up in an office in the GM Building near Campbell Ewald, my first job as a freelancer. Because of my involvement with these Corvair announcement ads I was invited to come down to Jacksonville, Florida for the CORSA's 50th anniversary bash. I'll be meeting my old friend Fenton Ludtke as he was also invited. Should be fun.


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Dave Newell, Chevrolet historian, asked me if I would design an anniversary medallion, which is shown above.

Corvair ads 2

These are the announcement ads that I designed for the Corvair. I decided to use a strong decorative cartoon approach which Chevrolet approved.

Corvair Ad

1 comment:

Bill Stanley said...

Hey, Harry! I had the honor and pleasure of meeting you at the 2009 Corvair convention in Jacksonville when you signed my commemorative medallion. I have a question about your days at Campbell-Ewald. Now that the AMC series has made the term "Mad Men" a household phrase, I was wondering whether this term was in common usage at Campbell-Ewald when you were there or if it was particular to the Madison Avenue/NYC ad agencies.