In the middle of his presentation to Bob Isherwood last Thursday, this gentleman in the picture with me a few minutes before, Kevin Roberts, as he says, fat, bald and yes, rich, took the liberty of reminding a group of Ogilvyans in the Ritz Carlton ballroom that their founder is… dead.
And why did he launch himself in such a way to reiterate what we all know? You’d have to ask Kevin. However, I interpret that it was his way of showing that while other networks focus on exalting what has been proposed and said by others in the past, Saatchi is a network with its own living voice, with ideas that evolve and propose innovation, evolution and revolution. And in KR’s case and like Bob’s, he has made his voice clear in the world and has carved out a space for himself among the advertising legends of history… without having been an advertiser before being the CEO of Saatchi.
With everyone’s respect and admiration, in a tone typical of the famous KR, as he recalled from an agency presentation he received from OM as a client, he turned to the table where the Ogilvy people were, over some murmurings that could be heard, and told them directly, “and just in case you don’t know yet…. Ogilvy is dead! You know…. (and he raised his voice sharply), Ogilvy is f… dead!
The room immediately erupted with laughter and expressions of astonishment, because KR achieves this kind of expressions with a strength and arrogance, mixed with leadership, power and irony, that does not offend many, but rather, surprises with his guts and determination to speak his mind. And well, he was right after all: Ogilvy is long dead. As have Burnett, Bernbach, McCann and so many more.
In fact, KR is the one who made the L-word… (Lovemarks), possibly his second most pronounced, after the F… word. (which takes no explanation), and in that combination, has developed respect in the world for his transformative ideas. Focused on bringing people together and building a family in the organization, he has developed a spectacularly seductive approach that is moving the world forward to stay.
So let us all live, let us take from the dead all the good they left us. It is a legacy that it is up to us to receive, protect and overcome, and because of this, cultural heritage comes into our hands to take it and shoot it to new heights. What follows is better, if we do it ourselves. We, the living, must do it, because the dead are no longer here.