I was hired by the McCann Erickson office in Los Angeles to write for their client, who was notoriously demanding and hard to please, evidently going through copywriters and art directors like Kleenex. But I had a background in aerospace and defense, something I could never seem to get away from from the moment I joined the Navy until I started my first job in advertising. So McCann thought I could fit.
But this account rather than being hard, turned out to be one of the most rewarding in my career. They loved my work, particularly my employment of humor in an industry that wasn't known for it. And I, in turn, loved the work I did for them. And I also found one of the best partners in advertising, Dave McAuliffe, the Account Director on the account, who proved to be the best advocate and ally, and fearless in standing up to both the people on the client side and McCann's own management. In fact, once we started producing work together, Lockheed was so pleased that they quadrupled their media budget, turning it from the goat of McCann/LA's accounts to the GOAT. And Dave and I shared McCann's annual "Truth Well Told" Award that year (with a nice little bonus).
Click to look in detail at the campaigns I developed for them.
