Ad legend Andy Rice remembered as a true giant of the industry

Ad legend Andy Rice, 72, who died on Tuesday after a period of ill health following surgery, will be remembered for his incredible mind, gentle manner, sharp tongue, cool demeanour, tall stature — standing head and shoulders above the rest — and his blistering sense of humour.

Also, a hapless soccer team, whose motto was: “Form is temporary, class is eternal”. More on that later.

Celebrated as South Africa’s foremost advertising commentator and a long-time contributor to The Money Show on 702 where Rice hosted the Heroes & Zeroes and But Does It Work? ad features, Rice cut his teeth in FMCG marketing before moving to advertising, where he headed strategy at Ogilvy Johannesburg. 

He co-founded Yellowwood Brand Architects in 1997, the leading strategy consultancy that was later incorporated into the TBWA/Omnicom group. 

He was a regular judge at the Loeries, Apex and Cannes Lions, and the jury chair for the Association for Communications and Advertising’s (ACA’s) Apex Awards, a position he held for more than a decade. In 2017, he was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award at the AdFocus Awards.

Rice’s influence on advertising extended well beyond our borders: he was the first adman from South Africa on the Creative Effectiveness judging panel at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Gillian Rightford, the CEO of Adtherapy and the newly appointed interim executive director of the ACA, knew Rice since the early 1990s — first through his work in the industry, then as a strategist. “We’ve been close and had a lovely working relationship alongside each other all these years.”

Rightford described Rice as a gentle, funny, kind, nurturing person, with razor-sharp intelligence and a way with words. “He was brutally honest, but in a very gentle, very humble, very kind and approachable way.”

The Jupiter Drawing Room founder Graham Warsop described Rice as the finest of his generation of admen.

“Andy was so wonderfully entertaining, a very bright guy. Very intelligent, very articulate. And he made his points in an understated way. He was pretty unique like that.”

Rice was a “one-off”: on his business card, he described himself as “head and shoulders above the rest” — a classic understatement because he stood about 1.98m tall, Warsop said.

Wonderfully idiosyncratic

“It’s impossible to remember when I met Andy Rice, it feels like I’ve just always known him. We chatted towards the end of last year, and if I think back now, I wish I could have told him this, but I think and hope he knew the impact he had on all of us…

“Years ago when I was at kulula, we’d done a cool campaign with KingJames and Andy called me up to say he loved it and wanted to talk about it on his Wednesday (?) radio show. I was beyond thrilled and excited, until he told me he only had time for a 30 second clip and let’s go live…now ?

“It was then that I learned (literally in a matter of seconds!) that if I couldn’t compellingly describe my campaign or a concept for a campaign in 30 seconds, it likely needed work or wasn’t good enough.

“And so, ‘The Andy Rice Pen Test’ was born. Pen? Well, we needed to simulate an interview and my red pen holder (or any pen) was my stand in microphone ? . So for the last many years, any time we felt we were neeeeeearly there with an idea, I’d hold up my red pen holder and we’d do the Andy Rice Pen Test. I’ve probably driven dozens of marketers and agency partners mental with this “30 seconds or bust” ?test ????.

“Andy was one in a zillion billion gajillion and more, and his sharp mind, wit, wisdom, generosity and gentleness will be missed and also hopefully an inspiration for us left missing him.”