Ad agency Sanders\Wingo is out to answer the question, “Who’s the all-time greatest man or woman in advertising?” To do it, they’ve created ADversaries, a Facebook page that matches up ad people head-to head, ala March Madness.
That some advertising people achieve cult of personality status has always struck me as a bit odd, but what’s even weirder here are the initial “matchups”: Bill Bernbach vs. Sally Hogshead, David Ogilvy vs. Jimmy Smith, etc. Pitting people of different eras and career lengths seems like a odd way to tackle this. It’s all in fun, I guess. I always do wonder if David Ogilvy, were he alive today, would send PDFs of ads to clients and get on conference calls to present them. Maybe he wouldn’t be as famous or successful today.
