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April 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Remembering Barry

Barry Base 1941 - 2008

by John Burghardt, Duncan Hood, Mark Smyka
page 64

Ad veteran and longtime strategy columnist Barry Base passed away Feb. 27 from a brain tumour. Born in Halifax in 1941, Base worked for a number of agencies - starting with Goodis Goldberg Soren - before founding Kaleidoscope, which underwent various transformations over the years, from Base Hamilton Edwards to Barry Base & Partners. His work ranged from a Uniroyal campaign featuring the voice of Orson Welles and the caveman from Johnny Hart's B.C. strip to Eaton's "Uncrates the Sun" and efforts for Seiko, Swissair and many others. He was a gifted copywriter who shared his talents with strategy over 13 years in a column full of passion and annoyance and titles like "20 Reasons Why Ads Suck."

"Barry had a good anger," says fellow ad icon Gary Prouk of Sebastian Consultancy, "and he seemed to stay true to what he wanted to do, which was to not be part of a large company."

"Barry wrote beautifully," says Jeffrey Shearer, publisher of On the Bay magazine. "He did work for me at the Toronto Star from 1997 to 2001. I wanted a concept for the trade media, and Barry came up with the 'Friendly Giant.' It was brilliant because it reminded everybody that the Star was a giant, and you couldn't ignore a giant, but you'd like to do business with a friendly one."

"Barry had a pioneering spirit," adds former GGS colleague Doug Linton. "And whether it was in an ad or a strategy column, his writing was never less than excellent. His rants were especially compelling. I am proud to have been his friend."

Barry Base leaves behind four children - Christian, Jonathan, Michelle and Madeline - and a legacy of nurturing the next generation via his example and his commentary in these pages.

One of the very best

By Mark Smyka

So much has changed since a wide-eyed Barry Base took to the blank page and began his inspired advertising journey, beginning, as I recall, at Goodis Goldberg Soren, the creative petri dish of its day.

But while the marketplace may have altered, I would guess that if Barry could start in the business all over again today, he would nonetheless be its master.

Barry was an original, like the words that flowed so gracefully and, more often than not, provocatively through his columns, and that sold his clients' products with such cleverness, sophistication and ease.

The year was probably 1990. I had come to know and admire Barry from the previous decade of news stories I had written about him. We had just launched strategy and I found myself turning to Barry for the first time not as a journalist seeking an interview or commentary, but as a colleague, hoping he could help me in my search to find the right voice for the magazine.

Barry had the three qualities I wanted. He could write (a skill that was in alarmingly short supply). He had something to say. And finally, and for me most importantly, he cared.

Barry cared a lot. It showed in the elegant prose he so lovingly crafted, in the scorn he heaped on second-rate work and every now and then in the rebel that lurked inside and that contributed so much to making him what he was. He had a genuine talent that was neither reliant upon technique nor subservient to the trendy.

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