David Kennedy, Co-founder of Wieden+Kennedy, Dies at 82

David Kennedy, half of the duo who launched famed agency Wieden+Kennedy, died Sunday at the age of 82. Kennedy was born May 31, 1939, in Kansas, into the third generation of wildcat drillers. He grew up in the oil fields of Oklahoma, Colorado and other states along the eastern front range of the Rockies. He began his advertising career as a designer and art director in Chicago. After several years, he moved to Portland, Ore., to work at McCann-Erickson. It was there that he met Dan Wieden, and the two would found their agency in 1982, on April Fools' Day. Kennedy and Wieden helped build their independent agency through their association with another Portland-area institution: Nike. Wieden+Kennedy remains Nike's most frequent creative partner and has added other large brands along the way, including Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts, Old Spice, KFC, Heinz and McDonald’s, among many others. Over decades that saw intense mergers and acquisitions in the ad industry, Wieden+Kennedy resisted being bought out or sold to a holding company, and the agency remains one of the largest independents on the globe. Adweek has named Wieden+Kennedy as its U.S. Agency of the Year five times (1991, 1995, 2010, 2018 and 2019) and named the shop Global Agency of the Year three times (2007, 2010 and 2017). Wieden + Kennedy Says It Only Wants Clients and Staff Who Believe Black Lives Matter Under Kennedy and Wieden, the agency created some of the most iconic advertising campaigns in advertising history for Honda, Nike and Travel Oregon, among other clients. Notable work under Kennedy and Wieden’s creative direction included an advert for Honda scooters famously featuring music and an appearance by Lou Reed. The documentary-style ad featuring city life used a shaky-camera technique that would soon be followed by many others in the industry. Nike examples include "Walt Stack," which was Nike’s first “Just Do It” commercial, "Bo Knows" and the series of ads featuring Spike Lee and Michael Jordan. In 2011, in honor of its co-founder, the agency created The Kennedys, a creative incubator program to introduce and develop new talent, intentionally looking for creative talent outside of traditional advertising pipelines. It runs as W+K’s own agency within the agency, where talent work on real assignments with real clients and deadlines. Today the program has expanded to be a global program at W+K. While his name remains a part of the agency, Kennedy retired early. He left the business in 1995, but still came into the office every now and then. He was quieter and less public than his cohort Wieden. Kennedy was known to be humble as well, even though his agency was always seen as one of the most dynamic and creative around. He told Adweek in 2003 that his best business decision was to partner with Dan Wieden. “We were just soul mates in a way. [But] I think that so much of what happened to us was luck and not great decisions. We were just in the right place at the right time. Advertising sort of decentralized from New York and the other meccas, became more regional.” In retirement, Kennedy focused on fundraising for the 37 tribal colleges that make up the American Indian College Fund, one of W+K's pro bono accounts and the one that meant the most to Kennedy. His final work was a campaign promoting the fund for Indigenous Peoples Day. He also worked on his art. He made steel, bronze and copper sculptures of skulls, roosters, ravens, roosters and interpretations of the word "peace" in different languages. A profile in The Oregonian newspaper from 2010 described Kennedy’s artwork as “earthy, spiritual and beautifully unhip expressions of Kennedy's love of soil and steel; a temperament hardened by the crusty terrain of Oklahoma and Colorado; an immersion with Native American culture; and, lastly, the visual probings of a spiritual wanderer plainly looking for the meaning of things.” In a clip from the film Art & Copy, Kennedy is seen at the W+K headquarters, a place with a performance space, basketball court and numerous art installations. “Someone once said Wieden+Kennedy is high school with money," he joked in the documentary. "But come back at 3 in the morning and it’s like Santa’s workshop. The elves don’t go home at 5. It’s hard work. It’s physically hard, it’s mentally hard. It’s a hard sell to con people into running your crazy ideas.” Kennedy received numerous honors throughout his career. He was inducted into the New York Art Directors Hall of Fame, as well as the One Club Hall of Fame, the ADC Hall of Fame and the Advertising Hall of Fame. He was awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze Lions at Cannes and his work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Remembering Kennedy As word spread of Kennedy’s passing, the tributes started to pour in on social media. One of the first was from Dave Burg, who worked at W+K as a strategic planning director. He posted that “Kennedy was the humblest legend you could ever imagine talking ’70s Chicago with, or VW vans with, or hearing his story of melting the Pillsbury Dough Boy when he was a young art director at Leo Burnett. He was like having a fun uncle and a wise grandpa all in one. Plus, he loved being Santa every Christmas. I mean, it was impossible not to adore him.” Wieden+Kennedy posted on the agency's Instagram page: "Your legacy and spirit will live on forever in our hearts and our work." It even changed its name on the page to Kennedy+Wieden. The agency also sent out a quote Dan Wieden once said: “David Kennedy’s heart and soul and neural pathways are etched deep inside Wieden+Kennedy. It’s who we are, it's what we do and it’s why we do it.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kennedy+Wieden (@wiedenkennedy) Colleen DeCourcy, president and chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy, said on social media: “David Kennedy was the purest part of the heart of Wieden+Kennedy." Australian creative consultancy Stan/Lee posted: "Saddened to hear of the passing of David Kennedy. The man who put the K into W+K. What an incredible agency he built and what a legacy he leaves. #RIP #FailHarder." "Fail Harder" was one of Kennedy's mantras, one that has been immortalized in wall art across Wieden+Kennedy offices. Cliff Freeman, Advertising's Master of Comedic Insight, Dies at 80