1952

Back in the 1950s popular fiction and the movies operated to create advertising as a stereotypical career for Dartmouth alumni. It wasn't a particularly flattering or fair depiction since the imaginary admen were too often portrayed as either superannuated fraternity-type carousers or angst-ridden gray-flannel-suited conformists, consciencestricken by their conformity and the supposed amoral hucksterism of their profession, with the Dartmouth connection thrown in gratuitously as supposed background. To a certain extent, the stereotype has persisted through the present day.

With respect to the class of 1952, the facts lie elsewhere. Only two of us, Pete McSpadden and Ken Roman, went to Madison Avenue and, refuting the fictional characterizations, each rose in somewhat parallel fashion to become the CEO of a major agency (Dancer, Fitzgerald. Sample for Pete; Ogilvy & Mather for Ken) and each, after supervising the sale of his firm to an international mega-agency, retired comparatively early to pursue fruitful and personally satisfying service on corporate boards, in consultancies and for nonprofit entities.

Their careers did not move in lockstep. Pete joined his firm in the mailroom on an interim basis, after a stint in the Navy, while awaiting the start of the next Harvard Law School term. Enjoying what he was doing, he abandoned the law. Ken, on the other hand, his interests whetted by his editorship of TheDartmouth, tried his hand at journalism and related fields before joining his agency in his early 30s.

Adding another dimension to his fasttracked business career, Ken found time to author two books—one on advertising and one on effective writing—each of which has, with the aid of co-authors, gone through several updating editions. As this column is written Ken is putting the finishing touches on a biography of his boss and mentor David Ogilvy, widely acknowledged as one of the titans of modern advertising. We ought to keep an eye out for its release date. It ought to be a great read.

1706 N. Park Drive, Wilmington,DE 19806; (302)428-0398; dave@drexler.com