Bob Barrie On The Spot

Barrie has the same role today as he did when he entered the agency business 25 years ago: art director. And that's the way he likes it. With the departure of David Lubars, Barrie, 48, has outlasted four creative chiefs at Fallon in Minneapolis, where he's spent most of his career. The Green Bay, Wis., native helped craft award-winning campaigns such as "Get in touch with your masculine side" for Jim Beam and "Red Border" for Time but says he's most proud of his most recent work: United's animated TV spots and accompanying in-flight documentaries about the animators.

Q. Are you involved in finding a replacement for Lubars?

A. Myself and a small, intimate group of about 50 other people.



What's Lubars' legacy and how is it different from those of Bill Westbrook, Pat Burnham and Tom McElligott?

David is an excellent basketball player. Those other guys really sucked. Especially McElligott. But seriously, David did a great job continuing Westbrook's "nontraditional media" initiative. He was an advocate, inspiration and a spokesman for Fallon's plunge into the world beyond the 30-second spot. I hope we keep in touch. Plus, he owes me 10 bucks.



You could be a top creative—why have you chosen to stay an art director?

The simplest answer would be self-preservation. I decided early on that I love creating and producing ads far more than I enjoy sitting in meetings talking about creating and producing ads. I have never been motivated by the politics of advertising. I've been very fortunate to work at an agency that hasn't penalized me economically for wanting to remain an art director. Actually, once they were printing up new business cards and they put a fancier title on my new cards, and I made them print them over.



Is there some humility you want to convey?

I've always been amused by the titles in advertising. I once found a title that was about 18 words long underneath a gentleman in Adweek. I made T-shirts out of it. I realized I could never attain that level, so I gave up and I'm happy being an art director.



What work are you most proud of?

I'm not being gratuitous here, but I would have to say the United campaign. Which is nice, because they say you're only as good as your last ad. I don't know if it's going to win a lot of awards—I don't care. It's been so gratifying seeing it and the reactions of people. It literally gets love letters from customers. The client's thrilled with it. And I've gotten to work with some of my