Wieden+Kennedy co-founder David Kennedy's most famous ads

“Creativity is like a plague that I’ve contracted and I can’t get rid of. It’s just an itch I gotta scratch, I can’t stop. If I were in a jail cell facing execution, I’d be making something out of something. It’s a compulsive fixation that I’ve had all my life.” That’s how the late David Kennedy, co-founder of Wieden+Kennedy, described his love affair with making things in a video created by advertising vet Rick Boyko for the Advertising Club of New York and the International Andy Awards. From his famous ads for big brands including Nike and Honda, to the longtime charity work he did for the American Indian College Fund as well as the earthy, rustic metal sculptures he created as a fine artist, we take a look back at some of the most memorable fruits of Kennedy's creativity. Subscribe to Ad Age now for award-winning news and insight. Nike’s most famous tagline, “Just Do It,” first appeared in this ad starring Walt Stack, a popular member of the San Francisco running community who logged 62,000 miles over the course of his lifetime, running marathons even into his 80s. Before “Just Do It,” Nike made its first-ever broadcast appearance with these ads Kennedy and his partner, fellow W+K co-founder Dan Wieden, created that aired during the New York City Marathon. They were shot and cut in a couple of weeks with a skeleton crew that included production manager Dennis Fraser and Director Phil Marco. While the agency earned its fame with work for the sportswear giant, it had memorable turns in the early days with Honda Scooters. “The idea was to use people in our advertising that were known for their unique self-expression — Grace Jones, Miles Davis and Lou Reed,” Kennedy said of the campaign in the Advertising Club film. “The Lou Reed spot was a milestone for us. We became the darling of MTV their first season.” Another big but controversial hit with the MTV set was this 1987 black-and-white ad promoting Nike Air. It starred a slew of sports stars including Michael Jordan and John McEnroe, but it also featured a famous track, “Revolution” by The Beatles. It was the first time a song from the band was used to promote a product and led to The Beatles' high-profile $15 million lawsuit against the brand. Nike had originally licensed the song through Michael Jackson and EMI-Capitol, who had rights to Beatles’ music and recordings. The sporting goods giant ultimately pulled the ad from the airwaves, citing it wanted to go in a different direction after its licensing of the song expired. 1987 Nike Air 'Revolution' TV Advert from The Daily Street on Vimeo. The agency’s first work for longtime client Travel Oregon included simple, charming ads that showed the sun rising above the state while witty voiceovers discuss the reasons you might want to visit, such as the sun that you can (finally) observe shining when summertime comes around. Another landmark Nike move was the 1998 campaign promoting the Air Jordan 3, which paired Michael Jordan with Spike Lee, reprising his Jordan-wearing character of Mars Blackmon from his 1986 film “She’s Gotta Have It.” The ads were credited for embedding Nike firmly into the heart of pop culture. Nike’s “Bo Knows” from 1989 made use of pro football and baseball player Bo Jackson’s skills across multiple sports to promote Nike’s cross-training shoe. The spot assembled an all-star list of athletes, from Jordan to John McEnroe, to vouch for his talents. But in the end, musician Bo Diddley shuts it down when Jackson tries his hand at guitar. Though Kennedy retired from advertising in 1995, he continued throughout his life to do pro bono work for the American Indian College Fund. Kennedy had grown up in Oklahoma and Colorado, “immersed in native culture as a child and it had a terrific influence in my life,” he told Rance Crain, former president of Ad Age parent Crain Communications in a 2012 article. Kennedy first connected with the client in 1990, in the middle of a particularly frustrating work day, he told Crain. “I got a letter from the director of the American Indian College Fund, wondering if we could take them on as our pro bono account. It was absolutely perfect timing. I was upset with being stuck in meetings all day. I couldn’t create. So it was a chance for me to work on something that I really believed in ... When an agency like ours reaches a point where we have established strong relationships with creative forces in our business, if we can’t draw upon that relationship for the good of mankind then what’s the use? I think that my career in advertising means nothing if I can’t do something good with it.” Kennedy’s latest work for the organization, a new visibility campaign that included a full-page ad in the New York Times and a website, soft-launched on Oct. 11, the day after his death. After David Kennedy retired in 1995, he found time to once again pursue his passion in fine art and devoted himself to making earthy metal sculptures. This short film from director Justin Lowe captures Kennedy talking about his process and his past artwork. On a more lighthearted note, one of Kennedy’s more recent big creative projects was this farewell film to former colleague Jeff Selis, the Wieden+Kennedy production vet who last year, after 26 years at the agency, departed to go freelance. Marni Beardsley, another W+K vet of more than two decades and chief production officer at Swift, pulled together an all-star cast of creatives, marketing execs (including Nike’s Mark Parker) and top directors (Joe Pytka, Cary Fukunaga, David Fincher) to appear in the video. Kennedy, who appears in the film, was one of the project’s masterminds, she said. “The amount of time and care he spent on it to get it right was mind-blowing. I literally have hundreds of VM messages during that week’s time we threw it together, all shot on iPhone. Kennedy approached this shoot as if it would be his last. What he would do for Selis, essentially his sixth child, and the culture of W+K—knew no bounds.” Subscribe to Ad Age now for award-winning news and insight.

A look back on David Kennedy's creative legacy

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