Requiem For A Heavyweight
Last night I found out that my old friend and boss Peter Langmuir had passed away. I don’t know how old he was. Probably the same age as me roughly. I don’t know how he died. I suppose I will find out soon enough.I met Peter back in the early 1970s when we both worked as writers at Vickers & Benson. We didn’t get along really well at first, because we were both wired a bit too tight and anxious to make our bones in the business.
But slowly and surely over the next few years we got to know each other, and became the kind of friends many of us made in the advertising business.
We used to go to a lot of industry functions and end up standing together in same corner, shooting the shit, each of us holding a beer and wondering what the hell we were doing there.
In the early eighties, Pete, who went the management route, hired me at Benton and Bowles. later DMB&B. I had so much fun there that I stayed for 8 years, and the mob of us (Bob Anderson, Danny Floyd, Ryo Muto & Brett Hamilton and everybody else built the agency from small and hopeful to large and formidable.
Pete was easily the best Creative Director anybody could want to work for and with. He really understood how the game was played, stuck up for his peeps and was firm in his belief that advertising wasn’t some artsy fartsy ego trip for creative people, but a blue chip investment that clients made to grow their businesses.
Having someone like that running the department you worked in gave us all a ton of confidence. He was the ideal creative leader because he knew how to manage people without making them feel intellectually hamstrung in any way.
He made us question our belief in the ideas we showed our clients. Our commitment to the idea was always his main concern.
I’m convinced that without Pete’s leadership and counsel I would never have been as well equipped as I was to go on my own.
After we all left DMB&B in the late 80s and early 90s, we stayed in touch, because that’s what ad guys do. Time and distance does not affect true friendships.
I last saw Peter at the DMB&B get together we had a few years back at the Pilot. I knew he had been recovering from cancer, and he looked pretty fragile at the time. But he showed up and there we were standing around with a beer, just like the old days, wondering what the hell we were doing there.
So long, my friend. You’ll be remembered for the humanity you possessed, all you taught me and all the fun we had when being in advertising was the best business in the world to be in.
RIP Peter Langmuir...Articles from Jim Murray
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Gloria (Glo) Ochoa
6 years ago #10
Mamen 🐝 Delgado
6 years ago #9
Paul Walters
6 years ago #8
Fancy J London
6 years ago #7
Fancy J London
6 years ago #6
Jim Murray
6 years ago #5
Before he came to Toronto, he used to operate a boat taxi between Victoria and Vancouver.
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #4
Kevin Pashuk
6 years ago #3
Jim Murray
6 years ago #2
Thanks Manjit.
CityVP Manjit
6 years ago #1