The “Ultimate Driving Machine” is turning 50. The phrase made famous by the agency Ammirati & Puris remains the marketing machine that has driven the BMW brand for the last five decades, and its creator, Martin Puris, is giving it all away.
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of BMW’s “Ultimate Driving Machine,” Puris is donating the entire Ammirati & Puris catalog to St. John’s University, where it will be available to SJU students, researchers and other universities. There will be an online exhibit and digital collection of the agency’s famous campaigns from BMW, Club Med, UPS and more. The online exhibit will be available permanently and available to all.
To launch the collection—television commercials, magazine ads, newspaper ads and outdoor postings—St. John’s is hosting an event on Oct. 19, at their Queens Campus where Puris and his partner Ralph Ammirati will attend and celebrate the exhibit alongside former employees, St. John’s students, faculty, alumni and advertising industry partners.
Adweek talked with Puris about the collection, the impact of the campaign on the brand, his favorite campaigns, how advertising has changed over the decades and his legacy in the advertising world.
Adweek: Why are you donating your catalog to St. John’s?
Puris: It was a very considered decision. Over the past few years, I’ve had quite a number of conversations with universities about the collection. Two years ago, I was introduced to St. John’s University by Steve Farella, once the head of our media department, founder of a hugely successful media company, and an SJU graduate. I got to know the people at SJU and liked what I saw and heard. In the end, I chose them because I wanted our work to be part of an active, dynamic learning program rather than just another collection of whatever, stored in a musty basement filled with various other ‘collections.’
I suggest that we see this as not just a celebration of the work of one advertising agency. But, rather, as a celebration and an example of the extraordinary level of brilliant work that advertising agencies once did, but, these days, rarely if ever do. When the advertising business was good it was very good. Advertising agencies were the masters of the big idea.
It’s my very sincere hope that the work we give to SJU will in some way give SJU students a head-start at taking advantage of that opportunity. Returning the advertising agency business to relevance.
