Tom Yobage

I first met Roy Grace in 1968 when he was the Vice President – Art Supervisor on Volkswagen at Doyle Dane Bernbach.

Bob Tucker and I had just transferred from Sales Promotion to National Advertising at the agency, working as an art director/copywriter creative team on VW.

We were in awe of Roy’s work. When Bob and I showed Roy our work for approval, we hoped he would say more than just “Yes.”  We wanted him to really like it.

Our secret goal was to do work as good as Roy’s. We never achieved that. But we kept trying.

So I was pleased, surprised, excited, thrilled, happy, proud – all of the above – when one day in 1975, Roy asked me to be his copywriter on the new Bristol-Myers account.  The budget was small at first. But our advertising worked. And Bristol-Myers became one of the biggest, busiest TV accounts in the agency.  In four years, we shot 30 commercials.

In 1979, Roy asked me to be his copywriter on IBM --- copiers, computers, typewriters, word processors. We did everything --- television, magazine, newspaper, radio.  Even the small space.

“This is the kind of advertising we should be doing. And this is the kind of advertising they should be buying,” said Bill Bernbach. That’s all we needed to hear. We kept working.

In 1984, Roy and I teamed up on Volkswagen, introducing the new generation of VWs —- Golf, Jetta, GTI, Cabriolet, Vanagon Camper.

Two years earlier, Roy had been named Chairman, Executive Creative Director of DDB-US, adding a lot more authority and responsibilities to his job.

But knowing Roy, I think the part of his job he still liked best was doing the work. Creating fresh, new, memorable advertising.

Remembering Roy --- some things still stand out.

No matter how high he rose on the corporate ladder, when the two of us worked together as art director and copywriter, Roy always treated me as an equal.

If I had a good idea, we would build a campaign on it. When I had a bad idea, he never crushed me, or put me down. He’d simply say: “Interesting”--- shorthand for Let’s move on.

When we showed work to Bill Bernbach, Roy never used the word “I.” He always said “We.”

And he never pulled rank.

When the two of us each came up with a different approach or idea for a campaign, he’d say: “Let’s do both.” In fact, we showed Bristol-Myers three different ideas.

I had a side job at Doyle Dane Bernbach. When a college or university requested a guest speaker from the agency, I often got the assignment.

They all wanted to know: “What’s it like to work for Bill Bernbach?” “How do you make a Doyle Dane Bernbach ad?”

I liked to end each talk with a question and answer session. And standing there, in front of the students, I noticed Roy’s name often popped up in my answers.

As in:

“Great question.  The best answer I can give you is something Roy Grace once told me….”

Or:

“We had that same problem.  And Roy Grace solved it by….”

Or:

“I remember Roy Grace always telling the account guys: ‘Playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do.’”

That’s when I realized --- all those years, I wasn’t just working with Roy Grace. I also was learning from Roy Grace.

                          –Tom Yobage
Executive Vice President - Creative Director
Doyle Dane Bernbach 1966 - 1993