20 years ago. Shrek 2 led the box office. Natasha Bedingfield topped the music charts. George W Bush was re-elected. Martha Stewart went to jail. Nokia & Blackberry dominated. It was truly a different era.
Advertising Week began that same year - 2004 - with modest ambition and no assurance to reach 2005. My journey began in 2002 in the fabled Roxy Suite at Radio City Music Hall. After the 1929 stock market crash, John D. Rockefeller invested in New York believing in the city's resiliency. Radio City was built as the "Showplace of the Nation." Rockefeller engaged Roxy Rothafel as grand theatrical impresario and an apartment, where Roxy lived, was built into the Hall. A few years later he imported the Rockettes (from Missouri) and here we are nearly 100 years later, still kicking.
It was here in the Roxy Suite that I presented the first iteration of Advertising Week to Ken Kaess & Abby Hirschorn in October of 2002. Months later, I was engaged by the 4A's led by Burtch Drake and a year or so later the curtain came up on a crisp September morning with a parade through Times Square with the most timeless manifestation of our industry's creativity, the great icons. Prior to, my old boss, Mayor Ed Koch, helped us kick-off the public vote for America's most beloved icons (+ slogans) on the front steps of City Hall. It's my all-time favorite picture. And that evening Mayor Bloomberg hosted our first Opening Gala at Gracie Mansion. Years later we would stage Galas at St. Paul's Cathedral, Sydney's Opera House, Lincoln Center, St. James's Palace, Grand Central Terminal, Zojoji Temple, Central Park, Southwark Cathedral, Museo Nacional de la Revolucion, and Radio City, twice. And when we staged Advertising Week Africa in Johannesburg in 2023, we held the most memorable of nearly 50 "Sunday Night Dinners" for our team at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Our team got to hold his Nobel Peace Prize and read handwritten letters from prison.
Which is one way to say it's been quite a ride. Ludacris, Lorne Michaels, Serena Williams, Sir Richard Branson, Larry David, Nikki Glaser, David Stern, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Polman, Gloria Estefan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Spike Lee, Kate Hudson, Nile Rodgers, Jon Bon Jovi, Emma Stone, Nikki Sixx, Howard Schultz, Trevor Noah, Drew Barrymore (2X), Jessica Alba (2X), Sarah Jessica Parker, Venus Williams, Joe Torre, Justin Timberlake, Will Smith (pre-slap), Ed Burns, Susie Essman (5X), Jimmy Fallon, Lewis Black, Mark Messier, Mark Cuban (2X), Arianna Huffington (10X), Wyclef Jean, Questlove (3X), Roberto Rodriguez, Lee Crow, Julia Haart (2X) and industry leaders like Raja Rajamannar, Tim Armstrong, Nicola Mendelsohn, Monique Nelson, Bing Chen, Bill Koenigsberg, and my old pal Chuck Porter who will join me for a Great Minds conversation next week.
Through it all we've made a lot of people smile and stayed true to the spirit of Rockefeller & the flair of Roxy Rothafel. What a ride it has been. See you next week in the Penn District.
