Join us Dec. 1-3 in New Orleans for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
Mike Hughes, president of The Martin Agency and renowned ad creative, passed away on Sunday. He was 65.
Hughes, who joined Martin in 1978 as a copywriter and went on to be creative director there for three decades, helped the Richmond, Va., agency become a national force. He took the unusual step of writing his own obituary a few days prior to dying at his home after a long battle with lung cancer. In the post, he thanks his family and those at the agency he collaborated with over the years.
A special call-out is due to the magnificent, crazy, elegant, messed-up, damn-near-perfect gaggle of creative partners who have put up with me for so long. Hundreds of writers and art directors have come through the doors of the agencies I’ve been lucky enough to serve. A huge number of those writers and art directors taught me valuable lessons — not just in advertising, but in how to live a meaningful, all-in life. The greatest joy in our business comes not from a gold medal or a place in the industry hall of fame — it comes from doing the work and from doing it with people of integrity and ambition and good humor.
His full autobiographical obituary is posted at his blog, Unfinished Thinking, which he began to chronicle his fight with cancer.
More in Marketing
Walmart adds AI-generated audio summaries to select product pages
Walmart has added such audio summaries to product pages on its app for more than 1,000 premium beauty products.
Digiday+ Research: Advertisers diversify their use of DSPs, to Amazon’s benefit
Amazon’s DSP has seen a growth in advertisers’ use of and preference for the platform over the last year and a half, as others such as The Trade Desk and Google have lost some clout with advertisers.
How brands are trying to optimize, outsmart AI answer engines across the zero-click landscape
AI answer engines are prompting marketers to rethink strategies for brand visibility and content optimization in a rapidly evolving, zero-click search landscape.