NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� George Lois, the hard-selling, charismatic advertising man and designer who fashioned some of the most daring magazine images of the 1960s and popularized such catchphrases and brand names as 鈥淚 Want My MTV鈥� and 鈥淟ean Cuisine,鈥� has died. He was 91.
Lois' son, the photographer Luke Lois, said he died 鈥減eacefully鈥� Friday at his home in Manhattan.
Nicknamed the 鈥淕olden Greek鈥� and later (to his displeasure) an 鈥淥riginal Mad Man,鈥� George Lois was among a wave of advertisers who launched the 鈥淐reative Revolution鈥� that jolted Madison Avenue and the world beyond in the late 1950s and 鈥�60s. He was boastful and provocative, willing and able to offend, and was a master of finding just the right image or words to capture a moment or create a demand.
His Esquire magazine covers, from Muhammad Ali posing as the martyr Saint Sebastian to Andy Warhol sinking in a sea of Campbell鈥檚 tomato soup, defined the hyper spirit of the 鈥�60s as much as Norman Rockwell鈥檚 idealized drawings for the Saturday Evening Post summoned an earlier era. As an ad man, he devised breakthrough strategies for Xerox and Stouffer鈥檚 and helped an emerging music video channel in the 1980s by suggesting ads featuring Mick Jagger and other rock stars demanding, with mock-petulance, 鈥淚 Want My MTV!鈥�
Lois boiled it down to what he called the 鈥淏ig Idea,鈥� crystallizing 鈥渢he unique virtues of a product and searing it into people鈥檚 minds.鈥� He was inducted into numerous advertising and visual arts halls of fame, and in 2008 his Esquire work was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Martin Scorsese, Tina Brown and Graydon Carter were among his admirers.
His legacy was vast, although the actual dimensions are disputed. His claims to developing the 1960s 鈥淚 Want My Maypo鈥� breakfast ads and to inspiring the creation of New York magazine have been widely contradicted. Some former Esquire colleagues would allege that he exaggerated his role at the expense of other contributors, such as Carl Fischer, who photographed many of the magazine鈥檚 famous covers. But his overpowering energy and confidence were well recorded.
In her memoir 鈥淏asic Black,鈥� former USA Today publisher Cathie Black recalled bringing in Lois in the early 1980s to propose a new advertising approach for a publication that struggled at first over how to identify itself. Lois鈥� idea was to champion USA Today鈥檚 dual appeal as a newspaper and magazine, proposing the slogan, 鈥淎 lot of people are saying USA Today is neither fish nor fowl. They鈥檙e right!鈥� Before a gathering of the publication's, including founder Al Neuharth, Lois gave an Oscar-worthy performance, Black wrote, 鈥渂ounding in like a 6-foot-3 teenager hopped up on Red Bull.鈥�
鈥淗e flung his jacket to the floor, tore off his tie, then flashed one prototype ad after another, prancing around the room and keeping up a running monologue sprinkled with jokes and profanity. It was epic, almost scary. I was thrilled. When he was finished, the room sat absolutely silent.鈥� All eyes turned to Neuharth, who sat 鈥渁bsolutely still, his expression hidden behind his dark aviator glasses.鈥� Neuharth paused, removed his glasses and smiled. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got it,鈥� he said.
Lois' longtime wife, Rosemary Lewandowski Lois, died in September. A son, Harry Joseph Lois, died in 1978.
Lois, the son of Greek immigrants, was born in New York City in 1931 and would cite the racism of his Irish neighborhood for his drive 鈥渢o awaken, to disturb, to protest.鈥� He liked to say that a successful advertiser absorbed as many influences as possible, and he prided himself on his knowledge of everything from sports to ballet. He was a compulsive drawer and for much of his life made weekly visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He enrolled in Pratt Institute, soon met his future wife and eloped with her before either had graduated. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he joined the advertising and promotion department of CBS and in 1960 helped found the advertising agency Papert Koenig Lois. Two years later he was recruited by Esquire editor Harold Hayes and remained until 1972, the same year Hayes left.
Esquire was a prime venue for the so-called New Journalism of the 1960s, nonfiction stories with a literary approach, and the magazine would publish such celebrated pieces as Gay Talese鈥檚 portrait of Frank Sinatra and Tom Wolfe鈥檚 鈥淭he Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!鈥� But to read the words, you had to buy the magazine, and Lois鈥� covers launched countless conversations.
For a cover story on 鈥淭he New American Woman,鈥� he featured a naked model folded into a garbage can. A notorious 1970 cover showed a grinning Lt. William Calley, the serviceman later found guilty of murdering unarmed civilians in the My Lai Massacre, with his arms around a pair of Vietnamese children, two other kids behind him.
In the mid-1970s, Lois was among the public figures who led efforts to free the boxer Rubin 鈥淗urricane鈥� Carter from prison. Carter鈥檚 conviction for murder was later overturned, and he was released in 1985. Lois also wrote several books and was featured in the 2014 documentary about Esquire, 鈥淪miling Through the Apocalypse.鈥�
Interest in Lois was renewed through the popularity of the AMC series 鈥淢ad Men,鈥� but he was not flattered, writing in his book 鈥淒amn Good Advice鈥� that the show was 鈥渘othing more than a soap opera set in a glamorous office where stylish fools hump their appreciative, coiffured secretaries, suck up martinis, and smoke themselves to death as they produce dumb, lifeless advertising.鈥�
鈥淏esides,鈥� he added, 鈥渨hen I was in my 30s I was better looking than Don Draper.鈥�
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
