George Lois, Madison Avenue's best-known 20th-century art director, who put the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s into postwar advertising and created stunning covers for Esquire magazine that rebuked American racism and involvement in the Vietnam War, died on Friday at the age of He passed away at the age of 92.
The death of Mr. Lois's wife, Rosemary, was confirmed by his son, according to his obituary. He didn't say what caused it.
Mr. Lois created witty, irreverent campaigns that shattered the ham-handed advertising convention of using testimonials and romanticized images. In one campaign, a Chimp demonstrated the simplicity of a Xerox machine, while in the other, Joe Louis appeared in a brokerage ad asking, "Where were you when I needed you?"
Mr. Lois was known for his acid-rain critiques on society, race, politics and war, many of which were wordless. Sonny Liston was the last person white America wanted to see coming down the chimney on Christmas, according to one show. The four children were placed with William L. Calley Jr., the army lieutenant who ordered the My Lai massacre. There was a giant can of Campbell's tomato soup.
One of the most influential and creative ad men of his era, Mr. Lois founded and led many advertising agencies, wrote books on advertising and art direction, and created award-winning campaigns that sold everything from soap to airlines.
He was thought to be the model for the central character of the long-running AMC series "Mad Men." It was probably not going to happen.
Mr. Lois, a bald, bulky, arm-waving tsunami who talked a blue streak with a Bronx accent, ridiculed the idea, and in a CNN report in 2012 he insisted that "Mad Men" grossly misrepresented the depiction of women.
He said that the counterculture of the 1960s found expression on Madison Avenue through a new creative generation who understood that visual and verbal expression were indivisible.
While acknowledging Mr. Lois's role in Madison Avenue's modernization, some critics called him a loudmouth and self-promoter who exaggerated his involvement in creative processes that involved many people.
Mr. Lois started his career in advertising as an art director. The most creative shop in town in the 1950's was under the leadership of William Bernbach, who freed art directors and copywriters to collaborate freely.
In 1960, Mr. Lois joined two other people to form a group called Papert. It was the first ad agency with an art director as a principal. In 1962, it went public and started a trend. It had 40 million dollars in billings and clients like Xerox and National Airlines by 1967.
Mr. Lois was asked by the editor of Esquire how to improve the magazine's covers. When you assign a story to Mailer or Talese, is that what you do? Mr. recalled that Lois said something. You need to get a guy who understands the culture and likes comic strips to visit the museum.
Mr. Lois was hired to work for himself. His covers were often devoid of text, making their point strikingly with a single image. The origins of some of the 92 were disputed. Sonny Liston's Santa cost $750,000. The Museum of Modern Art in New York featured 32 of his covers.
Muhammad Ali, who had been stripped of his boxing title and jailed for refusing to submit to the draft and fight in Vietnam, was depicted by Mr. Lois as an arrow-ridden St. Sebastian. Mr. Lois spoofed the idea of a glamorous Hollywood by applying shaving cream to the face of an actress to make her look like a man.
He portrayed Vice President Humphrey as a dummy on President Lyndon B. Johnson's lap. Tom Wicker had a man wipe away a tear with a cloth under the left eye of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy in an official portrait of him.
Mr. Lois told Fast Company magazine in 2012 that Warhol was drowned in his own fame because of the Warhol cover. People thought it was the end of Pop Art. Some people think it's an icon of Pop Art. Well, okay.
One of three children of Greek immigrants, George Harry Lois was born in Manhattan in 1931. His dad was a florist. George and his sisters lived in the Bronx.
He graduated from the High School of Music and Art in New York in 1949. He left his job at Reba Sochis after a year and a half at the institute.
Rosemary was an artist. They had two sons who died before they were born. Mr. Lois is survived by his two grandsons.
During the Korean War, Mr. Lois was in the Army. Two years after joining CBS-TV, he began his advertising career.
From 1960 to 1967, he was a partner with Lois. After founding Lois Holland Callaway, he was its chairman and chief executive until 1976, when he joined Creamer/ FSR. He founded Lois/EJL in 1978 and went through a number of different names. The firm went bankrupt and closed in 1999.
Goodkarma Creative was founded by Mr. Lois and his son. He was awarded lifetime achievement awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Society of Publication Designers.
The City College of New York received a lot of career materials from Mr. Lois, including recordings of radio and television commercials, copies of print ads, script, sketches, correspondence and photographs from his campaigns, and perhaps the last Tommy Hilfiger poster from the pre-cellphone 1980s.
The New York Times reported that Jeffrey F. Machi, City College's vice president for development and institutional advancement, said that George Lois is important to them.
The author of several books is Mr. Lois.
Mr. Lois told the magazine that the advertising world no longer nurtures individual creativity. If you are part of a marketing monolith, you will never become a creative agency. It doesn't work
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