What makes daily life so agreeable in America is the good humour and friendliness of Americans. Optimism is necessary for the country’s social peace and economic prosperity.

On this day (Jan 31st) in 1947, Simone de Beauvoir wrote:

What makes daily life so agreeable in America is the good humour and friendliness of Americans. Of course, this quality has its reverse side. I'm irritated by those imperious invitations to 'take life easy', repeated in words and images throughout the day. On advertisements for Quaker Oats, Coca-Cola and Lucky Strike, what displays of white teeth – the smile seems like lockjaw. The constipated girl smiles a loving smile at the lemon juice that relieves her intestines. In the subway, in the streets, on magazine pages, these smiles pursue me like obsessions. I read on a sign in a drugstore, 'Not to grin is a sin.' Everyone obeys the order, the system. 'Cheer up! Take it easy!' Optimism is necessary for the country's social peace and economic prosperity.

From America Day By Day, a diary of a four month tour of the USA taken by the French existentialist and feminist in 1947.

Improbable as it may seem, David Kennedy co-founded one of the most dynamic, boundary-breaking advertising agencies in America, an agency that emits judo-tough smarts from Portland to Amsterdam to Shanghai…

Above: David Kennedy (left) and Dan Wieden.

There's an interesting profile of W+K founder David Kennedy just published in the Oregonian.

He's the man in black. Wearing baggy black jeans, black T-shirt, black
hoodie and black sneakers that could use a good wash, David Kennedy
ambles, even shuffles, before extending his hand to shake. He's still
as an owl, with a scraggly silver beard and grassy gray hair.

Improbable
as it might seem, Kennedy co-founded one of the most dynamic,
boundary-breaking advertising agencies in America, an agency that emits
judo-tough smarts from Portland to Amsterdam to Shanghai...

Kennedy is the guy who supposedly left the business in 1995. But he
still wanders into the office a couple days a week to hang out with the
kids and work on the American Indian College Fund account, one of W+K's pro bono accounts and the most meaningful one to Kennedy…

The lack of daily responsibility has given Kennedy's week a circadian
rhythm. One minute he's advising on the Native American account, the
next he's sketching an idea for a sculpture. And after that, he's
goofing around with Jeff Selis, an agency creative who glides into
Kennedy, parked at a work table, while riding a skateboard.

"Mild. As mild as it comes." 

I met Dave a couple of years ago when he came over to the UK with Dan to give a talk at D&AD. He's a quiet kind of guy, but he had some great stories to tell. 

Read the full article here.