Reviews
Read below what his peers think about Ken Mullen.
Lord Timothy Razzall
CBE and Liberal Democrat politician
I have known Ken Mullen since 1962, when we arrived at Oxford as eager undergraduates. We bonded at once and became close friends – a relationship that has lasted since then.
Our professional paths did not cross in that he went to work in advertising and I pursued law and politics.
However, although I cannot comment on his advertising skills, I certainly can endorse the creativity with which he entertained us all. The songs, both his and others, have been hugely entertaining. The limericks are legendary. All my friends who are on his email list treasure the Christmas messages each year.
Long may he continue.
Andrew Shanks
Acquisitions & Mergers Specialist
A word about Ken.
You will really enjoy Ken’s work if you don’t already know it. Here on his new web site you will hear, read and enjoy the music, poems, and narrative writing Ken has created over many fruitful decades. And there will be lots of new stuff, I am sure. All worth your time, whether you like the subtlety and occasional silliness (yes!) of his poetic wordplay, his throaty version of some favourite classic songs of the sixties and seventies or just how his writing leads you through his own story.
Working with Ken when I was at The Times back in the distant seventies, I discovered in him the creator of apparently simple but deceptively powerful advertising copy lines which combined elegance and economy with persuasion and relevance. But as I was to discover over the years, writing ad copy was only one side of Ken…
So look, listen and enjoy Ken’s opus – or his opera if he decides to post more than a single item.
Sir Nigel Bogle
Founding partner Bartle Bogle Hegarty
I first worked with Ken at Leo Burnett. We were parachuted on to The Times account. The profile was becoming dangerously middle-market and the account dangerously unstable.
I wrote a brief, but Ken did the rest. In what seemed like a matter of hours later he was back with a series of posters that had just the amount of intellectual arrogance needed to shift the readership profile back where it was meant to be. I have rarely seen a happier client.
In an industry where the ability to persuade through the power of language has all but disappeared, I think of him as a master craftsman, a wordsmith, a copywriter who could actually write. I admired his Hirondelle campaign. Built out of the unusual word “duff”. Such a clever choice.
He wrote a brilliant campaign for a men’s body spray which sadly never got made as the client dropped the launch. It went like this: Classic mid-west cowboy town. Cowboys in the saloon drinking. Barman polishing a glass. We then hear the sound of slow but heavy footsteps approaching the saloon. Apprehension builds. The barman ducks. The swing doors crash open framing a huge cowboy. He has got the low-slung double-cross belt with holsters, a Colt 45 in each and the wide brimmed hat. And underneath he is wearing a dress. Voice over: Sometimes a man can give the wrong impression, by using the wrong deodorant. Smell good but smell like a man.
Ken Mullen. I must not praise him too much but it is a pleasure to salute his talent.
Tony Muranka
Creative Director
A word about Ken.
In my view, if success and fame were directly correlated to talent, Ken would be one of the most famous and revered talents in our industry.
With two degrees in English from Oxford, and 5 entries in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations, Ken’s skills meant he was often known as a “writers’ writer”. This was misleading. He was much more than that. A brilliant ideas man, poet, a songwriter, raconteur and a terrific presenter of his own work. In his company, there was never a dull mo’ .
His shelves groan with awards. Early in his career, he created a long-running campaign for The Times, which many thought influenced the famous Economist campaign which emerged later. When he invited writers including Beryl Bainbridge and Frederic Raphael to contribute to a project, many accolades resulted. Broad of vision, whether creating pieces to appeal to lords or lads, Ken could adjust to suit, to engage and enthral.
We, as his colleagues, invented phrases to describe his skills. When he had his head down, lost in creating new ways to arrange the alphabet, ‘Ken the Pen’ was not to be disturbed. In this state, he was known, unsubtly, to have a ‘bard-on’. (Although apologies are due to The Bard, and those of a sensitive disposition, it does demonstrate how greatly we respected Ken’s abilities.)
In the late 1970s when I first met Ken, he was already writing songs which would be performed on stage and TV. Most impressively, he had begun to write his Animal Verses. He told me that, although he knew it was probably impossible, he was going to try to write a short verse for every animal on the planet. Over 40 years later, he hasn’t given up. I was in awe of his talent then. Still am.