Manuel Gavilán Sánchez, that same don Manolo who always greeted us with energy and affection, who always asked me about my parents and entrusted me to bring them a greeting, the one who was a pillar in the advertising of our country for so many years, who always taught us and challenged us at every step, rests today in the peace of the Lord.
Don Manolo founded Moderna, Noble Asociados in Costa Rica, an agency that came and made its own space based on strength, work and strong character in every step of this advertising activity. It was Don Manolo who taught us to sell ideas, to present them to advertisers’ sales forces with confidence and ingenuity, to create with strategy in hand and to take everything good from the outside, as in his case with Ogilvy, an organization that also received a lot from Don Manolo.
When I was starting out at McCann-Erickson, don Manolo set the bar high for the quality of our presentations, he stung the competition with talent and with an enviable facility for communicating with the public in a simple, powerful and clear way. His positions were never half-hearted and his opinion was always expressed with determination, while he was famous for his firm, defined and demanding personality, for he was a volcano of energy and fight, of grit and character.
Today his legacy is in his family, his friends and the agency he founded, prolonged in that Ogilvy that we all admire and respect so much in Costa Rica and around the world. Today his legacy, even for those of us who did not have him as close as we would have liked, is added to that of dear friends such as Hernán Ortega and Mirta de la Cuesta, and unforgettable pioneers such as Mr. Arnaldo Garnier. The publicists of a generation are leaving us, leaving us with the responsibility of taking their legacy and surpassing it, of focusing and working hard to pass on the legacy with more and better, with value and quality.
To Manolo, his son and my friend, colleague and companion of illusions in advertising in our country, I send with these lines my reiterated show of solidarity, affection and feeling, with a simple message, dear Manolo, today is the time in life to continue to fill your dad with pride.
