Legendary Creative Dies
Further to yesterday’s news, this from Campaign London via campaignbrief.blogspot.com:
“John Webster, the creative brains behind some of the most memorable TV commercials of the past 30 years — from the Smash Martians to the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster — has died aged 71.
He collapsed after a heart attack while jogging near his home in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on Friday morning and was dead before help could arrive.
As head of the creative department at the then Boase Massimi Pollitt (now DDB London), Webster honed his reputation as one of the most talented creatives of his generation. The film director Alan Parker once described him as “quite simply the best TV commercial thinker the British advertising industry has yet produced”.
The performing dog in the John Smith Bitter commercials, the cockney Hofmeister bear and the cool polar bear who promoted Cresta fizzy drinks were all Webster inventions.
He spent almost his entire working life at BMP, having been one of the senior managers from Pritchard Wood who established the agency in 1969. He was still working at DDB at the time of his death.
Yet despite his success, which included two Grand Prix awards at Cannes and the D&AD President’s Award, Webster will be remembered as a modest and shy man who was nervous when talking of his achievements.”
To see some of the tributes to John Webster which some legendary Australian names have already left on campaignbrief.blogspot.com ( under their real names) go to comments.
I am sure there will be a number of creatives in NZ with similar sentiments.
Neil
9 Comments
That is very sad, he had the magic touch when it came to ads. I admired him greatly for his ability to produce work that touched people from all walks of life, especially those who knew nothing about advertising.
That is truly sad news. I had the honour of working with John for a year at BMP. He was a lovely man. And a genius!
I went to London in 1976 with dreams of working with him at BMP.I did get to see him and as you’d expect he was both kind and encouraging.Perhaps what I most loved was his ability to do work that was both populist and creative.Something a lot of generation Y creatives could think about.
That is very sad. John Webster was one of the most talented people I have ever met in advertising. Just before I came to Australia he offered me a job at BMP. Lovely bloke, it’s a great loss.
The comments on John Webster were not mine, they were from Mike Doyle, now based in Sydney, who knew him well. Doyle was one of the first to hear of John’s death outside of his immediate family.
Woops, apologies, that’s fixed now.
This is truly weird. I mentioned Mr Webster in the posting I made the other day called ‘Things are not always what they seem’. He was a hero of mine as a young copywriter at Rialto Auckland. Remained so, I guess. Does anyone know what became of his claymation aardvark TV show – a personal project I read about in an 80s Creative Review?David MacGregorFounder/Creative Director Idealog magazine
David, is it alright if I supply you with a listr of names to mention in your next article. I feel you’re on a roll.
David, Next time why not write something interesting about David MacGregor, Founder/Creative Director of Idealog. You seem to have an unnatural pre-occupation with him.