25 Years On: Andrew Tinning remembers the day and shares his personal footage of 9/11
Twenty-five years ago, advertising creative director Andrew Tinning was in New York with his creative partner Andy Blood to collect an award for a billboard campaign. Within hours, they found themselves witnessing one of the most devastating events in modern history. From the offices of Saatchi & Saatchi New York, Tinning filmed what he saw that day, but the footage remained unedited and unseen for the next quarter of a century. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he has finally brought those images together in this film – a personal record of the day, and a powerful reminder of the events he and millions of others will never forget.
It’s hard to believe it was 25 years ago.
My creative partner at the time, Andy Blood, and I were in New York to collect an award we’d won for a billboard.
The terrible irony wasn’t lost on us.
Little did we know we were about to witness the most horrific display of outdoor advertising in history.
The client: Osama bin Laden.
The brand: Al-Qaeda.
The target audience: America and the rest of the Western world.
The message was brutally clear.
The impact, tragically unforgettable.
And the memory, one that will stay with us forever.
The footage I took that day has been sitting unedited in a drawer for two and a half decades.
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, I finally felt compelled to share it.
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the 2763 victims who were senselessly murdered. Had we followed through with plans to have breakfast at Windows on the World that morning, we would have been among them.
Andrew Tinning.
