• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 16, 2015

Top 10 This. Top 10 That. 30 Under 30. 40 Under 40. You've seen the lists. Some come from agencies. Most come from publications starving for page views. Others, like this 500 Under 500 list, comes from a pair of creatives, Lex Singer and Jesse Yowell, who thought it'd be a great idea to gather together to top 500 advertising people under the age of 500.

Yeah, you read that right. 500 Under 500. Of the list's development, Singer said, "We saw how seriously people take all these industry lists, so we wanted to make the most absurd version of it possible. At first we thought we'd do 1,000 under 1,000 and then we decided to make it slightly more manageable."

Who’s on the list? Well, aside from everyone, you'll find Ivy Ronquillo, creative operations manager at Code and Theory; Joseph Wilper, senior art director at Sullivan Higdon & Sink; Lucas Fuentes, junior creative at Iris Worldwide; Naomi Baria, senior social strategist at Big Spaceship; Valerie Vanzulli, art director at TBWA\Chiat\Day

Never heard of these people? Well what did you expect? With 500 people on the list, there's bound to be some unknowns. But you'll also find Martin Sorrell, Steve Jobs, Susan Credle, David Ogilvy, David Droga, Jeff Goodby, Alex Bogusky and Gerry Graf. So, yeah, everyone.

Even the Taco Bell dog is on the list!

And you'll also find pretty much the entire staff of AdWeek and AgencySpy but, oddly, not a soul (that I could find) from Advertising Age. Not sure what that says about things, but for the seemingly premiere publication covering the ad world not to be on the biggest advertising-related list is, well, telling.

Every listing is accompanied by a witty and relevant bio which illustrates just how much work Singer and Yowell put into the creation of this list.

TBWA Worldwide President Troy Ruhanen's listing is accompanied with, "Way more acclaimed than the movie named after him starring Brad Pitt. Razorfish Social Media Strategist Joseph Burton's listing is accompanied with, "He probably would be so good at social media if he were 500 years old." INNOCEAN ECD Ed Miller's listing is accompanied with, "There is no way anybody is still reading this list. Sorry, Ed. You deserve better."

Best. List. Ever.