It's Mourning in America, Hal Riney Dies

[Tuckerfan]

You probably don’t know the name, or the face, but if you were living in America in the eighties you certainly knew his work.

Riney, who died of cancer on March 24, wasn’t just an ad writer, he was a story-teller of rare talent from the old school. And for story-telling through advertising, the old school was better than the new school. Believe me.

Among Riney’s most noteworthy efforts was the campaign for President Reagan’s 1984 re-election,”It’s Morning Again in America.” What is remarkable about the resonance of that effort for Reagan was that it was a positive ad message. As politics has been driven deep into the gutter of negative advertising and talk-radio partisan blather, it is a testament to Riney that he wrote the only positive political ads in modern times that are still remembered.

Riney often voiced his ads, as well as wrote them. And he had a talent for naming products. Among these was Gallo’s Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler. In creating the characters “Frank and Ed,” Riney not only named the product, but wrote its 143 commercials over a period of three years an industry record.

The Bartles & James ads were some of the best on TV, IMHO.

[ASAKMOTSD]

@Tuckerfan

The Bartles & James ads were some of the best on TV, IMHO.

“We thank you for your support.”

[jayjay]

He was actually tapped to do ads for Perot’s 1992 presidential run, but Perot reportedly did not like the ads Riney actually put together for him, so they never actually ran.

[Tuckerfan]

@jayjay

He was actually tapped to do ads for Perot’s 1992 presidential run, but Perot reportedly did not like the ads Riney actually put together for him, so they never actually ran.

I wonder what they were like.

[Hal Riney] It’s lunatic time, in America. [/HR]

[jayjay]

@Tuckerfan

I wonder what they were like.

[Hal Riney] It’s lunatic time, in America. [/HR]

Well, actually, the impression I got from reading Jack Germond and Jules Whitcover’s book Mad As Hell: Revolt at the Ballot Box, about the 1992 campaign, it wasn’t so much at the beginning that Perot was a whacko, but that he was a control freak. And cheap as hell. He wanted to be in control of every aspect of the campaign, and eventually fired his managers because they were actually trying to do their job. He wanted the whole campaign run his way (which consisted of him not paying too much or actually doing too much), including the ads. He thought they were saccharine and sentimental.

[Beware_of_Doug]

His ashes will be scattered in a town called Vergèze…at a spring…called Perrier.