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Pete Blackshaw Remembers His Jingle-Writing Dad

  • Ad Age , Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:41 AM
On the second anniversary of his father's death, Pete Blackshaw, ex-P&Ger and current evp of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services, writes fondly and frankly about "one of the original Mad Men." Starting at BBDO, Bill Blackshaw wrote jingles on Madison Avenue for more than 30 years for clients such as Chevrolet, Great Western Savings and Pacific Southwest Airlines.

Blackshaw was a "Catholic outsider" in the agency world of the "Golden Age," his son writes. His favorite quote was, "Never trust a guy whose first name sounds like his last." But it wasn't just sour grapes. "He lamented the sexism and the anti-Semitism of advertising," Blackshaw writes, and did so on the record in a series of video interviews the two recorded that took their cue from the fictional world that Matt Weiner has created.

"My dad's life and the show's script collide on a darker side of the business: alcoholism," Blackshaw writes. "By the time he died, at age 83, he had already passed his 30th anniversary without a drink, and whatever took place in the years before remains a bit shrouded in mystique." What followed after, however, was coaching and mentoring "countless peers from rough spots." Touching piece.

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