John Singleton at his new Oahu home in November with a local macaw, his favourite breed of bird. Hawaii was chosen for the regular meetings as the equidistant point between Sydney and New York. The “empty suits” being the men in black (read beige) sent from New York to keep him in check this was the period after American multinational advertising firm Doyle Dane Bernbach bought his Australian agency SPASM in 1973, and as part of the deal retained him on the management team for five (painful) years. “I first visited Hawaii in the 1970s, and quickly found myself returning to the Kahala Hilton every six months for four or five nights at a time with a bunch of empty suits who didn’t care for a bit of fun after the day’s work was done,” scoffs Singleton. The ad man has a reputation to uphold, after all. If any interview about John Singleton’s history with Hawaii didn’t start with a wild tale – propping up the bar with Frank Sinatra jnr, for example – it would be a missed opportunity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |