Tim Delaney
2007 Creative Hall of Fame Inductee
![Tim Delaney Tim Delaney - Creative Hall of Fame](https://creativehalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tim_Delaney_Creative-Hall-of-Fame.jpg)
Career
This is what I know about Tim.
He is tall.
He likes to talk.
He really likes to talk.
He’s a bloody good writer,
but you know that already.
Tim’s other name is
Deadline Delaney. Past the
Deadline Delaney would be
more accurate.
His copy is always late.
Tim possesses child-like wonderment.
Tim is a tad competitive,
he would have given
Carl Lewis a run
for his money.
When he’s angry, he
looks like this.
When he’s happy, he looks like this.
He’s not too bothered
about taking holidays.
He’s a friend.
Tim is celebrating over
60 years of hair loss.
Bang goes another friend.
![](https://creativehalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tim_Delaney-03-665x1024.jpeg)
![](https://creativehalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tim_Delaney-02-730x1024.jpeg)
As its President,
he shook up D&AD when
it needed shaking up.
In fact, if ever you needed
anything shaken up, he
is definitely the right man for
the job.
In his early 20s, Tim
became the Managing
Director of BBDO London,
making him the youngest MD
in the history of MD’s.
As he had never run a company
before, he rang up the MD’s
of all his clients to find
out how they did it.
Tim once fronted his own
rock band, regularly playing
alongside no-hopers,
The Rolling Stones.
I’ve never heard Tim
sing but I suspect
advertising was a better
bet.
Tim once said, “Everything
has a story to tell and I want
to write it.”
This tells us
1. Tim likes writing.
2. Tim has a big appetite
for work.
3. Tim is unnaturally curious.
His stories could fill the
New York Public Library.
He showed the BBC how
to advertise with mould-breaking
work.
Adidas was on its knees when
Tim took over the account.
Just look at them now.
For Hyundai, Tim wrote a
passionate campaign against
British prejudice towards
Koreans. The commercials were
genuinely profound.
His work for Harrods
is as famous as Harrods itself.
Sitting opposite Tim is like
sitting opposite an automatic
tennis ball machine. Ideas, opinions,
verbal abuse fly everywhere.
Tim was advisor to British Prime
Minister Jim Callaghan.
Tim has won everything going
except the Nobel Peace Prize.
Surely an oversight.
Tim is a generous man, especially
with sharing ideas. He’s the Mother
Theresa of advertising.
![](https://creativehalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tim_Delaney-04-681x1024.jpeg)
![](https://creativehalloffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tim_Delaney-05-699x1024.jpeg)
Tim’s brand essence wheel
includes words like integrity,
fearless, energetic, honest,
stubborn. There are other words
best left out.
This is Tim’s big night.
Tim has a swear word perfect
tongue. Being dropped into a
tank full of angry piranhas would
be a more pleasurable experience
than one of his tongue lashings.
When we worked together, I
laughed my socks off.
When we talk on the phone,
I laugh my socks off.
When we have dinner,
I laugh my socks off.
Send more socks, Mother.
The dog of doubt has never
gnawed at the leg of Tim Delaney.
I could go on, Tim usually does.
What I do know is that in a time
when it’s unfashionable
to take risks, when we are all
swimming around in a sea of beige,
the world needs Tim Delaney
more than ever.
? Martin Galton