overview

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of George Lois in the advertising industry. For over 40 years, his work has helped sell products and become part of popular culture: the original Xerox campaign, the slogan for Braniff ("when you got it, flaunt it"), the Nauga icon for Uniroyal, the Olivetti Girl for Olivetti and many others (Graphis, 1999, p.97). The influence of his work goes beyond the advertising field, as testified by his cover designs for Esquire magazine in the 1960's: boxer Sonny Liston portrayed as the first African-American Santa Claus, and Andy Warhol drowning in a can of Campbell tomato soup. Such has been the creative brilliance of his work that Lois was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame in 1978, and received a lifetime achievement award from AIGA in 1997.  

Lois' blustery personality comes through in his advertising. One well-known anecdote is that he sold Goodman's Matzoh campaign to a reluctant client by threatening to jump from a third story window: "You make the matzoh," he growled, "I'll make the ads" (Berger, 2001, p.32). At the same time, his work is a reflection of his belief in the Big Idea: "A surprising solution to a marketing problem, expressed in memorable verbal and/or graphic imagery" (Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.6). This is what makes great advertising‹and also what this web site is about.

While it is difficult to separate the man from his work and vice versa, the focus of this web site is on the legacy of George Lois the adman, the art director‹the Big Idea Man. Much of Lois' work cited here was done in the 1960s and 1970s as it is most illustrative of his advertising credo. Details about his personal life have been discussed only when they are directly relevant to his work.

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