I started this interview thinking it was going to be a podcast.
Then a long written exam.
It became a loose series of emails and texts.
From formal Word document answers to one word text replies.
As Jim become weaker the answers got shorter.
At one point, feeling guilty, I stopped, only to get a text a few days later saying ‘Hey Dave, have you forgotten about me?’.
So on we went.
Me, via text, extracting answers one by one.
By the time Jim passed, I wasn’t sure whether I had anything useable.
But collating everything I had a Word doc, I was surprised.
There was a lot of it – way more than I’d remembered.
And the one word answers, which felt slight at the time, were possibly the most insightful.
The only way to put this thing out was to include all my interactions, not what I’d planned.
It felt a bit personal.
But, as Jim, or Riz would likely have said – “Who gives a fuck!”

 

13 Feb 2024, 20:19 (EMAIL)
Jim Riswold, meet Dave Dye. Dave Dye, meet Jim Riswold.
I’ve got to say I’m excited at the idea of you both being connected.
All the best
Kash

13 Feb 2024, 23:06 (EMAIL)
Hey Jim,
Nice to meet you.
When I first got into advertising, your work made me feel like advertising was a cool thing to do.
Your templates are still ripped off today.
I started doing interviewing people about ten years ago.
I can’t fake interest, I’m no Dick Cavett, I can only talk to people whose work I love.
I’d love to do a podcast/blogpost/interview/whatever with you.
What do you think?
Best,
Dx

13 Feb 2024, 23:43 (EMAIL)
Hi Double D,
Thanx for the kind words.
The world needs more kind words.
Dick Cavett interviewed Bowie in 1975, at the height of Bowie’s cokehead days.  It was hysterical.
Let’s do it.
Let’s start with you throwing me a bunch of questions.  We’ll see how that goes.
And then adjust accordingly.
I just got out of an 8 day stay in the ICU, and have just been transferred me to the regular hospital for a few days.
Blah blah blah.
Me

14 Feb 2024, 12:18 (EMAIL)
Thanks Jim, how exciting!
I’ll start researching.
Dx
p.s. Should I call you Jim? Jimbo? JR, Riz? or Rizzle Kicks? Maybe Rizzle Kicks is too familiar?

14 Feb 2024, 17:00
I am word of the year, Dave.  
I prefer Riz.
I beat out Swifty.
Me

14 Feb 2024, 17:00 (EMAIL)
Riz it is then Riz.
Hats off on winning word of the year by the way – nice one.
(You got all the best descriptors attached too!)
Dx
P.s. Did you do either of the below?

 

14 Feb 2024, 16:36 (EMAIL)
Goodest Morning Dave,
I did neither spots.
Me

15 Feb 2024, 10:05 (EMAIL)
Cool.
I’m trying to track down your work now – it’s like it’s from a different planet to today’s ads – fast, funny, relaxed, cool – nice to revisit.
(That’s today’s compliment.)
Cool, they’re bin bound.

15 Feb 2024, 10:05 (EMAIL)
Thank you, David.
I’ll get back at it in a day or two.
Me

16 Feb 2024, 08:01 (EMAIL)
Morning Riz,
I’ve been gathering more work.
There’s a lot (not always using as many pixels as I’d like).
It occurred to me that I’m only exposed to the stuff that’s won awards or made it into annuals.
Found a bunch of early, Wieden Speedo work, any yours?
Dx

16 Feb 2024, 13:23 (EMAIL)
Gentleman, start your engines is moi.
Moi.

16 Feb 2024, 14:12 (EMAIL)
Great,
I’m assuming it’ll be a written exam?
But we could record it?
But maybe that’s an unnecessary strain?

16 Feb 2024, 16:17 (EMAIL)
I assumed it was a live radio thing.  Who in their right mind would listen to an advertising radio thing, even one way down in the nether regions of the dial.

16 Feb 2024, 19:05 (EMAIL)
We could get a voice to record your words?
Paul Lynde?
Krusty the Clown?
Although ideally you’d play you.
Dx

16 Feb 2024, 21:38 (EMAIL)
Let’s play me talking or someone else talking by ear, Dave.  I honestly do not have the stamina for it.
Until then,
Me

16 Feb 2024, 22:17 (EMAIL)
Cool, I’ll get you a working document together quickly and we can ping it backwards and forwards.
You write in red, I’ll be black.
If there are questions that don’t stimulate or tickle a response – ignore them.
Gradually we’ll build up a cool doc.
We’ll build up a doc together as we go.
Dx

17 Feb 2024, 10:01 (EMAIL)
Hey Riz,
I’ve attached a questions doc.
I’ve put a little bit structure to it.
It might look a bit weird, category headings with no questions underneath etc, but I figure we’ll build it together as we go.
If you want to add to headings – please do (clients, ads, whatever).
(You know more about you than I do.)
If you type in colour, I’ll stick to black.
If there are questions that don’t stimulate or tickle a response – ignore them.
Gradually we’ll build up a cool doc.
Let me know your thoughts.
Dx

17 Feb 2024, 13:12 (TEXT)
Jim Riswold’s just messaged me – “Is your mate serious? He just sent me like a stack of fifty questions to answer.”
– Tony Davidson, ex-Wieden+Kennedy London CCO.

17 Feb 2024, 21:08 (EMAIL)
Hi Dave.
You really want me to answer like 50 questions?  I don’t know if I have that in me.
LMK.
Me

 

I feel bad.
What the hell am I thinking?
He’s fucking ill.
He hasn’t time for ‘Who shot that ad from 1992?’ bullshit!
What am I thinking?

17 Feb 2024, 22:26 (EMAIL)
Nope.
Sorry Riz, I can’t quite gauge where you’re at with this.
Apologies, under the circumstances it may come over as insensitive or inconsiderate – it’s enthusiasm.
Being immersed in your stuff for the last week bought back the buzz I got from it at the time; proustian rush stylee.
Don’t worry, if it feels like a chore I could grab stuff from other interviews?
Best,
Dx

17 Feb 2024, 23:19 (EMAIL)
Not at all, sir.  It was just a gauge.  I needed a guide,  I will keep going.
Is this broadcast?  If so, who does my voice?  I got a guy who does pretend me.  My illness prevents me from talking much, especially about my favorite subject—me.
Let’s have fun.
Me

18 Feb 2024, 19:09 (EMAIL)
Saw Trump released a shoe the other day.  Did you guys ever have a PM so craven and cynical?
I hope not.
I wrote a make-believe script.  This, I would like to see out there,
Here’s the ad:

TRUMP VO: “Look, up in the thing above the ground…some people call it Air…me, not so much, not so much. Sneakerheads and NBA stars all tell me the same thing..same thing…these are the best of the best.   Michael Jordan…you’ve heard of him, right?  He says it’s better than his shoe and his shoe was ok, I guess.  It’s got an American Flag…very patriotic, quite patriotic, like me…solid gold…like any Trump product.  Gotta have a big T…I’m the big T, can’t have a Trump shoe without a big T…Trump cannot be bought…” LOGO. ANNCR: $399.  Fine print.  Fine print.  Fine print.  TRUMP:  The finest print.

You should see the wheelchair some friends are cooking up for me.  Think Lenin meets Ferrari.

18 Feb 2024, 19:43 (EMAIL)
Yeah – he’s called Boris.
You seem to have channeled Trumps voice naturally – two peas?
I’ll put it on a Riswold bomb logo letterhead and include it.
Dx
Wheelchair sounds cool…er, as far as wheelchairs go.

19 Feb 2024, 08:12 (EMAIL)
Track down Halbertstam’s book about Jordan, Dave. 

19 Feb 2024, 10:03 (EMAIL)
Playing For Keeps? Just downloaded it on audible.

19 Feb 2024, 13:00 (EMAIL)
Enjoy.
Halbertstam was the only reporter allowed on the train with Elvis covering back from his Army stint

19 Feb 2024, 16:08 (EMAIL)
I keep reading you were a ‘perpetual student’?

19 Feb 2024, 19:32 (EMAIL)
I spent seven years slumming around the University of Washington, picking up history, philosophy and communications degrees.
First, I wanted to be a lawyer but got scared away from law school by the movie The Paper Chase. “Fuck, I’m not fucking smart enough for that,” I told myself. Then I wanted to be a Nietzsche scholar but was neither smart nor insane enough. “Fuck, I’m not fucking smart enough for that,” I told myself again.
Then I stumbled into the advertising program in the communications department. “Fuck, I might be fucking smart enough for this,” I told myself.

20 Feb 2024, 11:25 (EMAIL)
Here are a 10 answers, one being Dan Wieden’s eulogy…
(The Dan Wieden eulogy will follow in a separate post, along with Riz’s David Kennedy eulogy.)

1. What ads mad an impression on you growing up?
Ads didn’t make an impression upon me, but people did.
In 1972, at the very impressionable age of 14, I saw my first rock concert.
A friend of mine had invited me to see a then relatively, if not completely, unknown musician from England named David Bowie.
He was definitely unknown to me, not because it was Mr. Bowie’s first tour of the United States and he was unknown to all but the extremely hip, but because I was the single most unhip teenager in the Pacific Northwest. I had exactly one record in my music collection, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and the only Bowie I’d ever heard of died at the Alamo and had a knife posthumously named in his honor.
Like I said, I was impressionable and, therefore, things changed after that concert. The Charge of the Light Brigade was replaced by The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Posters of Willie Stargell and Gump Worsley that adorned my room were discarded for every image of a dress-wearing man with orange hair I could get my hands on. Bugs Bunny was a close second. Walt Disney’s Mickey et al comforted kids; Bugs et al made people laugh. Rock beats scissors. Scissors beat paper. Paper beats rock. Laughing beats comfort.

2. What ads influenced you?
I suppose if you put a gun to my head and made pick an ad, I’d go with anything with the Burger King king in it. I want to wear that giant king head. It’s good to be the King and you’re perpetually stoned.
I’m forever grateful I don’t have to hang out with my insurance agent, i.e. Jake from State Farm, forever and a day.

3. I worked on Nike, my boss, Chris Palmer, used to reference the ‘Meek May’ ad on a daily basis, saying it was the essence of the Nike tone of voice.
It seems to have more swagger/attitude than the ads that went before it?

4. The story* about the Lou Reed Honda ad in Where The Suckers Moon is incredible.
Is it true?
I’ll work on my Lou Reed answer.  In many ways, Lou leads to Spike and Mike and Nike as popular culture.  And a whole new way to shoot ads.
How’s that for a tease?
Me

*My edited version:
It’s 1983 and W+K have just moved into a bigger office.
Nike, their biggest account, fires them.
They figure Chiat/Day is more famous, bigger and have more tv experience.
Sure, W+K know how to make cool print, but Chiat know how to make cool commercials.
W+K try to survive.
There’s barely enough work to give their new Junior Copywriter.
Eight months go by and they get to pitch for Honda.
Scooters sadly.
But still $12m in billings ($36m today).
They wanted their scooters to become hip, like Nike.
For some reason, they let their young copywriter, Jim Riswold head the presentation.
He enters the pitch nervously.
He has no script.
No storyboard.
Just an album cover and tape recorder.
He presses play, Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side fills the room.
He then suggests that the buttoned-up, Japanese clients hire the drug-addled, sexually fluid Lou Reed as their celebrity spokesman.
(He later says it was purely because he wanted to meet Reed.)
Honda love it.
They told Wieden to make it.
At this point, their combined tv experience was two Nike commercials.
They hire a big name director let him do his thing.
Shit show.
Some reels of film are underexposed, some over-exposed, some too grainy, some perfect; it’s a mess.
They dump the film cans on an editor called Larry Bridges.
He’s appalled.
Not with the film, but that his hero Lou has done a commercial and therefore sold out.
But instead of turning it down, he’ll honour the music.
Basically, make a music video.
The bad footage could be used to construct a homage to the French New Wave films of the sixties.
It wouldn’t look like a commercial, therefore it wouldn’t look like Lou had sold out.
It runs and causes a riot.
People love it.
Nike love it.
Nike reappoint W+K.
Because they do cool commercials.

 

5. How did Mike meet Spike?
Bill Davenport and I were in L.A. editing one of those serious Nike spots and we saw Spike’s first movie, She’s Gotta Have It.

In it Mars Blackmon finally gets to sleep with the woman of his dreams but won’t take off his Air Jordans to do it.
Bingo on a silver platter.
Furthermore, I think it showed Michael as a human, (fun) warts and all.
Mars was everyman and every Jordan fan could relate to Michael through Mars.
Well, at least that’s what we told ourselves.
It also featured the athlete, for wont of a better term, as the product.
I’ve always insisted an athlete, especially one of Michael’s stature, is more interesting than a shoe.
I am a sports fan. I was a kid in a candy store who got paid to be in the candy store. Michael was the biggest candy store in the universe.

6. What was Spike like?
Spike’s reaction was cool.
Spike wasn’t Spike Lee yet.
Spike answered his own phone when we called him about the project.
Spike lived in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn. Spike was a huge Jordan fan.
What do you think Spike’s reaction was when we called him and asked him if he would like to direct and star in commercials with Michael Jordan and get paid for it?

7. Where you a naughty kid?
I wasn’t a naughty kid; I was a wimpy kid.
My nickname was Pipsqueak.
Pipsqueak is not a term of endearment.
Please move me to where it is a term of endearment.
Call me Lord of the Pipsqueaks. All hail.

The ‘Instant Karma’ ad wasn’t how ads were done back then.
No pedantic product message – just a rush of exhilarating emotion.

Amazing.
But there was an issue with the music…

“Dear Jim,
In the Imperial Hotel of Vienna, I turned the TV on and, by chance, saw the final soccer match of Denmark vs. Germany. It was a great game and I suppose the whole of Europe was watching it. As we were all celebrating the victory of the underdog Danish team, John’s voice suddenly started singing “Instant Karma”; the “Instant Karma” ad was running. It was a very moving moment. It brought tears to my eyes. I’m sure many of John’s fans felt the same way.
I came back to New York and turned on the TV; this time it was the Wimbledon tennis match between Agassi and Ivanisevic. Again, at the most exciting moment, “Instant Karma” jumped out from the screen. What an incredible up-note; a strong, energetic message artistically delivered at the most powerful moment!
I thought I should let you know my two chance experiences with the ad and how it hit me. You did it.
With Love, Yoko Ono”

 

8. I’m presuming you’re a big risk taker?
My motto has always been “make glorious mistakes.”
Think of it this way: If you research what a kid wants in a cake, the research will tell you he wants a cake made entirely of icing; after all, icing is the best part. You can’t go wrong with an all-icing cake! The kid will get his guaranteed-not-wrong cake made of icing and that cake will make him throw up.
Moral of the story: It’s okay, even good sometimes, to be wrong.
For instance, I have been told by people who have nothing better to do than write about advertising that I came to it from an odd background, but only if you consider a college degree in Philosophy and membership in the American Hegelian Society and a fondness for 19th century German philosophers odd.
To wit:
“Riswold’s campaigns may have created more American icons than anyone since Walt Disney. You would not, however, suspect it by looking at him…Riswold looks more like the seven-year philosophy undergrad he once was at the University of Washington than one of the most powerful forces in American advertising.”
And:
“Jim Riswold is the only ad copywriter ever to make Newsweek’s list of the 100 most influential people in America. And if God made Michael Jordan, then Riswold made Michael Jordan God. Graying hair shorn nearly to the scalp, Riswold looks, in his dark glasses and overcoat, more like someone hired to teach you German philosophy, or to put a bullet in you. Or maybe both.”
Flattering hyperbole, yes, but I don’t think I would’ve been the subject of such fawning nonsense if it weren’t for my background in philosophy.
Seriously, I think my background in philosophy, as well as an inordinate amount of other liberal arts degrees and credits, have enabled me to look at things in, hopefully, a different way. At the very least, reading the really complicated philosophical works provide proof that, yes, there are far more difficult things to comprehend than really dumb client requests and demands.
It has also, in rare moments of lucidity, allowed me to realize there are far more important things in this world than advertising: family, friends, art, Nietzsche, literature, oncologists and baked beans.
While the baked beans bit may sound flippant, it isn’t; because when you come to grips with the fact that something as inconsequential as baked beans is more important than advertising, it allows you to create great advertising.
Long Live philosophy and baked beans.

9. You say stoopid is better than smart, why?
Start every day stupid. If you start every day stupid you start every day without inhibition and inhibition is creativity’s kryptonite.
I recommend vodka. Drinking destroys inhibition. Inhibition kills creativity. I will not pontificate on drinking’s less-than-stellar effect on livers because that would be quite hypocritical of me and my mom always said, “Eat your vegetables and don’t be a hypocrite.” So if you want to protect your liver and be creative, skip the vodka thing and stick to the uninhibited thing.
Creativity is trying different things and then more different things. Picasso, no slouch in the trying-different-things department, pointed out, “God invented the giraffe, the elephant, the cat…He has no real style. He just goes on trying things.
Creativity demands making a fool out of yourself. You cannot be creative unless you are willing to walk around with your pants around your ankles.

24 Feb 2024, 09:22 (EMAIL)
Riz, just heard that bit in the Haberstam book where you pitch Jordan a post-baseball script.
So far, no one has challenged him or been brutally honest with him on anything.
You present him a script that implies and make fun of him not being very good at baseball.
The balls.
He rejects it, you persist, he caves.
Hats off!
I’ve seen The Last Dance – he’s scary.
Dx

24 Feb 2024, 13:27 (EMAIL)
So true, Dave.
We had just finished a Mars Blackmon spot talking about MJ as a hardworking, but not very good, baseball player.
We then hear, a week or so later, he’s coming back to baseball and Nike wants spots, like tomorrow.
Simple.  Make the retirement and baseball trip all a dream.
We did a Mars one, describing MJ as “having trouble with the vicious Double A curveball.”
In Micheal’s he’s at the foul line and says in VO, I had this dream.  I walked away from the game I loved.  I became a weak hitting Double A outfielder with a below average arm.  I rode from small town to small town on a bus.  Then I returned to the game I loved.  And shot 7 for 27.”
Cut back to Michael at foul line:  Can you imagine it?  Nah.
People are worried Michael will balk at the weak hitting line.
I read him the script over the phone.
Silence.
Finally MJ speaks:  “Ah Riz, why do you want to call me a weak hitting outfielder?”
I say, “What else would you call someone in Double A hitting below .200?
He says, “Fuck you.  I’ll do it.”
And we did it.
Me

 

24 Feb 2024, 16.09 (EMAIL)
Have you got any rejected work I could show?

24 Feb 2024, 23:15 (EMAIL)
This spot is one that got away.
Nike killed it.
Thought it made Jordan look cheap.
One take miracle.
He didn’t know the line was coming so his laugh is real.

 

 

27 Feb 2024, 19:27 (EMAIL)
Just seen ‘Jordan CEO’ – never seen it, love the hat and the bridge jump – genius!

28 Feb 2024, 13:27 (EMAIL)
Thanx, Dave.
CEO JORDAN is an unknown favorite and my ode to Hudsucker Proxy.  
Shot a lot with a double.  Big complicated shoot.
And, as aways, a lot of fun.
Really hoped everyone would stick with Micheal as the greatest businessman of all time.
Alas.
Me

28 Feb 2024, 16.09 (EMAIL)
Another one that didn’t see the light of day.

29 Feb 2024, 10:22 (EMAIL)
Love that.
Was it presented?

29 Feb 2024, 17:02 (EMAIL)
Presented.  Not approved.
Best presentation story I ever heard was one Kennedy relished telling.  George Lois and his account guy are trying to sell an idea.  Let’s call the account guy Fred for this story.  George is at his crazy best, but the client won’t budge.  Harder and harder, antics upon antics, and more sizzling sizzle George throws at the client.  Nope.  Finally, George loses it and yells, “GODDMANIT IF THIS FUCKING IDEA DOESN’T SELL PRODUCT, I’LL SUCK YOUR COCK!”  Room goes silent. George takes a deep breath and calmly says, “I’m sorry…what I meant to say was, “Goddamnit if this fucking idea doesn’t sell product, Fred here will suck your cock.”

1 Mar 2024, 10:31 (EMAIL)
Tony Davidson asked me to ask you about your ‘playing golf with Michael Jordan story’.
I told him I’m over my limit on questions – he said ‘say Kim asked you to ask, he likes Kim’.

1 Mar 2024, 17:16 (EMAIL)
Michael Jordan in a 1966 VW Bug story.

One sunny Saturday afternoon we had a presentation to Michael.  Knight said bring your clubs, Michael wants to play golf with you after.

The presentation goes swimmingly.  We’re in the Nike parking lot full of Ferraris and nice cars and one baby blue 1966 VW Bug, my car.  Michael and I start to pile in my car.  Nike is flabbergasted and all offer up their cars, even Knight.  Michael says no, his college roommate had one and it gives him a chance to be normal.  And, yes, the car has plenty of headroom for a 6’6” man.

So off to the golf course we go, a good ½ hour away.

Michael has the window down.  People on the road start waving…is that Michael Jordan?  

Michael waves back. Yes, it is.  Be like Mike and wave back.

Nah.  Fuck you, it can’t be Michael Jordan.  Jordan wouldn’t be caught dead in that car.

(If anything, Michael picked the wrong golf course; it’s a shitty private one.)

This waving goes on the entire way to the course.

We play 18.  We play more.  We play in the dark with the groundskeeper lighting our way.  It’s good to be Michael Jordan.

I take Michael back to his hotel.  Back then everybody knew where Michael stayed while in Portland.

Sure enough, the baby blue 1966 Volkswagen Bug turns the corner and there’s a decent-sized mob at the front door.  A Porsche pulls up in front of us.  Surely, Michael’s in that cool car! People swarm to the car.

While swarming, Michael and I say our goodbyes and he sneaks out and through the back door, unseen by the masses.

Oh, and he autographed my car.

1 Mar 2024, 18:03 (EMAIL)
Jesus!
I presume you Ebayed the Bug?
I can’t help wonder, sorry, another question – with that relationship, and Jordan being Jordan, he must’ve asked you to write him an ad after you hung up your pen?
Dx

1 Mar 2024, 19:53 (EMAIL)
I sold the Bug to a friend for way too little money.
She took the car to be detailed and the signature was lost forever.
Sigh.
Never mind the car was in mint condition.
I was the second owner.
It had its service record, it had its owners manual, it had the original tools and jack and the cloth bag they came in.
No radio.
It had its original bill of sale.  $1395.00.Only extra bought at sale.  
Seat belts. 
I added a fire extinguisher behind the drivers seat.
Me

3 Mar 2024, 09:39 (EMAIL)
What’s the best ad you never made?

3 Mar 2024, 19:12 (EMAIL)
Easy question. It was a LeBron spot, and I don’t like Lebron at all.
Here’s the spot:

Everybody died laughing and said, no fucking way, and we went on with our business.

4 Mar 2024, 14:21 (EMAIL)
Hi Dave.
I hate poetry.
So, I wrote one.

Oh, Mediocrity
My constant companion
My light and night shadow
The Fred to my Barney
Go stomping off into day
Like size 19s
EEEs
Too fucking easily
Oh, Mediocrity

4 Mar 2024, 21:09 (EMAIL)
Hey Riz, I’m no judge of poetry.
But I like the Flintstones.
And… that bit in Planes,Trains where John Candy unifies the bus by busting out the theme tune?

5 Mar 2024, 16:36 (EMAIL)
I’m glad you like the Flinstones because I almost changed that line to:
Oh, Mediocrity
My constant companion
My light and night shadow
The Adolf to my Eva
Go stomping off into day
Like size 19s
EEEs
Too fucking easily
Oh, Mediocrity

It’s always Hitler with me.
Me

The answers feel like they are taking longer to come through and are shorter in length.
I start to feel guilty.
I feel like I’m bugging him about bullshit.
I decide to let it fade.

The following week I get a text from an unknown number, looks American?

11 Mar 2024, 15:35 (TEXT)
David!  Did you forget all about me?
Ha.  The Financial Times didn’t.  You British People dig me.

 

Attached is an interview with him by the Financial Times.
I’ve no clue how he got my number.

 

11 Mar 2024, 15:55 (TEXT)
Riz? Is that you?
We love you over here. Haven’t forgotten. just trying to figure out What I can ask you to write/say that doesn’t feel like I’m imposing.
You’ve got to remember – I’m a Brit and we’re terribly sensitive.
I did wonder whether to put together a post, pull quotes from a bunch of other articles and put it out quick – so that you can see it and you’ll feel the love as people comment and respond?
What do you think?
Was going to write ‘hope you’re well’, which I know you’re not…how do you sign off on these things in this situation?
…Sending positive vibes and good wishes.
Dx

12 Mar 2024, 12:11 (TEXT)
I dig British People too.  I dig my new art purchases too—Timothy Greenfield Sanders 44 x 66 two panel diptych of a nude gay porn star and Annie Leibovitz’s take on Oz, featuring Chuck Close as the wizard, Jeff Koons as a flying monkey, Jasper Johns as the cowardly lion, Kara Walker as the good witch, the Penn St. marching band as munchkins, John Currin as the tin man, etc. and Kiera Knightly as Dorothy.

I decide to keep all the questions to text.
Maybe it’s easier for him?
And to ask one question at a time, like a conversation, not an interview.
Maybe I can eek out a few more pearls of wisdom.

 

14 Mar 2024, 11:41 (TEXT)
Here’s Chad being sent to me.  He will guard my bedroom.

14 Mar 2024, 13:54 (TEXT)
Erm…What’s the idea? To make men entering feel inadequate?

14 Mar 2024, 19:25 (TEXT)
Chad Hunt is his name.  Here he is clothed.

14 Mar 2024, 20:01 (TEXT)
Here’s Leibovitz.

14 Mar 2024, 20:24 (TEXT)
Love that Leibovitz stuff, different from her more cloying recent commercial stuff.
Have you shot with her?

14 Mar 2024, 20:59 (TEXT)
Oz is from aught 5.
She shot the print ad for Lou Reed and Honda.
And Miles.

14 Mar 2024, 21:03 (TEXT)
Miles Davis?
What was he like?

14 Mar 2024, 23:24 (TEXT)
Miles is the coolest thing God ever created.

17 Mar 2024, 10:01 (TEXT)
Ever see a British ad you loved?
(We’ve done loads.)

17 Mar 2024, 13:21 (TEXT)
Marty Feldman for VW.
HEADLINE: IF HE CAN MAKE IT. SO CAN VOLKSWAGEN.

17 Mar 2024, 14:09 (TEXT)
David Abbott.
I got him out of retirement to work on a Volkswagen pitch with me…
https://davedye.com/2013/11/29/abbo/

17 Mar 2024, 14:14 (TEXT)
DA rocks.

17 Mar 2024, 14:23 (TEXT)
Anything since you’ve been in the business?

17 Mar 2024, 14:38 (TEXT)
Tony and Kim’s Honda stuff.

 

 

17 Mar 2024, 16:13 (TEXT)
What other British influences have gone into your ads…Python? Spike Milligan? The Beatles…

17 Mar 2024, 17:11 (TEXT)
Monty Python. Bowie. Pretty much up at the top of the influencer chain.

17 Mar 2024, 17.13 (TEXT)
Sex Pistols.

17 Mar 2024, 16:13 (TEXT)
Weird, they are SO English.
Particularly Python – all about class.
Like me loving stuff about Utah.
Which is possible, I guess?
Gilliam lives up the road from me.
I often see him waiting for a bus.
A big red, London bus – no chauffer.

17 Mar 2024, 17.13 (TEXT)
I did a baseball commercial with Gilliam. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.

17 Mar 2024, 16:13 (TEXT)
One word only:
What’s the one character trait most useful to a creative?
Best U.S. agency without Wieden or Bernbach in the name?
Funniest Person ever?
Ad you wished you’d written?
Best album ever?
Best film ever?

17 Mar 2024, 17.13 (TEXT)
1.  Venerability.
2.  72 and Sunny.
3.  Bugs Bunny.
4.  1984.
5.  Ziggy Stardust.
6.  Apocalypse Now.

17 Mar 2024, 17.17 (TEXT)
Venerability. 
Unusual choice, had to look it up to check what it meant – ‘respect for elders’.
Abbott said ‘resilience’.

17 Mar 2024, 17.24 (TEXT)
Damn autocorrect.  I meant vulnerability.

17 Mar 2024, 17.39 (TEXT)
I prefer ‘vulnerability’. 
Few are confident enough to show it.
Why vulnerability?

17 Mar 2024, 17.45 (TEXT)
Yep.  Open for target practice.

17 Mar 2024, 17.48 (TEXT)
I’m pretty sure I touched on it before.  You can’t be creative unless you’re willing to be vulnerable or, metaphorically, walk around naked.

17 Mar 2024, 17.53 (TEXT)
Yep, Bowie was.
And Lennon.
Not sure about McCartney.
What about Dan and David?

17 Mar 2024, 18.24 (TEXT)
David was a nudist in that regard.

17 Mar 2024, 18.46 (TEXT)
What about you?

17 Mar 2024, 18:55 (TEXT)
Metaphorically, all the time.  In the raw, 10 times.

17 Mar 2024, 19:27 (EMAIL)
I would imagine it gets harder as you have to lug around your heavier and heavier reputation around?
Over time people expect more from you than that ‘forever student’?

17 Mar 2024, 19:39 (TEXT)
I expected more from myself, Dave.

17 Mar 2024, 19:55 (EMAIL)
Sure, but didn’t you feel the weight of expectation from others?
“Here comes the guy who did Spike & Mike, Bo Knows, etc, etc.”
Like in music, artists with nothing to lose can go anywhere, creatively, artists following up a hit can tense up or overthink it?
Pressure is a simpler way of saying it.

17 Mar 2024, 19:59 (TEXT)
Never felt any pressure.  Ever.
I considered myself the best and, as such, never felt a drop of pressure.

17 Mar 2024, 20:38 (EMAIL)
Blimey.
You’re lucky.
Or weird.
Or both.

17 Mar 2024, 20:39 (TEXT)
Both.

17 Mar 2024, 20:47 (EMAIL)
Hard agree.

A couple of days later, I told Mary Warlick, lovely, ex-CEO of The One Club, about my conversations with Riz.
Excited, she asked me to relay a message. I did it immediately…

 

21 Mar 2024, 14:24 (TEXT)

Mary says your Napoleon print is on the wall and you are lovely.

21 Mar 2024, 15:25 (TEXT)
Hello Dear Mary!


Mary and I look at each other, what’s an appropriate reply?
It was difficult to know how to reply. (‘Nice nails’ was the best I could muster.)
The image made me think I should stop, but there was one nagging question.

23 Mar 2024, 19:22 (TEXT)
You only put Lou Reed into that Honda ad to meet him.
You worked with your comedy hero, Bugs Bunny.
You shot with a Python.
You must’ve tried to work with Bowie?

23 Mar 2024, 21:20 (TEXT)
I worked with Bowie on his Black Tie White Noise LP, his love letter to his new wife, Iman.  (Some Bowies have all the luck.)
Got to see Iman in a neglige.
He hired us to come up with ideas for videos and packages.
Came up with an idea for a film where he is an old man playing nightclubs in the Catskills.  He laughed real hard when we presented the idea.  He started blocking out shots and who would be in the band.  So cool to see.
Since he wanted to mark this album as a goodbye to his old music (haven’t heard that idea from Bowie before)  had an idea where just put a sticker over an old album cover and sometimes just a clear CD cover with Bowie on it real small.
Actually saw Ronson record as he was near death.
Nile Rodgers was back at the helm producing.
David asked me what I thought of the album.
I was honest and said I loved it, save for two tracks “Lucy Can’t Dance” and “Bring Me the Head of the Disco King.”
Why Jim? I was asked.
They are tired tracks and don’t fit into the concept of the album.
On the way out, Coco Schwab, Bowie’s long time assistant, read me the riot act, “You DO NOT, comment on David’s music.”
I was soon fired.
Coolest thing.  Being paged at WK, “Jim Riswold, David Bowie on 2-5-0; Jim Riswold, David Bowie on 2-5-0.”
And I got a Christmas card from him. 

 

MORE RIZ…

Nike.

Jordan.

 

 

 

 

Ice Hockey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live Longer.

 

Golf.

Marshall Faulk.

 Hockey.

Ken Griffey.

Cross Trainer.

Air.

Tiger Woods.

Robinson’s House.

Lil’ Penny.

 

ACG.

Dennis Leary.

 

Alta Vista.

Microsoft.

Emails.

A Do Lecture.