Vinny's 'Wassup' moment became worldwide slogan

BY JUDY MURPHY

There are moments that define a person’s life and Vinny Warren’s defining moment – career wise at least – came 10 years ago when he devised the Wassup advertising campaign for Budweiser beer.The Galway man’s ad gained a cult following, with the word ‘Wassup’ – which had previously been exclusively associated with black rap music – becoming the catchphrase of the day from America to Ireland.

Vinny, who comes from Renmore in Galway City, was based in Chicago, working for a highly-regarded advertising agency when he dreamed up the campaign. Today, Chicago is still his home, but now he runs his own company, with clients including Kraft food, a leading US company Office Max, and an Irish whiskey brand known as Feckin.

It’s a fair achievement for a man whose first job in America was driving a horse and carriage in Central Park at night.

“I learned how to drive a horse in Manhattan,” he laughs.

But while he was driving the horse and carriage, the NUIG commerce graduate was also planning his assault on the world of American advertising, and aiming for the top. Before that, after university, he had spent a couple of years in London where his job involved selling advertising airtime for ITV.

“I liked the idea of advertising, but not as a numbers person so I did a course in design and art in London and a couple of other courses. Coincidentally, at the same time I got a Green Card and was sick of London, so I went to New York.”

Before he left London, Vinny asked people in the advertising business who they’d work for in New York. The answer was always Ed McCabe.

McCabe was an advertising genius, whose character was reminiscent of Meryl Streep’s in The Devil Wears Prada, he says.“He was one of the Mad Men of the 1960s,” adds Vinny. McCabe belonged to the generation that followed those featured on cult TV series and “would have shaken those guys up, while also being part of the hard drinking and smoking lifestyle”.

Sheer determination got Vinny in the door of McCabe’s agency. Working with the Central Park horses allowed him to create a distance from the sales work he had been doing in London, while developing a portfolio of sample ads.

He did that for nine months until the weather got too cold, then worked in Manhattan in office removals – the only white guy in the workforce. It was a fascinating time.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.