By AUT CD Paul White: Copywriter, CD, smart dresser and softly spoken fine gentleman Rod Lyons, sadly died last week after a very short battle with cancer.
Rod came to New Zealand in 1992 to be CD of Ogilvy & Mather in Auckland and later spent a year in Wellington. After that, he moved on to become CD of McCanns in Auckland.
It was while at McCanns that he produced his most memorable NZ work, winning Axis Gold with Durex Speed Bumps. (His art director on that and much else was Kate Saarinen.)
Before coming to New Zealand, Rod had a stellar career as group head, Saatchi & Saatchi London, winning a raft of D&AD Pencils, the most notorious of which was his cheeky, topical Campbell’s Soup ad for Tesco supermarkets.
“Rod helped turn out some exceedingly decent writers and art directors. He was also responsible for initiating a fair number of excellent Christmas lunches.
Rod freelanced after McCanns and also joined Dave Brown, Jane Berney and Paul White as a tutor at the coalface of AUT Ad School, where he helped turn out some exceedingly decent writers and art directors. He was also responsible for initiating a fair number of excellent Christmas lunches.
Rod was much loved for his dry humour, his gift of raconteurship and his eclectic and rampant habit of collecting piles of popular artifacts, stacks of rare books and cases of fine wine.
Rod will be most keenly missed by his wife Kate and their daughters, Lilly and Isabelle.
Rod Lyons’ funeral will be held at 1pm tomorrow (Friday) at St George’s Anglican Church, 19 Ranfurly Road, Epsom, Auckland. All welcome.
Ed’s note: The man was clearly shy of the camera – not a single pic of him on the web, and no headshot at all on his Linkedin page. If you’ve got an image, pse send it to ed@mad-daily.com
Share this Post
