15 more seconds about Edie

Edie Sedgwick was a rich socialite-turned-Andy-Warhol-hangeron-actress. Her story is perhaps poorly told in the recent film Factory Girl. As ads and posters for the film put it, “When Andy met Edie, life imitated art.”

By the time the movie hit DVD, the producers had opted for
“Sexy. Uncut. Unrated.” You gotta think Andy laughed his wig off over that.

And what's more inspiring than our innate instinct to dive to that lowest common denominator?

Of course, there was always Andy.

Ever since I was a kid, I could draw; my earliest artistic inspiration came from Gene London on his WCAU Channel 10 TV show. In the American public school system, drawing was more readily-considered a talent than the mere writing of words.

Andy Warhol with HIS debutante, Edie Sedgwick.*

By high school the problem was that I was drawn more to Warhol’s stuff than “real” art. A soup can, a box of Brillo pads, I liked what I then called the “thingyness” of it all.

Off to college, I figured I'd end up being some lameass art teacher or something. Just by chance, I ran into Woody Ritter, a design prof who was trying to get a fledgling program called "Visual Communications" off the ground. He started selling me on this curriculum that included graphic design, advertising, typography, package design....

Sold, Woody! This stuff combined both words and images, right? I could be Bob Dylan AND Andy Warhol, all at once. Over the next 5 years, I'd learn some pretty useful stuff, including the fact that I should refer to Warhol’s “thingyness” by the proper term of “iconographic imagery.”

Money well spent, no?

*Edie was allegedly the inspiration for Dylan's Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat and maybe a couple of other tunes.

"What INSPIRES me?"

"Man, that's such a weird question."

-- Bob Dylan, 1966 approximately

Since the past is more certain than the present, I’m gonna share what has inspired me, if you don’t mind. I hope it’s fun and interesting for both of us, but as Dylan also said, "I’m no poet, I’m just a trapeze artist."

Anyhow, it all comes down to storytelling. And Dylan's stories were the first time it occurred to me that the way you said something might be as important as what you were talking about. Even more exciting, you could walk away with certain phrases actually burned into your brain.

"Your debutante knows what I need,
but I know what you want."
(Full lyrics - click "LISTEN" on linked page to hear song)

Twenty years later, it occurred to me that the line is a killer marketing strategy and a pretty good headline. Essentially, Bob's re-positioned the competition’s proven advantage into a disadvantage by offering something the target audience desires at a much more visceral, emotional level.

So, maybe Bob Dylan started me down that long, lonesome road to being a copywriter? Difficult to say...