Skip to content
  • Home
  • Geezers Roll Call
  • Not Forgotten
  • Gatherings
  • Contact

Geezers’ Gallery

San Francisco's Golden Age of Advertising and the people who created it.

  • Home
    • Privacy Policy
  • Pages
    • Geezers Roll Call
    • Not Forgotten
  • Who was Where
    • Agencies
    • Copywriters
    • Photographic
    • Reps
    • Staff Creatives
    • Studios & Freelancers
    • Publications
  • Gatherings
    • Gathering 2022
    • Gathering 2021
    • Gathering 2020
    • Gathering 2019
    • Gathering 2018
    • Gathering 2017
    • Gathering 2016
    • Gathering 2015
    • Gathering 2014
    • Gathering 2013
    • Gathering 2012
    • Gathering 2011
    • Gathering 2009
    • Gathering 2008
    • Gathering 2007
    • Gathering 2006
    • Gathering 2005
    • Gathering 2004
    • Gathering 2003
    • Gathering 2002
    • Gathering 2001
    • Gathering 2000
    • Gathering 2010
    • Gathering 1999
    • Gathering 1993
  • Contact Us

The Rise and Fall of A Big Idea

Posted on February 23, 2012December 13, 2015 By Ann Thompson

About 40 years ago I designed Canada’s first Inflat­able outdoor board for Pacific Western Airlines. I was the creative director for West­Can’s Calgary office at the time. We needed a Big Idea to support a not so big outdoor media buy (one board each in Calgary, Edmonton and Montréal).I had read about the Inflat­able in AdAge where a fast food chain had attached a huge Hotdog to a super board. The fabri­cator manu­fac­tured hot air balloons, big ones. The first of the three was erected in Calgary at a busy high way junc­tion. The first morning we got tons of Free Air on drive time radio as the news,weather and traffic people had fun taking shots at it with bits of sexual innu­endo here and there. The Calgary Herald ran a story with a full color picture in the morning addi­tion. Things went on like that until it achieved a kind of Mascot status. Then came a harsh fall storm, rain, snow, hail and freezing temper­tures and power outages. Our inflataboard was kept upright by means of a ducted fan and with the power gone the darn thing collapsed giving the media yet another oppor­tu­ni­tyto crack wise. When the fuse­lage re-erected itself that got a mention to. The free PR was imea­sur­able and just goes to prove some Big Ideas are better off dead…than alive .

Jerry Huff, Geezer

Geezerpedia, war stories of advertising

Post navigation

Previous Post: Recollections from (Dee) Wayne White
Next Post: The Prince Of Pranksters

Artist's Sites

  • Allan and Carol Hayes
  • Bill and Nina Stewart
  • Bill Cone
  • Bill Schwob art
  • Bob Bausch
  • Bob Porter and Patricia Reed Porter
  • Bruce Lauritzen
  • Bruce Wolfe
  • Bryn Craig
  • Caleb Whitbeck
  • Charles Pyle
  • Chris Blum
  • Chuck Eckart
  • Dugald Stermer
  • Frank Ansley
  • Fred Lyon
  • Gale McKee
  • Hans Halberstadt
  • Jack Allen
  • Janet Jones
  • Jeff Leedy
  • Jerry Huff
  • Jim Stitt
  • John Hyatt Illustration
  • John Mattos
  • Larry Keenan
  • Lowell Herrero
  • Marc Ericksen
  • Mark Keller
  • Mark Schroeder
  • Mik Kitagawa
  • Robert Arnold
  • Robert Evans
  • Robert Gantt Steele
  • Roger Shelly
  • Stan Dann
  • Tom Whitworth
  • Ward Schumaker

Artist Galleries

  • Tom Watson
  • Keehn Gray
  • John Pratt
  • Chuck Eckart
  • Jerry Huff
  • Al Davidson
  • Bill Nellor
  • Jim Stitt Designs

Copy Writers

  • Joel Fugazzotto
  • Samm Coombs
  • Todd Miller

Still In The Game

  • Bill and Nina Stewart
  • Bill Schwob work
  • Bob Bausch
  • Chris Blum
  • David Johnson
  • Fred Lyon
  • Hans Halberstadt
  • Jack Tom
  • Jeff Leedy
  • Jim Stitt
  • John Hyatt
  • John Mattos
  • Kirk Henderson
  • Lars Melander
  • Marc Ericksen
  • Mark Keller
  • Mark Schroeder
  • Peter Thompson
  • Robert Arnold
  • Robert Holmes
  • Rory Phoenix
  • Scott Simpkin
  • Steve Rustad
  • Tom Whitworth
  • Ward Schumaker

Places We Like

  • Patterson Hall Early History
  • Piet Halberstadt
  • Printing Films
  • The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Copyright © 2023 Geezers’ Gallery.

Powered by PressBook Premium theme