Read Online Make Art Make Money: Lessons From Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Elizabeth Hyde Stevens
Ads: Link
irresistibly entertaining, he could probably do the same for the
alphabet. In a strange way, Henson’s “compromise” second job led to his first
big chance to use art to change the world.
In The Tipping Point , Malcolm Gladwell explains
that Sesame Street ’s creators wanted to use the power of jingles to
teach:
Part of the appeal of Jim Henson and the Muppets to
the show’s creators, in fact, was that in the 1960s, Henson had been running a
highly successful advertising shop. Many of the most famous Muppets were
created for ad campaigns: Big Bird is really a variation of a seven foot dragon
created by Henson for La Choy commercials; Cookie Monster was a pitchman for
Frito Lay; Grover was used in promotional films for IBM. [44]
Henson did retool his commercial characters in
service of education, yet it would be quite wrong to think of Henson as an
advertiser- turned -artist. He didn’t get his start doing ads. He got his
start doing puppets, and that just so happened to lead him into ads and education,
not because he chose those worlds, but because they chose him . It’s
important to remember, Henson’s mission—art—preceded both these pursuits.
It would be wrong to picture Henson as a “Mad Man”
from Chicago or Madison Avenue. He was not of that world—he merely
engaged with it. The language from Karen Falk’s Red Book makes it clear that
Henson was never an employee of an ad agency. He would go to Chicago to
work on ads for a day’s shoot [45] because of “relationships” [46] with agencies, which he made ads “through.” [47] Agencies like Campbell Mithun and companies like La Choy were both equally his
“clients.” [48] He had “contracts” with these agencies, but in at least one case, he bought
that contract and produced commercials without the agency. [49] With his band of puppeteers simultaneously doing bits on The Jimmy Dean Show and dreaming up various pilots and projects, Henson was always a kind of
outsider, having only one foot, so to speak, in the cesspool.
Jim Henson’s company, called Muppets
Incorporated at the time, [50] was not a subsidiary of any advertising company. It was both its own
advertising company and its own production company. Because of that,
Henson wanted much more than a typical advertiser wants.
One Muppets writer, Joseph Bailey, was a
self-proclaimed Mad Man at one time. His memoir shows a picture of him clean
shaven in a slick sixties suit and. “I’ll admit it,” he writes, “Being a Mad
Man on Madison Avenue in the 1960s was fun.… Advertising was challenging,
creative, glamorous, sexy and lucrative.” [51] Later, when he joined the Muppets in the 1970s, he looked very different—in a
photo taken at the time, he sports a dark turtleneck and a hippy beard
indistinguishable from the rest of his long hair.
In contrast, Henson never donned this glamour or
anything like a sexy image. We can see him in the presentation film for
Wilson’s Meats, acting in a behind-the-scenes recreation of the commercials. In
it, Henson’s team appears as fun-loving, zany man-children, and the employees
of advertising agency Campbell Mithun appear as buttoned-down suits, almost
like parents. Campbell Mithun staff all seem to wear the same suit and haircut.
Each Muppets Incorporated member wears a different outfit—white shirt, suit,
work jacket. Jerry Nelson wears paisley with sunglasses. Henson sports a beard,
and his hair is overgrown on top. Jerry Juhl displays the affectation of a smoking
pipe. [52]
What made Henson different from the Mad Men was
that Henson’s enthusiasm in his ads came from an honest belief that he had
something to offer viewers. And what he had to offer wasn’t bread or coffee or
gasoline at all. It was his art. Henson pitched his commercials the same way a
playwright would pitch his play to a theater—giving it everything to get
to make his art.
By the time Henson started college, he already
had an innate sense of commerce. At the
alphabet. In a strange way, Henson’s “compromise” second job led to his first
big chance to use art to change the world.
In The Tipping Point , Malcolm Gladwell explains
that Sesame Street ’s creators wanted to use the power of jingles to
teach:
Part of the appeal of Jim Henson and the Muppets to
the show’s creators, in fact, was that in the 1960s, Henson had been running a
highly successful advertising shop. Many of the most famous Muppets were
created for ad campaigns: Big Bird is really a variation of a seven foot dragon
created by Henson for La Choy commercials; Cookie Monster was a pitchman for
Frito Lay; Grover was used in promotional films for IBM. [44]
Henson did retool his commercial characters in
service of education, yet it would be quite wrong to think of Henson as an
advertiser- turned -artist. He didn’t get his start doing ads. He got his
start doing puppets, and that just so happened to lead him into ads and education,
not because he chose those worlds, but because they chose him . It’s
important to remember, Henson’s mission—art—preceded both these pursuits.
It would be wrong to picture Henson as a “Mad Man”
from Chicago or Madison Avenue. He was not of that world—he merely
engaged with it. The language from Karen Falk’s Red Book makes it clear that
Henson was never an employee of an ad agency. He would go to Chicago to
work on ads for a day’s shoot [45] because of “relationships” [46] with agencies, which he made ads “through.” [47] Agencies like Campbell Mithun and companies like La Choy were both equally his
“clients.” [48] He had “contracts” with these agencies, but in at least one case, he bought
that contract and produced commercials without the agency. [49] With his band of puppeteers simultaneously doing bits on The Jimmy Dean Show and dreaming up various pilots and projects, Henson was always a kind of
outsider, having only one foot, so to speak, in the cesspool.
Jim Henson’s company, called Muppets
Incorporated at the time, [50] was not a subsidiary of any advertising company. It was both its own
advertising company and its own production company. Because of that,
Henson wanted much more than a typical advertiser wants.
One Muppets writer, Joseph Bailey, was a
self-proclaimed Mad Man at one time. His memoir shows a picture of him clean
shaven in a slick sixties suit and. “I’ll admit it,” he writes, “Being a Mad
Man on Madison Avenue in the 1960s was fun.… Advertising was challenging,
creative, glamorous, sexy and lucrative.” [51] Later, when he joined the Muppets in the 1970s, he looked very different—in a
photo taken at the time, he sports a dark turtleneck and a hippy beard
indistinguishable from the rest of his long hair.
In contrast, Henson never donned this glamour or
anything like a sexy image. We can see him in the presentation film for
Wilson’s Meats, acting in a behind-the-scenes recreation of the commercials. In
it, Henson’s team appears as fun-loving, zany man-children, and the employees
of advertising agency Campbell Mithun appear as buttoned-down suits, almost
like parents. Campbell Mithun staff all seem to wear the same suit and haircut.
Each Muppets Incorporated member wears a different outfit—white shirt, suit,
work jacket. Jerry Nelson wears paisley with sunglasses. Henson sports a beard,
and his hair is overgrown on top. Jerry Juhl displays the affectation of a smoking
pipe. [52]
What made Henson different from the Mad Men was
that Henson’s enthusiasm in his ads came from an honest belief that he had
something to offer viewers. And what he had to offer wasn’t bread or coffee or
gasoline at all. It was his art. Henson pitched his commercials the same way a
playwright would pitch his play to a theater—giving it everything to get
to make his art.
By the time Henson started college, he already
had an innate sense of commerce. At the
Similar Books
