Part One
IN one of the later films of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, one will encounter the poignant story of a retired professor who continued to be cherished and revered by his former pupils that he was given a tribute year after year. During the gathering to mark his 77th birthday, he told his now-graying former pupils that he still couldn’t believe that he had lasted so long: “I thought that at age 61, I had become a genuinely old man. Now at 77, I realize how young I was at 61.”
When he was 60 years old, they thought Rik was a “dinosaur,” well past his best years as an advertising art director. So they retired him. But in retrospect, at age 60, Rik was still young for he still had many more productive years ahead.
Someone once said that you can be young only once, but you can be immature forever. That may be true.
When I last saw him many years ago, Rik was still active at age 73. I was a writer and he was an art director in a creative boutique called EC Grafix.
Without doubt, Rik was at that time the only 70-something art director who had learned to master the computer for designing graphics. Put it this way: Rik was the only 70-something practicing art director, period. The mere fact that he still went to work every day to do advertising work was already an outstanding achievement for this man. Name another art director today with 50-plus years of experience in advertising still active in the business. Truth is, all of Rik’s contemporaries in advertising are either long retired, disabled by disease, wasting away or resting in peace 6 feet under somewhere.
When I mentioned Rik’s name to aging ad executives who were much younger than Rik, most were genuinely surprised to discover that Rik was still alive. They were flabbergasted to know he was still actively working as an art director at his age.
Yes, there is life after retirement
WHILE many are looking forward to retiring, Rik had not even thought of doing so. Still working at EC Grafix, Rik was designing logos, label designs, illustrating for a journal and designing covers for audio CDs. He had by that time mastered Adobe Photoshop, Freehand, and the latest graphics software with a skill that can shame even computer artists 50 years younger. He could extemporize and adlib during brainstorming sessions on what works and what doesn’t. Of course, some young punks scoffed at his “old fashioned” thinking, much to their regret later on.
While many people his age were on wheelchairs or could not amble without their sticks, Rik commuted by public transportation and walked from the jeepney stop to the office. Day after day. He spent his weekends walking through the narrow alleys of Quiapo and Avenida. When he was not there, he probably was at some mall, window shopping or looking at books and magazines in bargain shops. Walking, walking, walking.
His memory was prodigious and naturally sharp, no thanks to ginseng-boosted vitamin food supplements. In fact, he had few concessions to vice, if you can call it that: beer, two bottles before sleeping (“San Miguel Pale Pilsen, please.”)
Walking encyclopedia of media greats and not so great
RIK was present at the creation of the advertising industry in the Philippines in the early 1950s. He was a living history book of advertising and media in the Philippines, living through the growth of advertising. Like most advertising people, he had made the rounds of old advertising agencies, albeit during the old days: art director at J Walter Thompson, McCann Ericsson, AMA, Adformatix, Ace Compton, Link.
“Nag-rigodon din ako,” he quipped.
The big agencies were then based in Manila, not Makati. He was assigned to the big accounts then like Ford, Breeze, Liberty Milk and other brands that did not survive the inexorable attrition in the marketing world.
“Those were the good old days of advertising when there was no 4 A’s and creative guilds and ad congress and awards night,” said Rik a little wistfully. It was also a period when there were no overtimes, and deadlines were not yesterday, but one month from now. It was life at a more leisurely pace. But it was the days of physical cut and paste, cliché, Morizawa typesetting machines. That was decades before the virtual cut-and-paste computer graphics of today.
Rik had worked under and with many local advertising greats. Name the guy—Tony de Joya, Tony Zorilla, Dick Guersey, Lyle Little, JJ Calero, Ben Canapi—and Rik would have a tasty morsel of an anecdote about him. He had a treasure chest full of stories about Malang, Hugo Yonzon. Larry Alcala and even Ariel Ureta, who Rik had a chance to work with at Link Advertising.
”Boy, was he weird,” Rik mused as he vividly recalled those days when Ariel rocked the boat in the industry with his antics when he was a hotshot copywriter.
And the unforgettable Bill Ibañez.
It was surprising to learn that Rik also got involved in audio and film production as a producer! That’s where he met the late Nida Blanca who became a close friend up to the time of her ghastly death. Maggie de la Riva also used to be one of the talents he nurtured for a TV show he produced. Students of the local media would certainly have found Rik a rich source of data on the evolution of radio and TV as media of communications.
To be concluded
1 comment
Worked with Rik at McCann in the late 60’s (Under Dick Guersey, Willie Garcia, Ben Canapi, etc) where I was a writer/producer for a couple of years. Great guy who always had a smile and an attitude that refused to take any hardship seriously. We worked together on many commericals.