INSPIRING MINDS
in conversation with British advertising legends

Tony Brignull

Born 1937, North London

Tony Brignull was born in North London on the 10th August 1937. He went to Tollington Grammar School then did his national service with the RAF in Germany. His career in advertising began when he was invited to join the JWT training scheme. It lasted three years with varying lengths of time spent in every department. But when he reached the creative department he took the famous copy test and stayed there until unwisely asking for a raise just as the agency was cutting back.

He worked for Mather and Crowther (now OBM) with such people as John Webster, David Abbott, Len Weinreich, Bob Marchant and Paul Arden. He spent a year at CDP with Ron Collins and then couple of years at DDB where he established his creative credentials with campaigns for Chivas Regal, The Great Musicians and Tern Shirts.

In 1969 he married the lovely Voula - a partnership which has lasted fifty-three years with three children and six grandchildren - and became for a short while creative director of Vernons, before returning to CDP with his long term creative partner Neil Godfrey. For the next twelve years their work for Birds Eye, Parker Pens, Fiat, Clarks Shoes and Army Officer won seventeen silver D&Ad awards and three golds. On the fiftieth anniversary of D&Ad he was awarded the white pencil for the most awarded copywriter in its history.

In 2002 after retiring from advertising he began a decade of study. He gained a BA from Oxford in English and an MA from KCL in Life Writing. Now he divides his time between his homes in the Chiltern Hills and the island of Skiathos in Greece. He says, ‘I have been very blessed in my work, my life, my wife and my children.’