On The Spot: Bruce Bildstein

Fallon's associate CD has spent 17 of his 20 years in advertising at the Minne apo lis shop, notably as leader of the BMW Films team. His portfolio also includes Timex, Nikon and PBS' award-winning "Stay curious" effort. Bildsten, 43, is working on a new series of BMW Films with directors Tony Scott, John Woo and Joe Carnahan, due in October.What inspired you to get into advertising?My father was a VW dealer, so I remember sitting in his dealership in my little hometown in Wisconsin and looking at the book of ad slicks from Doyle Dane as a little kid. All of the classics from "Think small" to "Lemon." Who had the greatest influence on your career?Early on, definitely Tom McElli gott. The kind of work that he did really inspired me. Joe Duffy was a big influence, too, because Joe took me under his wing at his old agency and then brought me here. I wasn't working under Tom that long—it was as much how he influenced all the other people here as well. It rubbed off on me. Name the last ad that made you think, "I wish I had done that." Nike's "Tag." It was our nemesis at the awards shows, but that's OK, because I really admired it. I love all of Frank Budgen's stuff. I respect him because everything he touches is done well. And I respect that he does so few [ads], so he can do them right. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? There's always a few people who become the celebrities of the industry. And usually it's a big-time creative director at a huge agency who is just a character or outspoken as opposed to someone who really has the goods to back it up. I'd rather have a David Abbott represent our industry. He has so much integrity and humility, and had it throughout his career. Do we have a David Abbott now? That's a good question. I can't really think of who that might be. How do you get past a creative block? My best way is to be inspired by creativity in another form. So I look at a great industrial-design annual or architecture books. Or, I'm a cyclist, so I'll get out and get on my bike. If I have a writing block, I try to read a little Jim Harrison, who's my favorite writer. The guy is just able to do amazing things with the English language. What's your favorite Harrison book? An old one, Legends of the Fall. It wasn't a great movie, but a great book. And I'm a fan of his travels and his essays and some of his short stories. Who would you love to work with? Frank Budgen. What was your most recent creative coup? The new [BMW] films aren't done, but looking at the dailies, I'd say those. The new PBS campaign ["Be more"] is right up there, too. What's so satisfying about that campaign was we took a lot of chances and got these feature guys and really trusted one of our junior art directors [Ger ard Caputo]—intentionally gave him an opportunity to do it, and he did. The second BMW Films are like a sequel, and we know how those can flop. How are you going to keep people interested? We considered all kinds of gimmicks. But everything felt like a gimmick. Ultimately we decided not to dramatically reinvent the wheel. As clichéd as it sounds, [we decided] to make even better films this time, based on what we knew and what worked last time. My analogy would be that I firmly believe that God father II was better than God -father I, so it is possible to do a good sequel. I think the proof will be in the screen, as opposed to the hype. The hype's starting already. Yeah, well, when the [actors'] names come out, there'll be a lot of curiosity. It's not like you can outdo the headline quality of Madonna, because she's one of three people in the world who has that celebrity quality—and Princess Di's not around anymore. Who's the third person? The Pope, I guess. What's the smartest business decision you've ever made? Not going for the big bucks. It's really important to be at a great shop. That's the way you do great work.

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On The Spot: Bruce Bildstein

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