by Nick Cohen
336 pages, hardcover, $29.95
Published by Tish Tosh Publishing
tish-tosh.com

I can still remember studying the pages of old Communication Arts Ad Annuals during portfolio school, eager as any newbie to learn from the best in the business. I vividly recall when I came across a bold copywriting campaign for the Village Voice that took on the POV of someone who hated the magazine, written in the style of a complaint letter. I immediately thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is wild. I want to write stuff like this.’ I’m sure I wasn’t alone.

The creative brains behind the work were the agency Mad Dogs & Englishmen. In Honest!, its founder, Nick Cohen, describes the agency’s genesis and commitment to truth telling in a business known for, well... Let’s just say embellishments and half-truths. Cohen captures Mad Dogs’s chaotic creativity through details like its whimsical brainstorming sessions and his democratic “fickle-pen-of-fate” method for critiquing ideas. Even particulars like Cohen’s insistence on using the font Franklin Gothic No. 5 for its perceived honesty adds a telling touch to his never-ending quest for authenticity.

The memoir also delves into the personal quirks of the agency’s employees, so-called misfits who found a haven in Mad Dogs. Many of them share recollections in the book, and Cohen remarks that the legacy of Mad Dogs lives on with those who’ve attained high-perch positions and started their own shops. It seems truth telling does have a place in advertising after all. —Dave Kuhl ca