• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 7, 2018

Geometry Global’s Richard Wise is out with a new book about why you shouldn’t feel like a low-down scumbag for being in the advertising business. 

It’s probably an issue he’s wrestled with over the years, given that he’s credited with the creation of the Joe Camel campaign for Camel Cigarettes back in the 1980s and 1990s. 

That’s a campaign that a lawsuit contended was designed to draw kids to the brand. The case ultimately settled. Cigarette maker RJR agreed to pay millions and pull the campaign. 

Wise seems to revel in his role as “strategic spin doctor for the only advertising campaign ever denounced on prime-time television by the president of the United States of America.” The president was Bill Clinton — and there’s no evidence in the book that Bubba referenced Wise or his campaign specifically. He more generally took on the tobacco industry. 

Whatever, the book, titled "Save Your Soul: Work In Advertising," is a quick and breezy 118 pages. At times, it has the feel of a somewhat lengthy infographic. 

And it is more than a bit quirky. Page 86, for example, has a headline, “Jesus Told His Followers Stories,” and a photo of a crucifix. That’s it. The point, I guess, is storytelling, which is at the core of advertising. Wise also asserts that Freud was more storyteller that scientist. 

"Save Your Soul" is one of those books that you can thumb through and snack a bit here and snack a bit there. As for how tasty it is, you decide. Borrow a copy. 

If you’re in the advertising biz and feel bad about your choice, you should probably get out.

But if you really don’t want to switch careers, just want to feel less bad about your choice, you might want to thumb through it. (But like I said earlier, borrow a copy. It’s a bit pricey at $19.95 for the hardcover edition.) After you read it, you might be a little better at self-rationalizing your career choice. 

Still, my view is, if in doubt, get out. It’s kind of like being a journo. If the innate passion isn’t there, no book will help you through it. 

But Wise really does seem to want to be up front about his tobacco work from the get-go. On the jacket of the hardcover version, he’s pictured with a sign around his neck that reads: “I’m the cheeky condemned adman!” 

And, as any boomer knows, “It’s what’s up front that counts,” right?