| | October 25-December 4, 2004
Reception: Monday, October 25, 6 - 8pm School of Visual Arts honors Ed McCabe, one of the greatest copywriters in the history of advertising, with its Masters Series Award and retrospective exhibition. "The Masters Series: Ed McCabe/Strong Words" opens on October 25 and will remain on view through December 4 at the Visual Arts Museum, 209 East 23rd Street, in New York City. The work of Ed McCabe - among the world's most memorable, successful and enduring advertising campaigns - has profoundly influenced the field of advertising. For over four decades, his ads broke new ground, and have been widely copied and imitated. Many of today's most creative advertising professionals follow his innovative teachings and examples. On display in this exhibition are more than 100 highlights from McCabe's tremendous body of work, some of which has literally become embedded in American pop culture, including "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken" for Perdue, Hebrew National's "We answer to a higher authority," and "Cha-Ching" for Rally's Hamburgers, along with much of the work he did for Volvo, the Swedish car maker, for 20 years. SVA's Masters Series Award is bestowed annually on a groundbreaking designer, illustrator or photographer whose work, while having made an important contribution to the visual culture of our times, may not fit into exhibition categories of most galleries. The exhibition that is part of the award offers a rare opportunity to see the brilliant, career-spanning works of some of the most important visual communicators of our time. This year's award is particularly noteworthy in that Ed McCabe is the only practitioner whose specialty is writing to receive this prestigious graphics award. Called "The Wizard of Words" by The London Times, McCabe has been the multiple winner of every award the advertising industry presents. At the age of 34, he was inducted into the Copywriter's Hall of Fame, along with other industry legends such as David Ogilvy, William Bernbach and Rosser Reeves. He was the youngest to be so honored. Ed McCabe was born in Chicago in 1938. A high school dropout, McCabe got his first "real" job in the mailroom of McCann Erickson, an advertising agency, when he was 15. He left Chicago in 1959, and made a name for himself with his work for a number of major ad agencies. He co-founded Scali, McCabe, Sloves, Inc. in New York in 1967, where he was president and worldwide creative director and helped to build the company into the 10th largest ad agency network in the world. For 10 years after leaving Scali, McCabe, Sloves, he was CEO of McCabe & Co., another New York ad agency. McCabe jokes, "At one point my name was on the doors of five different ad agencies." An adventurer and author as well, McCabe has been a racing car driver and was the first American to drive the grueling Paris/Dakar Rally. His book about that experience, Against Gravity, was published by Warner Books. He has written on both business and adventure in The New York Times, Playboy, Esquire, The Automobile, New York Magazine and other publications. He has also lectured on advertising at universities and to business seminars both here and abroad. McCabe is now a marketing and communications consultant and resides in Miami Beach and the British West Indies. Past Masters Series laureates are Marshall Arisman, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Seymour Chwast, Paul Davis, Lou Dorfsman, Shigeo Fukuda, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Mary Ellen Mark, Duane Michals, Tony Palladino, Paula Scher, Deborah Sussman, George Tscherny, Paul Rand and Massimo Vignelli. School of Visual Arts Founder and Chairman Silas H. Rhodes, said, "Though their achievements are lauded by their colleagues, the names of such groundbreaking artists often go largely unrecognized by the general public even though many people have been influenced by their work and have responded strongly to their imagery. At the School of Visual Arts we feel that artists of this caliber should have the widest possible public exposure and recognition, which is why we offer this annual award and exhibition." The Visual Arts Museum, located at 209 East 23rd Street between Second and Third Avenues, is open 9am to 6:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 9am to 8pm on Thursday, and 10am to 5pm on Saturday. Media Contact: For more information, visuals, or to arrange an interview with Mr. McCabe, please call Heather Steliga, Director of Communication, 212.592.2010, or
e-mail proffice@sva.edu. | |
