Last week's New Yorker had a great piece on Rahm Emanuel who I'm endlessly fascinated with. Admit it - he's so much more interesting than Obama. The larger than life personality, the laser-like focus, the unapologetic profanity - the id is always more fun to watch than the super-ego.
I think I knew this at one point, but I was intrigued to read that Rahm's brother - Ari Emanuel - was the basis for Ari Gold's character on Entourage. Same personality traits listed above, different industry.
Which made me wonder - who is advertising's big personality these days? In the earlier part of the decade, it had to be Donny Deutsch of CNBC fame. Now I'd probably nominate Alex Bogusky; that guy is everywhere these days. Agency of the year stuff aside, he's written a diet book, he's heading up a major bike sharing movement and he just caused a mild social media uproar. He'll be speaking at SXSW interactive later this week, surely to a packed crowd.
No doubt there are lots of big personalities in politics, entertainment, advertising, etc. What makes the above three so appealing (as opposed to Rush, Harvey and Donny) is a shared sense of almost childlike exuberance. Their energy feels fresh, contagious even. I wonder who else belongs in this category right now... Any thoughts?
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