Just came across this book again. Randall Rothenberg’s ‘Where the suckers moon’ is an insider’s account of the pitch for and subsequent loss of the Subaru U.S. account by Wieden + Kennedy in the early 90s. For anyone interested in a behind-the scenes look at the pitch process and client/agency relationship, it’s one of the best books you can read. It also gives you a warts-and-all feel for what W+K Portland was like in those days. Rothenberg got an extraordinary degree of access to the clients and the agencies involved in the story. I remember talking to Dave Luhr, W+K CEO, who features in the book, about this. He said, "Yeah. The guy would even follow me into the john."
I orginally read it before I worked at W+K so it’s interesting to look at it again now. It’s a good read and it gives some interesting background on the history of W+K. Here’s a wee bit:

"Wieden was an unlikely creative star. His father Duke was one of the grand old men of Portland advertising…Dan was born on the cusp of the baby boom, in 1945. He was as rebellious as his father was establishment. An angular, perpetually energetic kid with a seemingly limitless capacity for wonderment… Dan wanted to be a writer but not like the writers at his dad’s agency. If these subordinated scribes were the best minds of his generation then they were, as Allen Ginsburg wrote, ‘ burned alive in their flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse and the tanked-up clatter of the iron regiments of fashion.’ Dan would have none of it. Advertising is a whorish business, he told his friends. It’s a shell game. An easy way to make a living… Dan knew he wanted something more…"

And here’s a bit about Dan and Dave’s breakaway from the William Cain agency in 1982 to start their own shop, taking the then-small Nike account with them.

"Some of the more junior members in Nike’s marketing department were aghast. However creative Dan and David may have been, their managerial abilities were…questionable. These guys were long-haired, bearded flower children. How are these two guys going to start an agency? several of the company’s young executives wondered."

Well, some things have changed a lot in the last 24 years. And some haven’t changed at all. Dan’s hair is a bit shorter but he cheerfully confesses to being an old hippy. His managerial  style certainly reflects that description of him as a kid, but it seems to be still working pretty well.

The book is highly recommended. Buy it here.