January 3, 2008 | By Kenny

Phil Dusenberry, rest in peace

It is with sorrow and tremendous respect that we say good-bye to Phil Dusenberry, a great inspiration in the field of advertising. Phil passed in New York on December 29, at age 71, from lung cancer. As the former chairman of BBDO North America, Phil Dusenberry was one of the great minds behind some of America's most popular advertising campaigns and for more than 2 decades, the standards he set became the guiding light for the creative excellence of BBDO agencies throughout the world. He was named one of the "Top 100 Advertising People" in the last century by AdAge and was the creative mind behind legendary campaigns like GE's "We Bring Good Things to Life" and Pepsi's "The Choice of a New Generation."

Phil Dusenberry's popular book, Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising, continues to be an inspiration for how we approach creativity and process here at SUM Agency. The title for the book was inspired by the notorious incident on the set of the 1984 Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial shoot and in it (the book), Dusenberry reveals his faith in gut instinct and the importance of insights to drive clients' success.

We send our deepest regards to Phil Dusenberry's family and friends and we say thank you Phil for the inspiration, knowledge, motivation, insight, and model you bestowed upon us and this amazing industry. What you said is true, a good idea is simply a good idea, but "One Great Insight is Worth a Thousand Good Ideas."

More on Phil's passing and history on Creativity online.

Here's a little video on the infamous Pepsi commercial of MJ's hair catching on fire (and you think your commercial shoots went wrong).

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