Mad Man George Lois | Interview, part two

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Mad Man George Lois | Interview, part two

Friday, September 7th, 2012

Text by Saundra Marcel
Photos by  Noah Kalina

Forget the television show. George Lois was there, working on Madison Avenue, famously cranking out controversial covers for Esquire magazine, and creating legendary ad campaigns from the 1960s until he retired in 2000. Ever the straight shooting anti-Don Draper (even now into his 80s), George Lois tells us exactly how it was (and how it wasn’t), and how it is today.

So why were all these poorly abused souls clamoring to work with Lois? It seems surreal—the man who can’t bullshit turns out to be best salesman of all. “People always ask, ‘How’d you get away with it?,” he says. “Well, because my ideas worked. They knocked people on their asses. They made sales explosions. Advertising today is so scared of selling. Don’t be embarrassed about selling something.” According to Lois, his first Xerox television spot had fulfilled the company’s sales goals for the next 15 years in a mere six months. Lois never needed to learn the craft of sweet-talking his clients; they were quick learners. Go with the Lois idea. You’ll make money.

Those sought-after “sales explosions” in the ad world got him the attention of Esquire magazine, who wanted a piece of the profit pie. His stint designing covers for the magazine started in 1962 and lasted for nine years, but it sure wasn’t because he was such a pleasure to work with. He never provided options for the magazine to choose from and he never accepted direction; in fact, half the time he barely even told them what he was doing. The first five issues were just delivered—completed concepts, no changes allowed— just in time to print. The covers were just that good. And they sold. In 1962, the very first Esquire cover of Lois’ design correctly predicted the unforeseen winner of a major boxing match (Floyd Patterson vs. Sonny Liston). It was so controversial that the publisher added a disclaimer notice to it. But this inaugural hotcake issue sold out, was reprinted, and then that sold out, too.

Lois had an accomplice over at Esquire. Harold Hayes was his editor, whom he held in high regard. “What we had can never be duplicated,” says Lois. “Now Hayes, he had balls. When he looked at that first cover, he said ‘George, you’re crazy.’ And I said no, you’re crazy—because you’re going to run this.” Since the magazine continued to exponentially increase in sales, crazy was clearly working. “Hayes was the only one over at Esquire who actually liked my covers,” he says. “Every single time, he said ‘I love it!’ And I always said ‘Oh yea? Anyone else over there love it?’ No. They all hated them. But Hayes kept me out of all that bullshit. And the art directors over there were smart enough to stay out of something that was working.” But in this case, the do-as-we-damn-well-please duo would learn a painful lesson about playing nice with others, “He left, I left. It sucked. Somebody makes something incredible for you, and then you think you don’t need them anymore,” says Lois, dejectedly. The infamous relationship ended in 1971 when Hayes was pushed out of the magazine, and the pair would only work together once more, many years later, out of posterity. It was inevitable that the magazine would eventually push back, and it was probably more surprising that it lasted for so long. But for the ever-strong man who made magazine covers his passion, this end was perhaps the greatest disappointment of his career. “I would have really loved to do fifty years of  Esquire—fifty years of American culture, captured in covers. That would have been amazing.” 

Lois has been getting extra attention since the Mad Men series began. Everyone wants to know what the greatest real-life ad man (whose younger image bears an uncanny resemblance to Jon Hamm’s Don Draper) thinks about the show. “Mad Men is [an example of ] agencies at their worst,” Lois says. “They were anti-Semitic and racist, they were womanizers, and they had no talent. They were not part of the creative revolution at all. While all that was going on, there were other terrific places to work at, right down the street. At Doyle Dane during the 1950’s, out of twelve writers, six of them would’ve been women. And these weren’t the Mad Men secretaries, they were respected, and they had real talent. We already had women pioneers in advertising in those times. What we were doing was so different from Mad Men, it isn’t even funny.” 

His ad agency days are long over since his retirement in 2000, though he continues to be present in the creative world through his writing, and still works on branding and advertising projects with his son, Luke. “I supposedly retired, but my wife says I’m not retired, just tired.” He’s written 10 books now since 1972, all of them containing brassy wisdoms on the things he knows and loves best: Selling explosive ideas, being ballsy, pop culture and celebrities, and of course, boxing.

“Many of my most innovative concepts grew from my ability to understand and respond to the people and events of my era. With that said, I have always felt creative in every bone in my body, and for every second I’m awake and asleep.”

 Lois recently took a break from "retirement" to crank out yet another book, this time for Phaidon. They approached him with an idea in mind and a reference: a collection of tips for young people published the year before by a “so-called creative director” at the mega-worldwide advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi. Lois read it, despised it, and then wrote a response to it called Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent). “All this guy was saying was how to be phony and how to fake your way through life. I want to teach kids how to be original.” No bullshitting—just his style. 

Read Mad Man George Lois, part one

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