Page 25 - AdNews magazine Mar-Apr-May 2023

Chalk, a well known industry leader, had Russel presenting that idea on Friday, the last day of work experience. “Mate, just get down there and present it to the client."
After that, Russel was offered a full-time job.
“I can’t remember what the idea was but I do remember being nervous about the acetate slides on the overhead projector,” he recalls.
“So then I had a full time job at McCann Erickson and I also com- pleted my studies -- full time stu- dent, full time worker.”
He remembers being thoroughly confused about the conversations during internal meetings. What the hell were they talking about? At the same time, he felt comfortable with the people. “I think that my father must have just known. He would've said to himself, ‘I think Russel will be suited to this business’.
“Because he'd got to know that business in his forties you know?
“At that time I started to enjoy the studies because it was getting to the strategic side of it. I went on a study tour of America and went
to McCann Erickson, New York, where they showed us the history of Coca Cola advertising. That was big because Coca Cola was the best advertiser in the world at the time and everyone around the world wanted to work on that.
“We also went to Timberland, Hershey, Levi's. I got a taste of big brands in a big market. I remember the biggest thing that I got out of that study tour was how much Americans love business. I've always loved America and American things.”
Thinking back on that time, one thing that stood out: “They love to sell.”
Coming home, he told his father of meeting a travelling salesman, dressed in American business casual, a shirt with his company logo on it, in a bar. “I met a vacuum bag consultant in a bar and he absolutely loved his job. That had a really big impact on me.”
And just prior to that, in the mid 1980s, before starting at McCanns, Russel had been selling advertising space for the inner city Melbourne Time newspaper. “I
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loved doing that. I just walked the streets of Carlton, going into shops and selling them ad space.”
He was also in a band, Kelvin and the Absolute Zeros. “We scratched around. I was a drummer and I loved that of course. But I was inabitofahurryandit'shardtobe in a hurry and be a musician. You spend a lot of time sitting around and I wasn't so good at that. But there were some very good musi- cians and a number of them that were involved in that band still do the pubs around town.”
He liked talking to people. His pub was the Lemon Tree Hotel, Carlton. “And then I'd get the newspaper artwork and take it down to the printer once a week. Around the same time I'd go and see bands and write reviews.”
About the same time he was trying to convince himself to go back to university full-time, the Melbourne Time offered him a new job. “They said how would I like to take over the Fruit and Vegetable News, the wholesale newspaper they owned. Would
“There's nothing dishonest about advertising. I'm trying to sell something and there's no distortion.”