Bio

 Email: harry@harrywebber.com         Visit: www.HarryWebber.com

Since childhood, Harry Webber has been a creative person for hire. At the young age of 15, he created safety posters for the once mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. At 18, he moved to Detroit to become the first Art Director for the legendary Motown Record Corp., winning 23 gold records.

Five years later, Harry Webber returned to New York to join Young & Rubicam, where he was responsible for creating such memorable television campaigns as A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste, I’m Stuck on Band-Aid Brand, and Dr. Pepper, America’s Most Misunderstood Soft Drink.

For the next 25 years on Madison Avenue, Harry Webber has been credited with creative responsibility for Chow, Chow, Chow, Thanks, I Needed That, Quality is Job 1, and many other mass marketed television and print efforts for such well known advertising agencies as Leo Burnett, SSC&B, McCann-Ericsson, and Wells, Rich, Greene. In 1985, Mr. Webber saw the writing on the wall for the practice of Mass Marketing.

Moving West to Los Angeles, he founded Smart Communications, Inc. the first marketing firm to devote itself to the development of Selective or Segmented Marketing in America.

Since then, his clients have included McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Hardee’s, Denny’s, The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Co., Columbia/TriStar, United Paramount Network, Turner Home Entertainment, FX Networks, The California Lottery, Athearn Trains in Miniature, L’Ermitage Hotels, California Department of Health Services, OrNda Healthcorp, and Tenent Healthcare Corp, Sun Microsystems, and DirecTV.

His landmark book, Divide & Conquer, is the first book to be published on the practice of Selective Marketing in America. Harry Webber’s work is in the Clio Hall of Fame, The Museum of Advertising, Madison Avenue’s advertising Walk of Fame, the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Smithsonian. He has been featured in the books Mirror Makers and Positioning as well as the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, CBS, NBC, CNN, AdWeek, Adrants, Adbumb, and Advertising Age. The New York Times credited his “Coke Classic. A Cool American” campaign with pioneering the hot trend of user-generated content over the web. Some 10,000 advertising and marketing professionals worldwide read Harry Webber’s online column, MadisonAveNew.com, each week.

In 2002 Mr. Webber, along with partners Dan Cracchiolo (Producer, The Matrix) and John Feist (Producer, Survivor) began developing Branded Entertainment content for BrandedFilm.com. This work lead to the forming of The Gasp Company with noted Design Director Angela Glenn in 2005. At Gasp, Harry Webber and his team are stretching the boundaries of traditional advertising and new media to create a more meaningful way of engaging consumers. By pioneering the use of Dynamic Access Marketing Networks, Gasp surrounds their targeted audience with media-based spheres of influence that follow consumers throughout their day. Mr. Webber is also on the board of the Institute For Advanced Practices In Advertising (IAPIA.org) an ad industry public policy think tank.

 

Timeline

1961
Art Director
Pennsylvania Railroad
New York, NY
15 years old. Working for America’s largest corporation, creating safety posters for the nation’s most dangerous business.

1963
Illustrator
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech
March on Washington
Recruited by congressman Adam Clayton Powell to illustrate Dr. King’s landmark speech. Dr. King was magnificently dressed. My introduction to Brioni.

1964
Art Director
Motown Record Corp.
Detroit, MI
Ran away from school at the tender age of 19 to create the look of the Motown Sound. Earned 12 gold records and my name on the back of some very cool album covers. The rest, as they say, is history.

1968
Art Director / Copywriter
Campbell-Ewald
Detroit, MI
Left Motown for the second-best job in Detroit. Worked in the Corvette Performance Group during the day and drag raced factory-tuned Corvettes and Camaros on Woodward Blvd. at night.

1970
Creative Supervisor
Young & Rubicam
New York, NY
Having too much fun for my own good, moved back to New York for a job as an Assistant Art Director and the biggest pay cut in recorded history. Got a bigger title and a window after winning awards for my work on Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Pepper, United Negro College Fund, P&G, Chrysler, Sanka, and Manufacturers Hanover Bank. My campaigns included “I’m Stuck On Band-Aid,” “Sanka: Third Largest Coffee In America,” “UNCF: A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste” and “Dr. Pepper: America’s Most Misunderstood Soft Drink.”

1972
Clio Award
“A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste”
United Negro College Fund

1976
Clio Award
“I’m Stuck on Band-Aid”Band-Aid Brand by Johnson & Johnson
Mike Becker and I wrote the song. Barry Manilow got the residuals. John Travolta and Terri Garr both launched careers.

1978
Associate Creative Director
Leo Burnett
Chicago , IL
Nobody told me how cold it was in Chicago. Moved two blocks from the office and lived at work (literally), cranking out campaigns for Taster’s Choice, RCA Consumer Electronics, and United Airlines. Got Burnett’s standard perk, advertising’s greatest bonus.

1980
Associate Creative Director
Compton Advertising
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Two Chicago winters was enough for anybody. Off for a lesson in Hispanic Advertising at the source.

1981
Creative Group Head
Case & Krone
New York, NY
Money isn’t everything. So when America’s greatest Art Director, Helmut Krone, offered me a job for less money and longer hours, I slapped myself and said, “Thanks, I Needed That.” The next thing I know, the line is being parodied on SNL, making Skin Bracer a household word. Who knew?

1982
Clio Award
“Thanks, I Needed That”
Skin Bracer by Mennen

1983
Creative Supervisor
Wells, Rich, Greene
New York, NY
O.K. money IS everything. But that’s not why I went to WRG.I thought that having worked for two famous women named Mary Wells would look cool on my resume. They thought that since I knew my way around Detroit I’d be perfect for the Ford account. After ” Ford: Quality Is Job 1″ and “There’s a Ford In America’s Future,” I was rewarded with CitiCorp, Chase Manhattan Bank and Ralston/Purina. So much for cool.

1985
Creative Director
Smart Communications
Los Angeles, CA
After getting an offer I couldn’t refuse for my condo in New York, I said farewell to winter and moved to Los Angeles. Couldn’t find an agency job, so I opened my own with clients like The California Lottery, AT&T, Pepsico USA, Household Bank, First Interstate Bank, BankOne, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, KFC, Hardee’s, Denny’s, eTrade Group, Athearn, Turner Home Entertainment, The Walt Disney Co., Summit Healthcare, Tenet HealthCorp, and California Dept. of Health Services.

1995
Clio Hall of Fame
“I’m Stuck on Band-Aid”
Band-Aid Brand by Johnson & Johnson
19 years after winning the original Clio, the Hall of Fame induction. Pretty damn cool.

 

1998
Author
“Divide & Conquer: Targeting Your Customers Through Market Segmentation”
John Wiley & Sons, Publishers
Became a best-seller in 6 months. Sold out in a year. Pick up a used one at Amazon.

2000
Director of Development
Opus Communicea
Los Angeles, CA
Worked for Dan Cracchiolo, Producer of ”The Matrix” and “Lethal Weapon,” developing feature films, web properties and the next generation of sponsor-produced programming. A fist-full of dollars, but not nearly as much fun as advertising.

2002
Consulting Creative Director
Sun Microsystems
Los Angeles, CA
Got to peer into the future. My clients were the smartest people on the planet. Their products helped to change the way the world works.

2003
Author
“Fantazzzmia: Where Dreams come From” Four Dolphins Press, Publishers

2004
Advertising Walk of Fame
“A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste”
United Negro College Fund

2004
Vice Chairman
Institute for Advanced Practices In Advertising
Los Angeles, CA
Currently creating new business models for a 200-year-old industry in radical need of change.

2005
Managing Partner
The Gasp Company
Long Beach, CA
Newest venture. Established with Angela Glenn. The Nation’s first Post-Advertising consultancy to develop new methodologies for stretching the boundaries of traditional advertising and new media to create a more meaningful way of engaging consumers.