Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an impressive man - intellectual, political activist, author.
Returning from Oxford University to New York with a young wife in 1927, he learned advertising and marketing on Madison Avenue, writing copy and slogans (Quick Henry, the Flit!) for clients like GE and Standard Oil.
As Dr. Seuss, he wrote children’s books that displayed a remarkable grasp of the Siamese twins of identity marketing, language and creativity.
Realizing that children are entranced by language, his books featured echoic titles like The Cat In The Hat and Horton Hears A Who along with memorably neologistic characters like The Grinch and The Lorax.
Every name development company’s library ought to include a full set of Dr. Seuss’s books.
And every marketing textbook should feature a chapter on Geisel’s masterpiece The Lorax, a character he created to defend Truffola Trees and the fanciful creatures who live in them.
A greedy manufacturer is cutting the trees to feed a factory to turn them into a consumer product called Thneeds until, when the last tree is cut down, his business collapses - leaving a disintegrating factory, smog, and barren ground where the forest once flourished.
The Lorax was published in 1971.
1971!
If only we’d listened…
