On December 1, 1967, Leo Burnett made the above speech to his entire Chicago office. Less than four years later, a heart attack took Burnett’s life. He was 79 years old.
But, should you stroll by 35 W. Wacker Drive, a tall skyscraper bordering the Chicago River to the south, you will still see Leo Burnett’s iconic signature near the building’s main entrance. In 2010, Leo Burnett (the agency) celebrated its 75th anniversary, and not long after, Sao Paulo-based animation and design studio Lobo marked the occasion with the above video in tribute to Burnett’s legacy and his iconic speech. Hey, it even includes those giant black pencils, a reference to the “reaching for the stars” logo, and those “goddamn” apples, three symbols still very much present in Burnett’s agency marketing tactics.
Now, before you commenters get all up in arms about whether or not the agency is, in fact, honoring its namesake with the latest work for Allstate or (insert client here), turn your focus toward critiquing the video first. Nice job, Lobo, and who knows, maybe Leo CCO Susan Credle will soon start demanding that the above clip be played on an hourly loop on all of 35 W. Wacker’s TVs.