aslk start every day

On today's mean streets of marketing, he is
truly the "best-of-the-best."

His assault on the advertising world started
with an old school education in direct mail. Typing on an
ancient IBM Selectric, crafting camera-ready production work
with hot wax and an x-acto knife.

Then WHAM!
Everything he knew became obsolete as technology exploded.
However, like every world-class craftsman, John stayed
immersed in educating himself. He's read hundreds of books
about writing and advertising. He personally sought out and
learned from the great men of the industry: He went from being
the high-paid, hot-shot freelancer Los Angeles agencies snuck
in the back door (to write the pieces they couldn't get their
staff to pull off) to writing on the inside with marketing
wizards like Jay Abraham and established copywriters like Jim
Rutz.

Circa 1988, I invited John to handle the big
desk chores at my Hollywood office on Sunset Boulevard. During
our long friendship, John has accompanied me on marketing
adventures that have changed the very nature of advertising
forever.

His education with me included convincing
famous celebrities to humiliate themselves on camera for
obscure ads... telling rooms full of millionaire executives
their ideas sucked (and making them like it)... saving
corporations from bankruptcy with campaigns we had to whip up
overnight (and then "con" the clients into running
the ads even though it ran against every fiber of their
being). We put on lavish seminars where people happily paid
$10,000+ just to glean a few nuggets of advice while John and
I ranted and babbled and goofed off without a plan. Being
enslaved to insane deadlines. Re-inventing modern advertising
for cable and the Internet. We were among the very first to do
infomercials, to advertise on the 'Net and make videos a
marketing industry.

John's had fun, brushes with death, helped
small men accumulate fortunes and watched helplessly as rich
corporations came tumbling down from their own idiocy. There's
no better way to learn how the world works than to roll up
your sleeves and get filthy with experience like this. He's
been stupid, smart, cursed, lucky, broke, well off, mocked,
worshiped, hated and loved.