Former TBWA\C\D Creative Hayes Dies

During his 18 years at TBWA\Chiat\Day, art director Geoff Hayes helped create Absolut Vodka’s iconic bottle campaign, one of the agency’s most famous and long-running. According to friends, Hayes, 57, took his own life two weeks ago in his New York City apartment.

In 1980, the South Africa native and his copywriter partner Graham Turner, now ecd at Young & Rubicam’s Brand Buzz, created the first ad that kicked off the campaign, a stark print ad featuring the bottle against a black background with a halo hovering above it, with the headline, “Absolut Perfection.”