July 6, 2005: Toronto – ihaveanidea, Advertising’s Intellectual Archive is announcing its most ambitious event ever, “A Night With Neil French”, a one-time only in depth live interview with the world’s most award-winning creative in the history of advertising, Neil French the Worldwide Creative Director of WPP, one the world’s largest communications networks.

Introducing and interviewing Mr. French will be all-stars Rick Boyko, current Managing Director of VCU Adcenter and the former North American Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, and American advertising icon Mark Fenske whose creative glories include directing MTV’s Video of the Year for Van Halen.

“Neil is the rock star of the advertising industry. He has made his own rules from day one, saying and doing whatever he has pleased, and while at it, has changed the advertising industry and single-handedly changed the way we make ads. He not only has won more advertising awards than any other human being, he has risen to the highest-ranking advertising job in the world at WPP,” says ihaveanidea’s founder & director Ignacio Oreamuno. “The night is going to be fantastic because we have two creative giants and friends of Neil dissecting his work and his thoughts live for the audience. Everyone who comes will receive a massive injection of inspiration.”

“First Light is thrilled to be a partner in “A Night With Neil French”, proclaims Lisa Dempsey, CEO of First Light. “Although I have to admit it, we’re really proud to be able to offer our support to the entire creative community in such a meaningful way as this, that ihaveanidea is even able to make this outstanding event possible.”

“Ogilvy Toronto is pleased to partner with ihaveanidea to create "A Night With Neil French". One of the most heavily awarded copywriters of all time, this outspoken Clio Hall of Fame member has done it all and lived to tell. Our favourite ad legend will share his eye-opening perspective durring an evening not to be missed. Between Neil, Rick Boyko and Mark Fenske, the stage may spontaneously combust,” warns Nancy Vonk, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy in Toronto.

A Night with Neil will take place at 6:00pm in Toronto on October 6, 2005, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre’s John Basset Theatre.

Tickets cost 125 dollars Canadian ($100 USD) and will be available exclusively on ihaveanidea at www.ihaveanidea.org.


About Neil
Neil French has been a rent collector, account executive, advertising manager, waiter, singer, matador, beach bum, pornographer, bouncer, debt-collector, concert promoter, nightclub owner, rock band manager, copywriter, art-director, creative director, film director, actor, television station owner, Worldwide Creative Director of Ogilvy and most recently, Godfather and Worldwide Creative Director of WPP.

Overseeing one of the world’s largest communication networks as the parent company to Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, Hill & Knowlton, JWT, Bates, Red Cell, Mindshare and Wunderman, Neil is internationally celebrated as the best copywriter that ever lived. Neil is also recognized to have won more creative awards than anyone on the planet. His ads and leadership have shaped and influenced advertising as we know it today.

About Mark
Mark Fenske is currently Associate Professor at the VCU Ad Center in Richmond, Virginia. Previously, he was the founder and creative director of the Bomb Factory advertising agency. He is also well known for his creative work at Wieden & Kennedy and N.W. Ayer & Partners. Fenske has provided voice-over talent for Apple, Coca-Cola, Nissan, American Express and Sears.

Fenske is also an accomplished director, having helped create music videos for the Indigo Girls, Bruce Hornsby, John Hiatt and Van Halen. His work for Van Halen earned him an MTV Music Video Award for Director of the Year in 1992.

About Rick
Rick Boyko is the former North American Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. He joined VCU Adcenter as Managing Director on July 1, 2003. A long-time advocate of advertising education, Rick also sits on the Steering Committee for Art Center College of Design. While Rick has won almost every advertising award there is, he is most proud of an accomplishment outside of advertising: In October 2001, following the September 11 tragedy, Rick conceived of and was the driving force behind “Brotherhood”, a tabletop book honouring the 343 firemen who perished. It sold more than 200,000 copies and the proceeds of $1.5 million went to the families of the firemen. Rick currently sits on the boards of Napster, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Butler Shine Stern & Partners, the Art Directors Club and The One Club for Art & Copy.

For more information on “A Night With Neil French”, please visit www.ihaveanidea.org.


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About ihaveanidea

ihaveanidea is Advertising's Intellectual Archive. It is a project with the mission of serving the advertising industry as a centre of self-analysis, intellectual growth and communications portal.

The foundations of the project are based on the idea that disseminating and sharing creative knowledge will benefit all in the industry.

Thousands of creatives from around the world visit the project each month.

ihaveanidea was founded and created by Ignacio Oreamuno, a former art director from Ogilvy& Mather. Several creatives help make the project a reality.

ihaveanidea is sponsored by The Clio Awards , the globe’s most recognized international advertising awards competition; Black Bag, North America’s creative talent attraction consultancy – with practice areas in talent attraction consulting, creative recruitment and strategic career planning and coaching; Future Marketing, which celebrates a wide range of non-traditional marketing and advertising techniques, Human Locator, an interactive visual system developed by Freeset and designed expressly for advertising; Adweek which has the inside stories on: creativity, client/agency relationships, successful global advertising strategies; Beam.TV, a global distribution network that specializes in the immediate digital delivery of advertising across different platforms and countries; Technicolor, the most powerful post-production house for the commercial market; Fuel Industries, North America's leader in advergame development; Eloda an independent third party provider of TV advertising occurrence verification services and VCU Adcenter, a two-year graduate program providing an intensive, real-world education for future advertising leaders in Richmond, Virginia.

For further information, please contact:
Mimi Martinoski
Communications Director
ihaveanidea
Tel: 416.827.0537
mimi@ihaveanidea.org