The Idea Blog

He had already passed from much of the advertising industry’s conscience, perhaps, but Hal Riney, who died Monday in San Francisco, was a classic.

A great writer, a man of creative vision and, for many of his agency’s TV spots, the voiceover talent as well, Riney embodied the values and the fortunes of the agency named after him in a way many of the great ones did. Leo Burnett, Bill Bernbach, David Martin, Pat Fallon, Jay Chiat are all similar examples. But Riney’s agency depended on him to such an extent that it couldn’t exist without him.

Whether that’s good or bad isn’t important. I’ll forgive him Reagan’s “Morning in America” as I revel in revisiting Bartles and Jaymes, the Saturn auto launch and much of his other work.

Here’s the announcement in The New York Times.