Creative Director in his eighties tells all: Ian MacTavish has written ‘Macca’s Way. 80 Years of Yarns’, a story for every year of his life
He started in Sydney advertising in 1959, spent the swinging sixties working in London, and went on to create campaigns for Qantas, KB, Reschs, Rosemount and Goodyear. Now Ian MacTavish has written a story for every year of his life. Some are true, some are embellished, and some, he admits, are outright lies. The result is Macca’s Way. 80 Years of Yarns, now available in two volumes on Amazon Australia.
Lesson One. Headline should grab readers attention. Stop them turning the page.
That’s what Ian MacTavish was told 67 years ago when he started in advertising in Sydney.
Now well out of the game, he decided to leave behind a sort of history for his kids, in the form of a short story for every year of his life.
Some are just as they happened… fair dinkum. Some needed a touch of added invention to keep the pages turning (didn’t we just say we should put a stop to that.) Some are outright lies.
Probably not the first time fact and fiction have been stirred together on the same page.
His book is called Macca’s Way. 80 Years of Yarns now up in two volumes on Amazon Australia.
Just a few stories are actually about advertising. We all have a separate life, right? But there could be a few laughs in there, maybe even a lesson or two about life from the perspective of someone who had a good go at it.
Ian MacTavish kicked off at Nichols Cumming advertising in Sydney in 1959. He lived in London for most of the sixties (yes, it was as good as they say) working at Pritchard Wood and London Press Exchange. Back in Sydney, he worked at JWT and Jackson Wain. He went on to top creative roles at Masius, Mojo and George Patts. A few campaigns he wouldn’t mind chipped into his headstone include the Qantas ‘Ageing Man’, KB ‘Great Events’, Reschs ‘The beer we drink round here’, the press campaign to launch Rosemount and the Goodyear ‘If it only saves you once a year’.
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