{"id":38575,"date":"2024-03-01T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T23:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=38575"},"modified":"2024-04-29T14:38:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T18:38:12","slug":"the-family-business","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/the-family-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Family Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BBDO North America Chief Creative Officer David Lubars (CGS\u201978, COM\u201980) will address graduating students at this year\u2019s convocation for COM bachelor\u2019s candidates on Friday, May 17, 9 a.m., at Agganis Arena. Later that day, UN Secretary-General for Global Communications, Department of Global Communications Melissa Fleming (COM’89) will speak to COM master\u2019s candidates at 3 p.m. at Walter Brown Arena.<\/em> Lubars recently spoke with COM about his days as an advertising student and the legacy of AdLab.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Walter Lubars founded AdLab in 1974 and became dean of COM, he worked on creative teams at top ad agencies like Doyle Dane Bernbach. <\/strong>His son, David Lubars, remembers accompanying his father to the office as a child. \u201cIt seemed like a really cool way to make a living,\u201d recalls the younger Lubars (CGS\u201978, COM\u201980).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when David enrolled at BU, where his father was by then teaching, he hesitated to pursue advertising. \u201cBecause it was \u2018my dad\u2019s thing,\u2019 I tried other things first,\u201d he says. \u201cI started as a history major, but I didn\u2019t see myself doing that. I liked writing, so I went into journalism. That was fun. But then I saw what they were doing across the hall in AdLab, and that was so interesting. I went over there, and I never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, he is chief creative officer at BBDO Worldwide\u2014one of the premier agencies in the world, with offices in more than 80 countries\u2014and chair of BBDO North America. He\u2019s led award-winning work, such as the Snickers \u201cYou\u2019re not you when you\u2019re hungry\u201d campaign. He traces his success back to AdLab, where he was a creative director and worked on a \u201cGreat American Smokeout\u201d campaign to encourage people to quit smoking. \u201cI just knew that\u2019s what I wanted to do,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a student participating in AdLab, Lubars could see his father had started something special. \u201cIt\u2019s run as a real ad agency,\u201d he says. \u201cYou learn pressure and deadlines and having to go back and do it all over again. So, when you start at an agency, you already understand the frantic and sometimes chaotic nature of the business. It\u2019s experience that is so valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back then, advertising ran in print or on television or radio. \u201cYou had to figure out what kind of creative to put in those boxes.\u201d But Lubars is invigorated by the rapid evolution the industry has seen in the past couple of decades. \u201cThe thing that\u2019s exciting about the business today is it\u2019s so changing\u2014the mediums come and go, and it\u2019s kind of like a cloudy mess,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day, you wake up to something new. I like that, trying to figure out the new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AdLab continues to prepare students to meet those challenges, he says. \u201cAdLab is still in a category of one\u2014there\u2019s nothing else like it. And my dad created all of that. It was quite brilliant, what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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