Bob Barrie On The Spot

Barrie has the same role today as he did when he entered the agency business 25 years ago: art director. And that's the way he likes it. With the departure of David Lubars, Barrie, 48, has outlasted four creative chiefs at Fallon in Minneapolis, where he's spent most of his career. The Green Bay, Wis., native helped craft award-winning campaigns such as "Get in touch with your masculine side" for Jim Beam and "Red Border" for Time but says he's most proud of his most recent work: United's animated TV spots and accompanying in-flight documentaries about the animators. Q. Are you involved in finding a replacement for Lubars?A. Myself and a small, intimate group of about 50 other people.What's Lubars' legacy and how is it different from those of Bill Westbrook, Pat Burnham and Tom McElligott?David is an excellent basketball player. Those other guys really sucked. Especially McElligott. But seriously, David did a great job continuing Westbrook's "nontraditional media" initiative. He was an advocate, inspiration and a spokesman for Fallon's plunge into the world beyond the 30-second spot. I hope we keep in touch. Plus, he owes me 10 bucks.You could be a top creative—why have you chosen to stay an art director?The simplest answer would be self-preservation. I decided early on that I love creating and producing ads far more than I enjoy sitting in meetings talking about creating and producing ads. I have never been motivated by the politics of advertising. I've been very fortunate to work at an agency that hasn't penalized me economically for wanting to remain an art director. Actually, once they were printing up new business cards and they put a fancier title on my new cards, and I made them print them over.Is there some humility you want to convey? I've always been amused by the titles in advertising. I once found a title that was about 18 words long underneath a gentleman in Adweek. I made T-shirts out of it. I realized I could never attain that level, so I gave up and I'm happy being an art director. What work are you most proud of?I'm not being gratuitous here, but I would have to say the United campaign. Which is nice, because they say you're only as good as your last ad. I don't know if it's going to win a lot of awards—I don't care. It's been so gratifying seeing it and the reactions of people. It literally gets love letters from customers. The client's thrilled with it. And I've gotten to work with some of my heroes: some of the best animation directors and some of the best illustrators in the world.What did you learn about process with the United campaign?It was very different than doing the traditional commercial. The writer, Stuart, made a decision not to do storyboards. We made detailed scripts, about six of them, and sent them out to what we felt were the best animation directors in the world. We ended up with our four top choices. We allowed them to choose which ideas they felt they could best execute, not only so they would do a great job, but also so they could feel ownership of the idea. Interestingly, each picked a different script. I think it would have taken two years without the Internet. But now they can send files back and forth—you can react instantly. In animation, once you get to a certain point, there's no turning back, because most of this stuff is hand-done. The last spot, "A Life," took over six months to do.Who had the most influence on your career?Other than my dad [a commercial artist], I'd say Ron Anderson [ecd at Bozell Kamstra in Minneapolis before he retired in 2000]. He was McElligott's original partner, an art director who had risen to management. But he still did a lot of great ads. He is the sweetest soul you can imagine. And it's easy to—if you've had some fame in this business—become an asshole. I've always admired him for not becoming one. He taught me simplicity: People aren't looking for your ads. Be simple enough to suck them in, give them your message and get out.What's the most underrated agency?There's a little agency in Minneapolis called Peterson Milla Hooks, who changed retail advertising forever. They do all the wonderful Target work. Kirshenbaum Bond does some work for Target, but I think sometimes they get confused with this little agency.How do you get past a creative block?I tend to work on a number of clients at once. So I move on to the next one. It usually frees up my brain. At Fallon, right now I'm working with four different writers. [We] don't have teams. I really prefer that.Why?When you break up, it becomes like a divorce or you become a widower. I like being exposed to different schools of thought. I like working with the most junior writer on staff to [veteran copywriter] Dean Buckhorn.How has the Minneapolis ad community changed over the years?It's still a town full of wonderful, strong agencies. But an unfortunate thing has happened—the community has drifted apart because so much of the production goes out of town now. I have friends at other agencies in town, and there's a real mutual respect. It seems that [agencies in] other towns are far more competitive with each other.If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?The self-importance of a lot of advertising people. My mantra is, "It's only advertising."

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Bob Barrie On The Spot

Aaron Baar

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Aaron Baar