Steve Hayden's NDAC Talk

Last night I saw Steve Hayden, an advertising giant (Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather North America), speak in Denver at the Curtis Hotel for the New Denver Ad Club. I won't try to regurgitate all the relevant thoughts he surfaced, but I will mention what I walked away with.

Steve said if you simply add the letter "L" to the idea of an ad campaign - you have an "ideaL." His recent success has been marked by the ability to define the purpose of an ad with a noble or humorous statement like, "The world would be a better place if _____ did _____."

The best example I saw in his many commercials was the "Real Women" Dove campaign. With a noble purpose attached to a generic product, consumers became evangelists of the campaign and it spread like wildfire. I forget the actual line, but it was something like "The world would be a better place if the Dove Real Women campaign helped women feel beautiful about themselves."

Thank you Steve Miller of NetNewsDesk.com for asking me to shot some snapshots of the talk. Hayden was a real gentleman. I took a quick portrait, above, on a deck outside the conference room.