Helmut Krone

When you say Doyle Dane Bernbach, a few clients’ names spring to mind automatically. Volkswagon and Avis are inevitably two of those.

Few, if any, advertising campaigns have had the stupefying effect of those two. And they were both Helmut Krone’s. They were his as Art Director, of course. But even more importantly, they were his as architect.

We worry these days about 24-hour recall. 24-year recall is more like what we should be aiming for. Volkswagon advertising and Avis advertising have achieved this. And they have done so as the result of what Helmut Krone, the architect, built into those campaigns.

 
To Porsche lovers, the new 924 barely qualified as a genuine Porsche when it was introduced. Helmut made people respect that car with his campaign.

Which bring us smoothly to fertilizer. (Helmut always said I should pay more attention to transitions.) Not the most intensely interesting or attractive product on earth, never mind something you’d pay a premium price for.

But Helmut – you should pardon the expression – eats that sort of problem right up and produces this advertising for Scott’s.

And he forces us, yet again, to re-think a product, to look at it in a literally new way, and therefore to want it and therefore to buy it.

 
Helmut says, simply, “It’s my job.” And so it is. And we say to you, Helmut: “Keep doing it. You make us better at ours.”

It has been my job (and my joy) to help you to acknowledge the Art Director, to respect the architect, to honor the man: Helmut Krone.