Art & Commerce: The Age of Blandness

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Michael Deaver, who passed away last month, was my hero. Deaver was a member of the famous “holy trinity”—along with Jim Baker and Ed Meese—who ruled the Reagan White House. While Baker, the chief of staff, and Meese, counselor to the president, ran the country, Deaver ran Reagan. His job was to handle Reagan’s image. Maybe because he came from Hollywood, Reagan understood the value of a good director. And because he was a pitchman for GE in his waning days as an actor, he understood the value of image.

While liberals sneered at Reagan as a lightweight, Deaver endeared him to the rest of America by casting him as a wood-chopping, horse-riding, plain-speaking folksy cowboy—a latter day conservative Will Rogers.

Does image matter anymore in the advertising business? When clients are looking for a new agency, what’s really behind their search? We’re all familiar with the standard RFP criteria: geography, relevant...



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