HJZ R.i.P.

June 19, 1939 - January 1, 2017

Hansjörg Zürcher, founding member, board member and member of the ADC Switzerland Hall of Fame, Advertiser of the Year and long, long formative Creative Director of Advico Young & Rubicam, died on January 1.

I spoke to Hansjörg just before Christmas. He was very tired and didn't talk much. To distract him a little, I told him about the preparations for a new commercial. His question came out of the blue: "Who are you filming with?"

That was Hansjörg, always a passionate creative and advertiser.

His school years were at Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt, the advertising agency back then. Many of his colleagues and all of his role models came from the USA and England. Bill Bernbach, Len Sirowitz, Howard Luck Gossage, Collett Dickenson Pears, the Visa campaign, the Beetle campaign, the Fina campaign - that's where the music was played.

Back in Switzerland, Hansjörg first worked in Bern, then in Zurich and, after the merger of Young & Rubicam with Advico, in Gockhausen. The campaigns from his kitchen attracted attention right at the beginning of his time in Bern.

Hansjörg was always well informed about what was going on in advertising worldwide. He thought a lot, knew a lot about advertising and a lot about film. He was happy to pass all this on. Anyone who knew him could see him pontificating through the corridors of the agency. The list of famous names of ADs, copywriters and CDs that went through this school is long.

Advertising is done to sell. To reach the public, you need an excellent idea. That's what he was always about.

Hansjörg was a serious person with a good sense of humor. We laughed and discussed a lot, sometimes heatedly.

Sometimes life wasn't so easy for Hansjörg. He could also be very distant and absent. But when he had to be there, he was: lightning fast, crystal clear and very precise.

"It's better to buy toasters from Migros. Insurance too, by the way." A classic from Hansjörg.

He remembers well how he came back to the agency after an international Y&R meeting: "I had an idea for Swiss milk on the flight to New York. I think it's good."

She was outstanding, everyone knows that today. The audience immediately loved Lovely, the tap-dancing and juggling cow. And so did the judges at national and international competitions.

For years, it was one of the best things you could see on Swiss television commercials. As long as Hansjörg held his hand protectively over the cow as a CD, it stayed that way.

Hansjörg grew up in Thun, where his father ran a movie theater. He became the pope of Swiss advertising film, as he was called not only by the trade press.

His film seminar was legendary and certainly contributed to the quality of Swiss advertising film. At first he only held it at Advico, later also at many other agencies in Switzerland and at the ADC Creative School, and in the end he even toured Europe with great pleasure.

After leaving Advico Young & Rubicam and advertising, Hansjörg read a lot and traveled a lot, always accompanied by his lovely wife Erika.

He was doing well with the advertising. He was doing well without the advertising. Advertising without Hansjörg is perhaps doing a little less well.

We have missed Hansjörg for a long time.