Over the 25 years that former Arnold Worldwide CCO/vice chairman Ron Lawner has worked with the agency's assorted incarnations (first as Humphrey Browning McDougall in 1981, then as Lawner Rheingold Britton & Partners in 1990 and eventually as Arnold Worldwide following acquisition by Lawner's friend and business partner Ed Eskandarian), his office has spearheaded some of the more celebrated campaigns of the past decade. Most notably, groundbreaking work for Volkswagen and the American Legacy Foundation's Truth campaign served to elevate Arnold to worldwide prominence, reaping awards and accolades aplenty. Now, facing changes within both the agency and the industry as a whole, Lawner has chosen to leave the day-to-day ad world behind, resigning at the end of '06. We tracked him down just days after the office-cleaning; with many options (consulting, product development and directing indie films among them) ahead of him and years of hard work and great ideas to serve as a legacy, we doubt he'll be standing still for long. This is, after all, the man who came up with the tagline "Drivers Wanted". "All in all, it's been a great ride and way beyond my expectations," he says. "We did it all from a little agency in Boston, and anywhere I go in the advertising world, they know who Arnold is, and they even know who I am. And believe me, I was not planning on that."

Boards: So... why leave now?
Lawner: I'd been doing this a long time, and to be honest, I just couldn't go to another meeting. I've been in that same meeting for 25 years. Different players, different problems, but basically the same meeting. Unless I can wake up and have a really great passion for it, then I don't want to do it. The further and further I got from the creative product [Lawner moved from the CCO position last March, succeeded by Pete Favat], the less passion I was bringing to the job. And the way advertising is now, in the agencies, there's not really a place for the mentor or teacher - the corporations are just not set up that way.
Boards: Going back to the beginning, how did you fall into advertising originally?
Lawner: I took some courses at college - I had a great professor named Professor Guttman who's passed away, unfortunately. But I was going to Adelphi University, a half-hour outside of Manhattan. He had a couple of guys come out that were wearing jeans and T-shirts - a writer and an art director. And I said, 'I want to do that!' The jeans and the T-shirts were a big part of it, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, they were doing something creative. So I went to the New School for Social Research and took a couple of courses in copywriting and production.
Boards: And that turned into a career. Over the course of it, what are some of the more significant ways advertising has evolved?
Lawner: I guess the fact that there are more tools in the tool box - people call it a lot of different things, like new media, non-traditional...they seem to feel it's necessary to change the name from 'advertising'. I think it's exciting news and nothing to freak out about. To a large extent, the biggest change I've seen is in media, and being smarter about that and understanding what messages are appropriate and where, how the consumer consumes advertising in different media. But it's all still advertising. You can call it what you want - you can call it 'connectivity' or whatever, but you're still advertising to that person.
Boards: In terms of the work you're proudest of, I'd gather VW and the Truth campaigns hold a special place...
Lawner: Those were the most visible ones in terms of awards. In terms of our success and fame, it was Volkswagen - it was the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm not going to make light of it because it was amazing. We've had plenty of other opportunities to do good work, but none were as visible and none gave us the chance to be as good as we could be on a consistent level as Volkswagen did for 10 years.
Boards: Why do you think the campaigns resonated as much as they did?
Lawner: It's not much different than any social situation - what do you want the advertising to do? You want them to like your product - you want them to like you. So who are the people you like? They have opinions, they express themselves, but they don't take themselves too seriously. It's a way of talking to people with intelligence and respect.
Boards: Anything you'd call a 'rule of thumb' that you've learned over the course of your career?
Lawner:To me, it's like Cracker Jacks - with the old Cracker Jacks, they had good prizes with 'em. So with advertising you have to ask yourself, 'What's in it for them?' If you start from that more human premise, you end up with a better product.
Boards: Going back to evolution, how do you see the industry evolving in the near future?
Lawner: My hope is that people will really re-evaluate the importance of the client-agency relationship. I do think that now it's kind of 'Stand and deliver - do it faster and do it cheaper'. And I understand some of that, but I think it takes its toll. There are a lot of production companies out there, and we worked with a lot of them in the VW 120 Features campaign, that are a brain or two away from becoming the agency of the future. To me, the modern agency will put more of an emphasis on more creative people, more of an emphasis on the human condition and where products fall into peoples' lives, less structure and manpower on the accounts service side, and have some great producers and creative people who can work across disciplines.
Boards:Lastly, any advice for young Ron Lawners-in-training out there?
Lawner: I had no other agenda than to do the best work for the client. Just take off the jaded ad hat and fall in love with the product and look for a way to make it meaningful in peoples' lives.