Vale creative legend John McCabe: “John was a one-off. It was difficult not to love him”

Many in the industry on both sides of the Tasman, and some in the US, will be saddened to hear of the passing of brilliant creative John McCabe, who has passed away in NZ after a battle with cancer.

 

McCabe started his copywriting career at Colenso in Auckland in 1976, staying for four years before heading to DDB Sydney in 1982. After a one year stint at Saatchi & Saatchi in Melbourne he joined The Campaign Palace Sydney in its heyday, where he was part of the legendary line-up that won three Agency of the Year titles, including Campaign Brief AOY in 1987. Clients included Apple, APD Snack foods, Thredbo Alpine Resorts, Australian Beef and Lamb.

In 1990 he headed to London, joining the legendary BBH, where he worked as a senior creative for six years. During his time at BBH it was twice named the best agency in the world at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. He won a host of international awards including British television awards, D&AD, Cannes lions and Gold Clios. Clients included Levi’s, Coca Cola, Natwest Bank, Audi, BskyB broadcasting, Whitbread brewery, Hugo Boss and Cadbury.

In 1996 McCabe returned to his native New Zealand, taking the ECD role at The Campaign Palace, Auckland. During that stint The Palace was named NZ Agency of the Year, winning both Gold and Grand AXIS awards across multiple print and television categories. Clients included Westpac, TAB, Mercury Energy, Vodafone, Land Rover and JVC.

Two years later he was appointed ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland, during which time he led Saatchi’s to CB NZ Agency of the Year in 2000. During that time, Saatchi’s won numerous awards including Cannes Gold Lions, Gold at AWARD, and were listed among the top five agencies in the world by Graphis Magazine. Clients included Telecom New Zealand, Yellow Pages, Xtra, Lion Nathan, ACP Magazines, TVNZ and Toyota. In 1999 he also took on a Global Executive Creative Director role on the worldwide board of Saatchi & Saatchi, tasked with ensuring that exceptional creative and strategically sound work was delivered by all agencies within the global network.

During a six year stint in New York he co-founded Fahrenheit 212 for Saatchi & Saatchi, applying idea generation to product and brand innovation. Fahrenheit 212 was far ahead of its time. As early as 2001, McCabe saw the flaw in the agency business and revenue models. He believed agencies weren’t getting paid for what they were great at: innovative thinking.

In 2008 McCabe had a short stint as creative director at BWM Dubai.

Working from Sydney, Auckland and Shanghai from 2010 onwards, he co-founded various companies, including Einstein’s Hairdresser, One Winged Bee Productions and PIQNIC. Most recently McCabe developed branded content, working with agencies as well as directly with clients. These included Ogilvy China, DDB and Brandworld NZ, Kin2kin, Popin and Piqnic, Njoy New York and The NZ Ministry of Health. In addition, he worked with The Red Circle Network, developing creative and business strategies for Western brands throughout China.

 

Lionel Hunt, former chairman of The Campaign Palace, sent CB a tribute to his old friend:

So sad to hear the news about McCabe.
Far too soon, on the one hand, and surprising he lived so long, on the other.
I never quite knew what he did in advertising but that didn’t matter. Because neither did he.
Whatever it was he must have been very good at it. Because we hired him at The Palace at least twice.
He once picked me up from my hotel in Auckland in his new Porsche Boxster to go for a day’s fishing.
We’d had quite a big night the night before and I suspect that John’s blood wasn’t entirely alcohol free- mine certainly wasn’t.
What followed was a heart in mouth trip across town to the marina with me quickly deducing
that he couldn’t drive.
A portent of things to come.
We got on his new power boat and he asked me if I thought he had enough fuel.
How much have you got?
Half a tank.
How much is that?
Not sure.
How far are we going?
To Hauraki Gulf.
How far’s that?
Not sure.
Should be fine then.
John started the outboard, put the gear into reverse, fell on the throttle control and we reversed
at full speed.
Straight into the boat opposite.
Both of us got up off the deck and proceeded to go fishing.
Two hours later, believe it or not, we caught a large kingfish on a lure.
John was very chuffed and we turned for the two hour trip home.
And five minutes later ran out of fuel.
Of course.
The Marine Rescue people were very grumpy having to come all the way from Auckland and then tow us all the way back at snail’s pace.
John was a one-off.
It was difficult not to love him.
I did.

Ron Mather, former ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi and The Campaign Palace sent CB this tribute:

Like everyone else, I have many fond, amusing, crazy, sad, outrageous memories of John.
One I recall that always gives me a smile, was when John and Roddy Martin joined me at Saatchi’s Melbourne.I went to their hotel the evening before they were coming into the office and told them the agency was quite straight and serious, so please be on your best behaviour. Silly me.
Next day I am sitting in my office on St Kilda Rd and I see two people staggering up the street towards the agency. It’s Roddy and John.
Roddy has a white stick in his hand and John is helping him along. When they arrived at the agency the chaos continued for most of the day.
So good was their performance, many in the agency thought I had hired a blind art director. That was all John’s idea.
John and Roddy went on to do some great work and I do believe John did a lot to lift the mood of the agency and helped make working there a lot more fun for everyone.
It’s very sad to hear of your passing John. I am forever grateful you shared so much of your time with me.
R.I.P mate.

 

Former creative partner Rodd Martin, who teamed with McCabe at DDB Sydney and later at Saatchi & Saatchi, Melbourne, sent CB this tribute:

Dear Johnny! So sad to hear this.

John and I met when Phil Atkinson put us together at DDB in the early 80s.

Within about a week of meeting Johnny I went from being a nice boy from the shire to playing a supporting role in The Wolf of Wall Street.

Lunch quite often went from 1-2…am. “Out to lunch, back in an ambulance” John would mischievously mention to the receptionist on our way out to Mario’s or La Colona.

They were wild times. We became walking science experiments, apparently keen to discover how much the human body could imbibe, while still operating at a level that could create highly-effective, award-winning advertising. Plenty it would seem.

And the more awards we won the more Johnny would elevate the shenanigans. On the first day of our tenure with Ron Mather at Saatchi’s Melbourne, Johnny convinced me I should assume the role of a blind art director. Donning dark glasses and stumbling around with a cane Johnny helped me into reception where I started caning some suit in the shins. The suit later turned out to be the MD. We kept the charade going for most of the day before I had a miraculous recovery.

As well as being a brilliant writer Johnny was a gifted problem-solver. On one out of town shoot, agency, cast and crew were staying at a regional hotel for the night. After being ‘awarded’ the make-up lady’s room number during after-dinner drinks Johnny promptly lost it. With the bar closed, lights out and no idea where the room was, the rendezvous looked to be over before it got started. But no problem, Johnny managed to find the master fire alarm and evacuate the entire hotel. There, amongst 60 odd blurry-eyed people standing in the emergency marshalling area in the middle of the night, was the make-up lady.

But along with the creative brilliance came some quirks. For Johnny, driving was one of the biggies, where operating the vehicle correctly seemed to be more of an after-thought. I’ve sat white knuckled in the passenger seat of the Boxter that Lionel mentions. On another shoot in LA, Johnny arrived a day earlier than me and managed to crash a hire car. While attempting to drive on the right side of the road he spotted someone pointing a gun at him from the footpath. To avert this, he quickly veered off the road and straight into a pole. Fortunately, the cop who was routinely pointing a speed gun at him was on hand to help.

I could go on. As I write this, classic story after story is flooding back. Like many people here have said – Johnny was one-of-a-kind. God help me if there had been two of them!

 

Creative Andy Blood and Andrew Tinning were one of the star teams under McCabe at Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand, which resulted in one CB Agency of the Year title. Blood sent CB this tribute:

“Somewhere out there is a guy called Riley, wishing he was living the life of McCabe.”

I think Eugene Ruane might’ve coined that one and he was right.

Like the time we went on a two-day fishing trip to Great Barrier and caught 23 different species of fish.

Ostensibly, we were out there working, ‘we’ being Johnny, Andrew Tinning, and me. We took along the brief for Steinlager’s sponsorship of the All Blacks and needed to come back with something pretty decent because the agency’s grip on the account was slipping. We came back with “Unconditional” which is still running to this day, twenty-five years later, which now makes that fishing trip expense look pretty damn cheap.

Like the time he took us to see a Thursday morning showing of The Matrix which was in its first ever run and in its first ever week. Was it work, or pleasure? You could never tell with John, because you could never tell when he was working or when he wasn’t. In fact, you could never actually tell what he did. But for the two years we worked for him at Saatchi and Saatchi Auckland, the entire department did some of the very best work of their careers, over and over again. For Speights, Steinlager, Telecom, Cleo Magazine, Kidzfirst Neonatal unit, and many other clients, winning print ad of the year (repeatedly), billboard of the year, radio campaign of the year and not surprisingly, agency of the year.

What he was very good at was never getting in the way. He gave you the space to do your best work. And toward the end of the creative process, he would always add a tiny detail. A sentence, thought, or turn of phrase. And it always improved the work. That’s what he was good at. And he never attempted to take any credit for it. He always made sure you were centre stage.

But now it’s time for him to be showered with love.

So long, and thanks for all the fish, John. And all the awards.

Your unconditional supporter, X.

 

Comments on Facebook from industry friends including:

Nick Worthington: “Damn. I have so many memories of John, he was a true original. Wilder and more daring than I would ever be, but more thoughtful and caring of other people too.”

Andrew Tinning: “Bloody hell. John was one of a kind and oh-so-kind. The times we all shared and the work we created together at Saatchi Akl were legendary. RIP Einstein’s Hairdresser.”

Andy Lish: “I cannot write the words to say how very sad I am. We worked, sometimes, at Saatchis together, laughed and played together and went through Cancer together. Sadly Johnny did not survive it. I am still holding on. I will get through it for both of us Jonny mate. We will all miss you. RIP.”

Tony Sherwood: “We had so much fun back in the day. Very sad news.”

Steve Dodds: “I was in Auckland last weekend and tried to catch up. As usual he was mysterious about why he couldn’t. God fucking damn!”

Jimmy O’Mahony: “Sad news but some great memories of our times together in New York.”

Graham Fink: “Oh no!!! That is such sad news. I worked with him whilst in China when I hired him to work with me on a big Audi campaign. We had such fun for 6 weeks together. Always up to mischief and great humour. He’ll be very much missed.”

Tim Ashton: “This is such terrible news. I worked with Johnny at BBH for four fun-filled crazy years.
He was a true one-off and I can’t believe I won’t hear his crazy laugh ever again.”

Paul Prince: “Oh Bugger. This is terribly sad news. John was a bundle of Joy.”

Jeremy Craigen: “This is too sad. Such a wonderful bloke and cynic. Cheers to you.”

Malcolm Poynton: “Laughter, hijinks and a heart of gold all in one. Miss ya, Johnny.”

Margot Fitzpatrick: “Another legend gone too soon – thanks for the laughter and the brilliance. RIP Johnny.”

KT Morton: “Absolutely shocked. A Team. Ian and I are devastated. What a magic human to have known. Much love and memories from us.”

Jane Caro: “A real shock.”

Sue Carey: “Bless his big, crazy heart.”

 

McCabe picked this Thredbo campaign he co-created with Rocky Ranallo at The Campaign Palace Sydney in 1988 as his favourite for Campaign Brief’s Millennium Book, published in 2000.

Saatchi & Saatchi was crowned Campaign Brief NZ Agency of the Year in 2000.