A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. This position is responsible for the overall look and feel of all materials, media, and branding associated with the organization. A chief creative officer may also be referred to as a creative director or a lead designer, however depending on the size of the company a chief creative officer may have several creative directors or lead designers as his/her subordinates.

Some chief creative officers include: Clive Davis of Sony Music Entertainment, Hugh Hefner of Playboy Enterprises, Geoff Johns of DC Entertainment, John Lasseter of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, and Joe Quesada of Marvel Entertainment.

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Alan Shapiro (born 1952) is an American poet and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.^[1] He is the author of nine poetry books,^[1] including Tantalus in Love, Song and Dance, and The Dead Alive and Busy. He received the Kingsley Tufts Award and the Los Angeles Book Prize.^[1] He was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.^[1] In 2005, Shapiro won the North Carolina Book Award for poetry, for Tantalus In Love.^[2]

Alan Shapiro was elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1] In addition to poetry, Alan Shapiro has also published two personal memoirs, Vigil and The Last Happy Occasion.^[3]

References[link]

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Mark Rolston (born December 7, 1956) is an American actor.

Career[link]

Rolston played PFC M. Drake in Aliens (1986), Hans in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Stef in RoboCop 2 (1990), Bogs Diamond in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), J. Scar in Eraser (1996), Chief Dennis Wilson in Daylight (1996), Wayne Bryce in Hard Rain (1998) and Special Agent in Charge Warren Russ in Rush Hour (1998). Rolston also acted in Martin Scorsese's 2006 film The Departed and the television horror film Backwoods. Many of Rolston's screen roles are villains due to his trademark icy stare. He also co-starred in 2008's Saw V and 2009's Saw VI.

In 1994, he portrayed convicted killer "Karl Mueller" in the Babylon 5 episode "The Quality of Mercy," as well as "Richard Odin," leader of a vegetarian cult in an episode of the X-Files called "Red Museum." He was also originally considered to voice the supervillain Firefly in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, though the character was deemed unsuitable for the series and ultimately dropped. Rolston would later voice Firefly in the revamp, The New Batman Adventures, as well as Justice League.

He also appeared in a minor role in The CW series Supernatural in season 4 as the demon Alastair.

He had a voice-acting role in the video games Blade Runner (1997) and Turok (2008). He also appeared in Criminal Minds in the episode, Blood Hungry as Sheriff Don Hall who asks for the BAU's help in finding out who's behind a series of violent murders.

He has a recurring role as Lex Luthor in the animated series Young Justice. His Shawshank Redemption co-star Clancy Brown played Lex Luthor for various animated TV shows over the course of his career.

Family[link]

Rolston was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Evelyn Beverly (née Sturm) and Thomas George Rolston, who was a computer programmer.^[1] He married Georgina O'Farrill, daughter of Latin jazz legend Chico O'Farrill and sister of musician/bandleader Arturo O'Farrill, in 1990; they have one child, Isabel. Mark has two other children, Adam Rolston and Aslan Rolston, from different marriages.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mark Rolston at the Internet Movie Database
• Mark Rolston at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)

Ron Fair is a veteran A&R executive, record producer arranger, recording engineer and songwriter. In a career that has spanned over 30 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several artists, but he is best known as a "guru/mentor", guiding the careers of unknown artists and turning them into superstars. Among the artists he has mentored are Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Carlton, The Black Eyed Peas and Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls. ^[1][2]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Ron was born in Los Angeles.^[3] The environment in which he grew had a major impact on his eventual career direction, saying in an interview with HitQuarters, "My grandfather was a broadcaster who had built a remote facility for the purpose of producing a daily radio broadcast. Ever since I was two years old I was around microphones and consoles."^[4] During his childhood Fair was actively encouraged to pursue this career path, receiving various music tuition and being encouraged to take on the job training in multi-track recording.^[4] By the time he was 17-years-old he was, in his words, "Very skilled with microphone technique and able to make a pretty convincing sounding recording."^[4]

Fair taught "recording production" at the University of Sound Arts^[5] in Hollywood while at the same time developing a reputation as a motion picture musical soundtrack coordinator, with the multi-platinum successes of Pretty Woman and Reality Bites.^[6] In addition, during the early 1980s Fair worked as a recording engineer on such projects as the Slayer album Hell Awaits.^[7]

A&R career[link]

Fair most recently held the position of Chairman at Geffen Records.^[1] Prior to running Geffen Records, Fair was President of A&M Records for five years, and held senior A & R positions at RCA Records, Chrysalis Records, EMI Records, and Island Records-London.^[2]

During his career, Fair has produced multiple number one singles on the pop and R&B charts, including “Lady Marmalade” (Christina, Pink, Mya, Lil’ Kim), “Be Without You” (Mary J. Blige), “One” (Mary J. Blige & U2), “Big Yellow Taxi” (Counting Crows), “A Thousand Miles” (Vanessa Carlton), and “Where Is the Love” (Black Eyed Peas). He was also the executive producer of “Beautiful” (Christina Aguilera), “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (Fergie), “Let’s Get It Started” (Black Eyed Peas), and many other hits. He was nominated for 6 Grammy awards and his recordings have won several Grammy awards, including those of Christina Aguilera, The Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifah. ^{[8][2][1][9][10]}

In 2009, Fair engineered Lady Gaga's single “Speechless,” from her 8X platinum album The Fame Monster.^[11] That year he also collaborated with Indian film composer A.R. Rahman to produce an English version of "Jai Ho", the hit song from the film Slumdog Millionaire.^[12] Currently, Fair is set to produce UK artist Matt Goss’ new album.^[13]

Fair is a celebrity judge on the Canadian television talent program Cover Me Canada.^[14]

Personal Life[link]

Ron Fair married singer-songwriter Stefanie Ridel a member of the teen girl group Wild Orchid on September 4, 2001.^[15] They have three children together. Fair enjoys gardening and dressing elegantly, and has notably climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. ^[2]

Discography[link]

Notable Productions^[16]

• 1990: Pretty Woman Soundtrack (Executive producer)
• 1992: White Men Can't Jump Soundtrack (Executive producer)
• 1994: Reality Bites Soundtrack (Executive producer)
• 1994: Dumb & Dumber Soundtrack (Executive producer)
• 2001: Legally Blonde Soundtrack (Executive producer)
• 2002: Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful" (Executive producer)
• 2002: Vanessa Carlton - "A Thousand Miles"
• 2003: The Black Eyed Peas - "Where Is The Love?"
• 2005: Keyshia Cole - The Way It Is (Executive producer)
• 2007: Keyshia Cole - Just Like You (Executive producer)
• 2008: Keyshia Cole - A Different Me (Executive producer]]
• 2009: Lady Gaga - " Speechless"
• 2009: Pussycat Dolls - "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)"
• 2010: Keyshia Cole - Calling All Hearts (Executive producer)

Filmography[link]

Film and television

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ron Fair at the Internet Movie Database
• Ron Fair discographie at Discogs.com

Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an advertising executive and was one among of the most 'creative' men in the advertising business.^[1] The 19th Century was dominated by the copy-heavy ads with lengthy product descriptions and selling arguments, however, he developed fresh simple icons that came to symbolize easy-to-understand product benefits for the 20th-century consumer.^[2] He was known for being heavily involved in the Creative Revolution in the 1960s, with other great advertising heads like David Ogilvy, William Bernbach and Mary Wells.^[3] Burnett was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.^[4]

Biography[link]

Born in St. Johns, Michigan, his parents were Noble and Rose Clark Burnett. His father ran a dry goods store and as a youth, Burnett worked with his father in the store. He grew up watching his father designing ads to promote his business. During high school, he worked as a reporter for a local, rural newspaper in the summers.^[5] After high school he went to study journalism at the University of Michigan and received his Bachelor's degree in 1914. His first job was as a reporter at the Peoria Journal in Peoria, Illinois.^[6] After realizing the future growth possibilities in advertising, he moved to Detroit in 1917, and he got a job editing an in-house publication for Cadillac dealers called Cadillac Clearing House as a copywriter. He successfully went on to become an advertising director for the company.^[7]

In 1918 he married Naomi Geddes, whose father was a newspaper man.^[8] He went on to have three children: Peter, Joseph and Phoebe.^[7]

During World War I he joined the Navy for six months. However, he never got to sea as he spent most of his time at Great Lakes building a breakwater, and hauling cement.^[8] After his time in the Navy he returned to Cadillac for a short while. It was then when a few employees at Cadillac formed the LaFayette Motors Company. He moved to Indianapolis, Indiana as the advertising manager for the company.^[7] With the company struggling, he found himself with an offer from Homer McKee. He left LaFayette and was hired to work for Homer Mckee Company as head of McKee's creative operation. This was his first agency job.^[8]

After spending a decade working for McKee's Company, and working through the stock market crash of 1929. He decided to move on if he was to amount to anything in the advertising business.^[8] In 1930, he moved to Chicago and was hired by Erwin Wasey & Company and worked as the vice-president and the creative head of the company.^[5] He worked for Erwin Wasey for 5 years and in 1935 he founded the Leo Burnett Company Inc.^[7]

On 7th June 1971, at the age of 79, he died of a heart attack at his family farm in Lake Zurich, Illinois.^[9]

Leo Burnett Company[link]

His own firm, the Chicago-based Leo Burnett Company, became the 10th largest advertising agency in the world, the eighth largest in the United States^[10], and one of only a handful of top-ten American agencies not headquartered in New York City.

A Private company formed in 1935 and officially running under the name of 'Leo Burnett Company, Inc.' Which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Publicis Groupe. The Company started with eight employees and three clients. It now operates with 200 units globally and the company also includes 'a variety of speciality marketing services and 94 full-service advertising agencies in 83 countries.'^[11]
"Headquartered more than a thousand miles from Manhattan, the Chicago-based Leo Burnett Company creates unique advertising campaigns grounded in traditional American values and traditions. The majority of its clients are large, consumer-driven corporations, marketing everything from fast food to cigarettes to frozen foods."^[12]

For the first decade of Burnett opening his company he only billed about 1 million in the first few years of the business running and then eventually moving up to 10 million dollars annually, however, in 1950, his billings more than doubled to 22 million dollars and by 1954 the company was at 55 million dollars annually. The company simply grew from this point due to Burnett hiring Richard Heath who bought in bigger clients. Due to TV advertising hitting a boom in the 1950's Burnett's company only benefited from this. By the end of the 1950's, the Leo Burnett Company was billing 100 million dollars annually.^[7]

The company has a website that it runs under from Leo Burnett Worldwide. The advertising agency employs around 6,950 and using all these employees for all their talents, Leo Burnett Company is the workings behind some of the most famous advertising icons in our time, some of these include the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger and the well known Marlboro Man.

Employees[link]

The Leo Burnett Company is famous for its employee retention. It has a long standing reputation for keeping employees at their company and according to a company executive "new staffers are assigned to their first account "for life". In the company, layoffs are very rare.^[13]

Companies Burnett worked with[link]

• Green Giant (1935)
• Philip Morris Co. (1954)
• Pillsbury (1944)
• Kellogg's (1949)
• Proctor & Gamble (1952)
• Commonwealth Edison (1954)
• Maytag (1955)
• Allstate (1957)
• Heinz Pet Products (1958)
• Starkist (1958)
• First Brands (1961)
• United Airlines (1965)
• General Motors Oldsmobile (1967)
• Keebler Co. (1968)^[6]

Advertising techniques[link]

Jolly Green Giant – One of Burnett's creations.

Leo Burnett used dramatic realism in his advertising, the Soft sell approach to build brand equity.^[14] Burnett believed in finding the inherent drama of products and presenting it in advertising through warmth, shared emotions and experiences.^[15] His advertising drew from heartland-rooted values using simple, strong and instinctive imagery that talked to people.^[16] He was also known for using cultural archetypes in his copy, by creating mythical creatures that represented American values. This is evident on such campaigns as Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Doughboy and more famously the Marlboro Man.^[17]

Corny language[link]

Leo Burnett was known for keeping a folder in the lower left-hand corner of his desk called "Corny Language".^[18] He collected words, phrases, and analogies that struck him as being particularly apt in expressing an idea. This was not meant by maxims, gags, or slang, but words, phrases and analogies which convey a feeling of honesty and that drive home a clear point.^[19]

Creative process[link]

His creative process could be summed up in three points:

1. 'There is an inherent drama in every product. Our No.1 job is to dig for it and capitalize on it.'
2. 'When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.'
3. 'Steep yourself in your subject, work like hell, and love, honor and obey your hunches.'^[19]

Burnett's quotes[link]

He was renowned for having said a number of interesting quotes and thoughts.

• "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."

• "I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one."

• "Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief."^[20]

• "Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."^[21]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• S. Broadbent, Leo Burnett Book of Advertising, Business Books: Indiana University, 1984.

External links[link]

• Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
• Time 100 profile – Leo Burnett
• When to Take My Name Off the Door Speech, Video
• When to Take My Name Off the Door Speech, Text
• Leo Burnett Worldwide