A Craft, a Calling and a Cause: Life in the Glory Years of Advertising

by Bill Lane, Sven Mohr (Design)

A Craft, a Calling and a Cause is Mad Men as it really was -- not a television cartoon of dark whiskey and cigarette smoke, but a true story of advertising professionals at their most dedicated and passionate. It begins in New York City during the creative revolution of the 60s and continues through the rough and tumble of the Detroit automobile business in the 70s. It tells what it felt like to compete against Hal Riney and Chiat Day in San Francisco at the dawn of the Silicon Valley age and to run a creative group there in the eye of the AIDS storm. It concludes with boardroom backstabbing and corporate intrigue that led to the British takeover of major U.S. agencies in the 90s. It's told by a copywriter who started at the lowest rung of the J. Walter Thompson Company and rose through its ranks to sit on JWT's board of directors; who created such famous campaigns as Have You Driven a Ford...Lately? and Kodak's Times of Your Life; who developed the Sprint Pin Drop and Some People Just Know How to Fly for Northwest Airlines; who built groups and led offices on both coasts; who found time to write hit songs for Paul Anka and The Carpenters and to go into business with O.J. Simpson along the way.

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2014