George Lois has performed dozens of marketing miracles. He conceived of winning ad campaigns for U.S. Senators Robert Kennedy, Jacob Javits, Hugh Scott, and the struggling incumbent Washington state senator Warren “Maggie” Magnuson who, until Lois intervened, was seriously losing in the polls. We’ve seen George Lois’ work in more places than we could dare to imagine. Beyond the Esquire Magazine covers, he’s the mastermind behind the market saturation of Xerox and Stouffer's Lean Cuisine to the emergence of ESPN as a respectable sports channel, the rescue of a floundering MTV and the overnight launch and spectacle of fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger. Tommy Hilfiger didn’t just launch; the brand rocked the world.
Everything Lois did was about coming up with the big idea, but paradoxically sometimes the big idea was cleverly conceived to be quite small. George Lois and his colleagues came up with Volkswagen’s “Think Small” campaign.
Through it all, George Lois seems to have a magic wand at his fingertips. Lois has a lot in common with his buddy Plato. For one, they’re both Greek and their work has dominated western thought for a considerable amount of time. Both draw a heady elixir from the combo of art, science and philosophy. Undoubtedly, both are philosopher kings who fervently believe in the power of the truth. The Muhammad Ali Cover would not have smacked us in the face if it had not been true. Muhammad Ali was being treated unfairly by the U.S. government, the professional boxing industry, and the legions of Americans who would not forgive him for converting to Islam.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave would not have stood the test of time if it wasn’t a good story well told with startling imagery that spoke the truth. Both men, Golden Greeks George Lois and Plato, inspire people who are living in the shadows to see the light and push the boundaries ever upward, sideways and every which way in pursuit of the Platonic ideal. The essence of creativity is about taking the idea to the edge. In Lois’ own words, “Why be a creative thinker-when you can be a cultural provocateur?”
If Plato lived today, he’d be a lot like George Lois. At age 85, Lois has started-up a new agency. The Lois TransMedia, Big Idea Advertising and Public Relations is a full service agency offering the post-modern mashup of traditional and online advertising blended with marketing, P.R., social media and film production. The latest venture is another partnership with his son Luke Lois—the two have worked together since 2000—and with Tom Madden from the TransMedia Group. Lois plans to locate the office five minutes away from his home in Manhattan. Never one to rest on his laurels even if they are Greek leaves, Lois said, “When you’re really great at something, and you love what you do, you work at it 24/7. You have to keep working.”
SUGGESTED READING
George Lois and Muhammad Ali | On Race and Courage
George Lois walks us through the process that led to his idea of putting Muhammad Ali in the pose of a martyr on the cover of Esquire Magazine.