#206 Albert D. Lasker (the creation of the advertising industry)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. Who was this Albert Lasker whose energy and imagination ran in so many directions at once, and who was, in his own words, driven by a thousand devils?
His friends considered him charming, brilliant, thrilling, and exhausting.
His subordinates admired him enormously and dreaded his arrival at the office and the tumult that inevitably ensued.
Clients quickly learned that there was no such thing as a half embrace of or by Albert Lasker.
He pursued life with a fervor that offended and alienated many people.
A lot of people can't stand me, he once admitted, because they think I'm too aggressive and too dynamic. Little men, to use his terminology, were driven off by it. Big men, such as RCA's David Sarnoff and American Tobacco's George Washington Hill, drew energy from it. They looked forward to fighting with Lasker. They learned from him, too.
He's the only man I felt I'd like to murder every now and then, Herbert Field confessed, almost 20 years after being pushed out of his senior position at the advertising agency, then adding, there isn't a finer man living.
I'd like to kick him in the back, said a former associate who left under duress, but then added, I've never met a man as colorful and viral and as personable as Mr. Albert Lasker, never.
Lasker's energy and passion infused both his personal and professional lives, and sometimes those two lives converged.
One Monday morning in 1939, his top lieutenants gathered for their weekly State of the Agency meeting. This was no ordinary Monday, however. It was the first meeting after the very public unraveling of Lasker's second marriage. A disastrous union with a Hollywood starlet that fell apart even before their honeymoon ended.
Everyone in the room knew all the salacious details. All were eager to see how the boss would handle the situation. The door from Lasker's office opened, and he walked in and said, Gentlemen, in his life, every man has a right to make one mistake. I have made mine. And then the meeting began.
Lasker, who is often referred to as the father of modern advertising, exerted an enormous influence on his industry. Before he arrived on the scene, advertising agencies were mostly brokers of space in newspapers and magazines.
With Lasker's prodding, the industry became a creative force and began earning substantial commissions.
Lasker worked his magic by relying on the power of ideas.
The list of companies and brands that he helped launch or revitalize, in large part through the selective amplification of powerful ideas and in part through his own instinct for drama, is unparalleled in the history of advertising.
Lasker invented a particular kind of ad agency, one that delivered high service to a relatively small number of key accounts, most often driven by a personal relationship between himself and the head of the client company. The result was high margins and for Lasker, enormous personal wealth.
He maintained close relationships with dozens of powerful business people and applied the insights he gained in one context to give advice in others.
Give him an equal knowledge of the facts, said RCA's legendary head David Sarnoff, and I'd rather have his judgment than anybody else's I know.
Sometimes Lasker failed and failed spectacularly, but he always rebounded. Lasker's scope and impact were nothing short of astounding and he knew it.
There wasn't a living American in so many ways each day partially responsible for people doing as many things as I was, he once commented. That is provable, he said.