The Kitchen Table

One of the things that strikes me is the odd combination of people that fate and decisions throw together here. It’s a bit like being on an old-fashioned cruise ship except that the crossing lasts years rather than days.

John Thorpe

It was when we were on Front Street, probably 1992, and this old wino-looking guy walked in the building.  He went right past reception past busy phones, a bunch of candidates sitting in the lobby waiting for interviews, past all the trophies and glass.  I actually saw him walking around upstairs at one point, but I didn’t think anything of it.  There were always strange people buzzing about.

Then a few minutes later, I heard Debbie Nelson yelling that this guy had just taken her purse.  He was heading down the street. Suddenly, one of the guys sitting in the lobby waiting for an interview leapt up, bolted out the door, chased this guy down, and got her purse back.

I don’t think he got the job, though.  We don’t take just anybody.

Allyson Bentley

As we began work for our first really legitimate client, Royal Viking Line, a number of us went on a familiarity cruise to Acapulco.  This educational outing culminated into a group of seniors watching the agency compete in a contest that involved tossing deck chairs into the waters off Baja Mexico.

Barry Breede

A certain art director who will remain anonymous (Todd Grant,) was hiding his stash of marijuana in a 3/4-inch reel case in the basement.  The cover had a director’s name on it and, unfortunately,  Jeff Goodby one day asked to see the guy’s work.

Jeff wrote a very funny email, announcing what he had found, and challenged the owner to come see him if he wanted it back, secure in the knowledge that no one would be foolish enough to do so. Within half an hour, about 10 or 15 of us had emailed Jeff, claiming the pot. None of us got it, though, because Jeff took it home and smoked it.
That last part may not be true. But the rest is.

Al Kelly

I realized that what I was doing was actually called work.  It felt more like luck.

Cindy Fluitt

I remember going to Germany with Jeff, Rich, Colin, Joiner, and Steel, after we won Porsche.  In Weissach at the Porsche testing facility, we were going through security with Porsche’s top brass when the guard hands us visitors passes with big numbers on them. Rich jokingly asks if they would like to tattoo his on.
There was a very long silence.  I don’t know how we had the account after that.

Steve Simpson

Too often in past jobs, I’ve felt like when a boat springs a leak, I’m stuck with my finger in the hole while others jump ship.  At GSP someone will fashion a bucket out of a hat, someone else a sail from their jacket, a rudder from a shoe, and the rest will make up songs to make the time go by faster.

Kaya Haig

We made a Sega commercial with a guy in it who looked vaguely like Jacques Cousteau.  Okay, he looked exactly like him, spoke with a French accent, wore a knit cap, and smoked a pipe.

Cousteau sued for $2 million.  We talked to one of his relatives and offered to design all the Cousteau Society promotional materials for a whole year for free.

“You don’t understand,” the man said.  “Cousteau doesn’t sue to get design services.  He doesn’t want your stupid brochures and flags.  This is how he raises money.”

We settled for $1.3 million.

Jerry Barnhart

Jeff Goodby has an unusual way of speaking. It’s hard to describe but it’s kind of like a stammering, intellectual stoner. I was amazed at how many people after working there started to speak that way too, sometimes after just a few weeks.

Eric Moe

I have this vivid memory of the dinner on the Saturday night of the agency cruise.  A food fight was raging, bread rolls and butterballs were flying, and Tom Routson was trying to placate some irate non-agency cruisers.  It’s hard to be a credible peacemaker, though, when you are wearing a T-shirt that says, “Hello, my name is fuzz-nuts.”

Jon Steel

The music on our reel used to make me cry.  And it’s true I cried when I left. But now, looking back, I smile.  Once in a while I get a hankering for a 25-cent beer at 5:00.  There are none to be found.

Laura Puccinelli

We had just won the Grand Kelly Award for our Norwegian Cruise Line campaign, and we thought there was no chance we’d ever win it two years in a row.  Nevertheless, Jeff and Rich sent me back to attend the ceremonies for us, just in case. At the door, they told me it was black tie.  I was wearing sweatpants.  That was a problem. So I don’t know why, but I kind of blew the show off and stayed in my room to watch the Bulls and the Celtics in the NBA playoffs. I didn’t know it, I guess, but we had a whole table reserved.  Which was empty all night. When the award was announced, the clever people from Wieden+Kennedy made believe they were us.  They went up and received the award and made purposefully lame acceptance speeches. At least I saw a pretty good game.

Todd Grant

Within a couple of weeks of joining GSP I was at an Isuzu off-site meeting.  I spent the morning listening.  At the break, Colin told me he was disappointed I wasn’t talking more.  I said until I heard what they had to say I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk.  He said, “Matt, I believe it is an account person’s job to talk whether or not he has anything to say.”

Matt Seiler

Without the work of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the Graphis Advertising Annual would cease to be published.

Martin Pedersen

Our Foster Farms client, for whom we have built a hugely successful campaign over the years, said we still hadn’t quite earned their trust.  He broke it down for me like this:  “Look, I’m paying $200,000 for this spot, and you have about 60 words in the script.  So if you’re using five words for the opening joke, then that just cost me about $10,000, and we still haven’t sold any chickens.”

Tom Miller

Al Kelly was famous for cutting horrendous farts, but he outdid himself on a flight from SFO to Burbank one morning.

After everyone was on board and the plane was taxiing toward takeoff, there was suddenly a smell that could remove paint.  People were concerned.  The pilot came out and, thinking there was some kind of electrical fire, began crawling around the cabin, smelling the floor.  Deciding everything was okay, we got ready for takeoff when Al repeated the offense.

“THERE IT IS AGAIN!” screamed an elderly couple, reaching desperately for the call button.

In the end, we returned to the terminal where the flight was delayed for an hour.

Isn’t Kelly a creative director somewhere now?

Jon Soto

When Todd Grant and I were recording the final music for our Bud lizards Super Bowl spot in 1999, Todd said to me, “Hey Steve, I’ve got some pot cookies.  Want one?” I said of course I do, and I proceeded to eat a larger portion than a man of my size should have. Two hours later, I was convinced that Jonathan Elias (the music conductor) was actually Mark Wenneker. I couldn’t figure out why Mark was in charge of the whole thing all of sudden, but I just went along with it and the music came out great.

Steve Dildarian

I was at my first job interview at Goodby.  After about three to four seconds of silence, Andy Berlin asked, “Do you believe in God?”

Tom White

We were shooting a Porsche print ad in Germany with the dean of British photographers, John Claridge.  After finishing in one location, the venerable Claridge asked if he could drive the car to the next location.

“The car” was one of three prototypes of the new Porsche 996 in the whole world.  It was, essentially, priceless.

“Sure,” I said.

As we edged around a turn at a very low speed, John decided to show off a bit for the young women in the crew.  He floored the car, and it went into a death spin, skidding over a 40-foot cliff and crashing through the tops of some Aspen trees below.  I remember the engine and rear wheels actually in the air in front of us as we fell.  We hit, flipped end over end twice, and were both unconscious.  I pulled John out through the sunroof.

I later learned that of the three 996 prototypes, this was the only one that had airbags.  Otherwise, this story would have had to be told by someone else.  Someone, say, who  wasn’t dead.

Erich Joiner

Laughing.  I remember lots of laughing.

66 Broadway, early on. Really early. Andy at his Underwood. Back very straight sitting in some cheap-ass, ergonomically incorrect chair.  Typing. Jeff and Rich shouting out dialogue. Andy smiling as he typed it in. Laughing. Adding lines. Jeff giggliing more. Rich ha-haaing. Andy pecking away.  I felt like a bird observing all this. Observing laughing.

Rene Cournoyer

After moving from New York where I worked for large firms like Saatchi and Y&R, I was surprised one evening to find our CFO standing in front of the coke machine, betting on whether the next can out would be a Heineken, Beck’s, or Bud.  Each can cost a quarter.

Tom White

Jon Steel was made the official “agency counselor.”  Later that day he told Tom Routson to “fuck off and leave.”

Bob Kerstetter

After Berlin pitched the agency’s credentials, I rhetorically asked, “Why should we pick you guys over agencies X, Y, and Z?”

It was then that a young art director named Tracy Wong who had not opened his mouth during the entire presentation, asked Andy if he could answer the question.  “I’ll probably get fired for saying this,” he blurted out, “but the reason why you should pick us over the other guys is because we can hit a home run and they can’t!”  That remark from the most junior person told me everything.

The agency was appointed the very next day.

Chester Brandis

Someone had removed the entire contents of Ian Kalman’s office and replaced everything with the contents of a men’s bathroom stall – complete with toilet, toilet paper, and “For a good time call…” scribbles on the wall.   In the men’s bathroom, the last stall now housed Ian’s desk, computer, trophies, and all otherworldly goods.

The amazing part was that things like this happened all the time.

Christine O’Donnell

Whenever we were at a creative juncture, unsure of which direction to take, Goodby would offer up the best creative direction I think I’ve ever heard.  “Things will tell you what they want to be.”

David Fowler

Jon Steel and Erich Joiner are walking across the agency roof to shoot a pitch video for Sega in golf spikes. Three months later, coming into work after the first heavy rain, we find everyone with cups and bowls in their offices, collecting the dripping water.

Ben Latimer

It took about two months to finally set up my interview with Jeff Goodby after speaking with what seemed like everyone else at the agency.  I had been waiting nervously in the lobby of the Front Street building for about a half hour when someone finally came down and said, “I’m sorry, but Jeff’s in Germany.”

Mich Conklin

Beau Coyner, Todd Grant, Chris Hooper, and I went up to Tahoe to join Rich and Riccardi to present some work to the Isuzu client.  The meeting was at two in the afternoon.

In case the traffic was a mess, we left San Francisco early. Beau had rented a Chevy Caprice. It felt like a road trip in college. Cruise, stop somewhere, get drunk.

We arrived before noon and talked ourselves into renting a boat. In no time we were cruising Lake Tahoe. The water was so blue, it was like floating on Kool-Aid.

We all arrived to the meeting wet. No one even asked.

Chuck McBride

I once gave a stack of headlines to Rich.  He said, “These are words.  I don’t want these.”

Bob Kerstetter

I’d just been featured in an Adweek article. It was Friday morning, and I was slipping out early and flying to New York to see my family. Suddenly, my phone rings “GSP” is in the caller ID box. I pick up to hear, “Please hold for Rich Silverstein.”

Rich has never called me. He hops on the phone and shouts, as only he can, “Congratulations on the Adweek story! You really deserve it and we’re so happy to have you here.” At this moment, final boarding for my flight begins.  “Thanks so much, Rich but, hey, I’m about to hop on a flight to New York. I think I have to run.” Rich pauses for a second. Until the day I die I’ll never forget what came next. “OK,”  he said, “so if the plane goes down on the way to New York, just know that Rich Silverstein likes you.”  And then he hung up.

Chris Beresford-Hill

After lunch we put the Routhe brothers (Chris and Sheldon) with cameras in the back of a pickup truck. Then we let about 1000 golf balls go at the top of Divisidero and drove as fast as we could in front of them, so we could shoot them racing and bouncing all over. I remember grabbing Sheldon’s shirt as we flew over the hills to keep him from bouncing out of the truck and screaming, “IS THIS FUN OR WHAT?!!”

The thing that strikes me about this memory is that I actually regarded this a fairly typical day at the office.

Betsy Flynn

There was no way any of us would ever, could ever take advertising that seriously.  In fact, as I recall, we were pretty fond of saying we wanted to hire people who hated advertising as much as we did.  We succeeded.  And I think that’s what’s kept the place fresh.

Dave O’Hare

They hardly made a great first impression on us.  They dressed casually long before “casual Friday” made it to the East Coast; their colleagues all looked like they had just finished high school; while other agencies had fancy multimedia presentations, they passed out some black-and-white Xeroxed pages, and they didn’t seem particularly well organized or focused.  But they had two things in their favor: we liked them, and they said the magic words, “I LOVE THIS GAME.”

David Stern

We were in New York for the IBM pitch.  A really major pitch for us.  On the way to dinner with the clients, Jeff said to everyone in the elevator, “Watch.  They’ll sit Silverstein right next to one of the engineers.”  Everyone laughed, knowing that in those days, Rich didn’t even know how to turn on a computer.

“I’m not sitting next to any techno-nerd,” said Rich, to more giggles.

Suddenly, a voice piped up from the corner of the elevator.  “What if one of those techno-nerds was on the elevator at this very moment?”

It was the president of the IBM PC division.

The pitch was over.  We just hadn’t been told yet.

Cheryl Kroyer

Breast cancer sucks.  Finding out you have it when you have only been with a company seven months really sucks.  Chemotherapy sucks the most.

What does not suck is having amazing support from your employer and the people you work with.

I will be forever grateful to the amazing people at GSP for helping me get through a pretty trying time in my life and never making me feel like too much of a freak walking around with a bald head.

Julie Blanc

Working on a radio spot for the San Francisco Examiner, we needed a name for the bad guy.  We checked out the agency phone list.

Andy “The Butcher” Berlin.  Nah.  Ed “The Butcher” Crayton.  No.  Colin “The Butcher” Probert.  That works.

A few days later Colin showed up in my office (a first).  He was holding an audiocassette.

Rob Bagot

I found myself on the passenger side of our extra-large golf cart, on top of a lovely hill overlooking the entire course. And I had an idea.

“Jessica, gas it.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t wanna die.”

My left foot crept over to the gas pedal and stomped it.

Tanner Shea

Once during an edit, I told our Sega client to fuck off and went to a bar. No one fired me. That’s just the sort of place it was.

Tom Routson

I was talking to Goodby late one night over the phone to get his point of view on where we should take the “got milk?” campaign. I suddenly became conscious of the fact that he wasn’t doing much talking. Instead, he appeared to be deep breathing—wait a minute, he’d fallen asleep!

Sue Smith

You’re sitting in a meeting, and something really ridiculous, annoying, exasperating happens. Instead of whining, fuming, complaining about it, you think about the great Christmas video it would make. It gives you instant 20/20 hindsight.

It also represents the atmosphere in this particular biosphere. No sacred cows or causes. Copy the entire fucking agency on that really inappropriate email—it’s not that people don’t care, it’s just that they have the Christmas video lens on the world.

Claudine Murphy

Mike Mazza:  “Rich, you should work for yourself sometime.”

Rich Silverstein: “Work for myself? I have to live with myself!”

Mike Mazza

I worked in advertising for fifteen years before I got here. Always at good agencies filled with nice people. Places I was happy at, places where I was comfortable.

Then I showed up at 720 California Street. And something unusual happened.

The third day I was here, I took my shoes off. Took them off, put them under my desk, and started walking around in my socks.

I had never done that before. Oh sure, I’d taken my shirt and pants off at those other places, but that’s different.

This was my shoes.  This was home.

Jamie Barrett

Thank God there’s a place for people like this to go.

Juliet Tessichini