This past Monday, April 22, marked the 49th Earth Day. The evergreen idea was led by environmental activists Denis Hayes and Wisconsin Senator Gaylor Nelson. But without branding help from a Mad Man in the Copywriting Hall of Fame, it was doomed for a fragile existence.

Julian Koenig, who died in 2014, was the copywriter behind many legendary ad campaigns including VW’s “Think Small” and “Lemon,” Timex’s “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking,” and the naming of Earth Day.

Following his 1941 graduation from Dartmouth, Koenig did not take a straight path to advertising. He served a few years in the Army, spent a short time at Columbia Law, worked for the Yonkers Indians, a semi-pro baseball team, and set out to write novels. But then he stumbled in to advertising, and after impressing founder Bill Bernbach with a spec ad, he landed at Madison Avenue’s legendary Doyle Dane Bernbach in the 1950s. The spot that got him hired which never ran, was for Hires Root Beer. It featured a little boy holding a bottle of the soda with caption ”the finest beer I never tasted.” Read More