The Vintagent Ads: Honda Elite - Lou Reed

Renowned, Independent owned advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy (W+K) was founded in 1982 by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy in Portland, Oregon. Famous for its creative work for clients like Nike and Old Spice and known for a “creatively driven” philosophy, it is today one of the largest independent agencies globally. But, back in 1984 it was a scrappy start up and when they heard Honda was looking for an agency to create a campaign for their scooters, W+K Jumped on it, assigning a newly hired Jim Riswold (who went on to be a legendary creative director and copywriter who revolutionized sports advertising) to pitch them. Riswold walked into the meeting with nothing but a tape cassette player. He set it down on the conference table and hit play. ‘Walk on the Wild Side‘ became the successful non-pitch to hire Lou Reed as a celebrity endorser, with the ironic tagline “Don’t settle for walking”.