Chicago's Son

Like many creatives of his generation, Bob Scarpelli found his way into advertising via the work of Bill Bernbach in the early 1960s and '70s. And like many of his peers, Scarpelli—as he has moved through his career—has no doubt influenced countless aspiring creatives. Unlike the rest of them, however, Scarpelli, who was recently promoted to chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, has inherited Bernbach's agency and legacy."I try not to think of it as pressure, but of responsibility," says Scarpelli from his office overlooking Lake Michigan and the south side of Chicago. "Really, the pressure—if there is any—is to take us into the new age."Scarpelli, 52, has been groomed for this position for several years, ever since his mentor Keith Reinhard announced his gradual relinquishment from day-to-day management of the $24 billion network. For the past three years, Scarpelli has helmed DDB's internal worldwide creative conferences and taken on more global responsibilities, including leading the shop's recent unsuccessful bid for Intel's $300 million global account (which corralled the resources of 13 offices). When his promotion to DDB's top creative job was finally official, even many of Scarpelli's close industry friends greeted it with a shrug and wondered, "Wasn't he already doing that?""He's going to be fantastic at that job," says Mark Tutssel, worldwide deputy creative officer of rival agency Leo Burnett. "He's one of the few modern-day greats."It's a far cry from where Scarpelli thought he'd be, having grown up in a blue-collar neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. The son of a truck stop (and later Italian beef stand) owner, Scarpelli studied journalism at Northern Illinois University. But he discovered he'd rather make up the stories than report them and found his way into advertising.The industry nearly lost him before it even knew who he was. Roughly six months into a copywriting job at Stern, Walters & Simmons in Chicago, where he had been hired by Larry Postaer, Scarpelli was laid off after the shop lost its largest client. Owing to his blue-collar roots, Scarpelli toyed with finding a career with a little more stability. "I thought maybe I should think of getting a real job," he says. "Advertising was so foreign to us."Before giving up, he decided to give it one more try and showed his book around Chicago. Despite nearly offending a Leo Burnett creative recruiter by laughing at his similarity to Don Rickles, Scarpelli found himself discussing a position with creative director John Hughes (yes, that John Hughes). "He said, 'You can have this job if you can answer this one question correctly: Who's your favorite guitarist?'" Scarpelli says. "This was back in 1976, so I said, 'Jeff Beck.' He said, 'You're the first person to answer that correctly!'"He was hired and began working on Virginia Slims. The agency was a hotbed for clever writers, and a few (Hughes, Don Novello, Tim Kazurinsky) found fame in other arenas. "We did some crazy, really fun stuff," Scarpelli laughs, recalling an Edge shaving gel spot that somehow used the Supremes singing in a shower. "We didn't sell any of it." His work, however, caught the attention of then-Needham Harper & Steers president Susan Gillette, who hired him about a year later to work on McDonald's and Busch beer. That was in 1977, and he never left."He personifies the hiring standard Bill Bernbach set years ago," says Reinhard, DDB Worldwide chairman. "Said Bill, 'To work at DDB, you have to be both talented and nice.' He had people like Bob Scarpelli in mind."Indeed, it's hard to find someone—competitor or colleague—who has something bad to say about Scarpelli. In an industry dominated by ego, Scarpelli expresses humility. When DDB won the Grand Prix for Budweiser's "Whassup" campaign in Cannes in 2000, rather than take center stage, Scarpelli stood in the second row to let the team take its bow. "That, to me, is the greatest example of what Bob is like as a person," says Ken Kaess, DDB Worldwide CEO."He definitely always wanted people to succeed," adds Dennis Ryan, chief creative officer of Element 79 in Chicago, who worked for Scarpelli from 1984 to 1997 on Anheuser-Busch. "When you did well, he didn't try to spin that into a headline [he] could dominate.""He is very passionate about his craft," says Marlena Peleo-Lazar, who began her career with Scarpelli at Burnett and is now chief creative officer of McDonald's. "When you get to that level, it's a different kind of creativity."Scarpelli describes himself as a creative with "a certain amount of talent," but a willingness to do hard work. "My theory has been to hire people who you think are better than you are and let them go," he says. "If the creative director is the most talented person in the agency, you're in trouble."But make no mistake, Scarpelli has the chops. He's played a role shaping, focusing and honing some of the most memorable advertising of the past 20 years. He's overseen campaigns ranging from Bud Light's Spuds McKenzie and "Gimme a light" to "Did somebody say McDonald's?" and "Dude, you're getting a Dell." And his "Talk Value" ethos—creating campaigns that work their way into the culture—has been adopted by the network. "Bill Bernbach said many years ago, 'Word of mouth is the best media of all,'" Scarpelli says. "Maybe I was subconsciously reinventing that, but I felt that as the world changed, you had to create great ideas that translated and got into the culture."The idea was born in 1987 out of the phenomenon that was Spuds McKenzie. As the mascot grew in popularity, from appearing on the CBS Evening News and Late Night with David Letterman to being grand marshall of the Mardi Gras parade, A-B's sales increased, and the light bulb went off in Scarpelli's head. "I felt this is something we should try to do with every assignment we have," he says. Scarpelli holds a service mark for "Talk Value," but admits it's a philosophy that many agencies are trying to embody as the media become more fractured and messages fight harder for attention. "We've tried to own it," he says. "If you want ideas that are going to break through and are going to become part of the culture, we're the guys, because we do it better than anybody."However, Scarpelli bristles at the suggestion that "Talk Value" means traditional advertising is going the way of the Dodo. With clients such as A-B, McDonald's, Diet Pepsi and Ameriquest, DDB this year had more spots on the Super Bowl than any other U.S. agency. It's a venue Scarpelli believes still has great value. "I think it's important for the big brands to be there. Everybody the next day talks about the commercials. Most people don't care who wins the game ... unless you live in one of those cities," says Scarpelli, a Chicago Bears fan since birth who hasn't cared about the outcome of the game since 1985. In his global role, Scarpelli says he will be looking to further encourage creating campaigns with "Talk Value" throughout the network, and ensure the agency upholds the standards that helped it land the No. 1 position as the most awarded global agency in the Gunn Report last year. He admits the task might require some nuance and understanding of issues he doesn't normally face in DDB's largest office in Chicago. "It's always very interesting to be talking about these things, talking about Talk Value and stuff, and that guy from [a developing country], he's worried about having computers that actually work," Scarpelli says. "He's desperate to uphold the standards of DDB and to change the game like we want him to do. But obviously, he's doing things differently."The first order of business for DDB's new global chief creative officer, who remains chairman of DDB Chicago, will be to act locally. The shop has rekindled its search for a new chief creative for its flagship Chicago office, a position Scarpelli has filled while also serving double duty as U.S. chief creative officer. He's looking for someone who can both lead and inspire, someone who's "comfortable working in all media and understands we need to reach our consumers where they are, not where we think they are." He points to DDB Seattle executive creative director John Livengood, who came from the agency's interactive arm, as a possible prototype for how its creative directors might look in the future. "John's going to be an interesting experiment for us," he says.Globally, Scarpelli says he's toying with the idea of implementing global creative directors on certain pieces of business. And he's planning to get more personally involved with clients such as Exxon Mobil and Phillips, and remain connected to McDonald's and A-B. But the man who loves all things Italian, from the mural of Portofino opposite his desk to the Maserati he drives, knows the next few years will be spent on airplanes taking him farther away from his hometown. It's a fact evidenced by the gift from the Chicago staff at the announcement of his promotion: a globe signed by them all on the places they want to go.And though he's stepping into shoes previously worn by Reinhard (who's still globe-hopping on behalf of the agency at 70), Scarpelli says this next career phase will likely be his last. "When I was in my 30's, I said I wasn't going to work past my 50's," he says. "Now that I'm in my 50's, I say 55. So we'll see. As long as I think I'm still contributing and we're moving forward, I'll still do it."

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Chicago's Son

Aaron Baar

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Aaron Baar