After learning of the recent passing of Walter Lürzer, I wanted to update this entry I originally dedicated to him four years ago (below), share the intriguing autobiographical video above, and encourage anyone interested to read this wonderful Tribute written by Michael Conrad, his friend of 50 years. Dear Mr. Lürzer, thank you for the inspiration! You will be missed.
When I graduated from college in 1990, my personal interests largely drew from the realms of narrative film, literature and poetry. Many of the post-college jobs I landed were in production, but to my surprise, some of the more interesting ones built more upon my nonfiction writing abilities and the things I learned pursuing a PR/journalism minor. After years of working on high-profile TV shows and video projects, I ultimately homed-in on the field of publicity and public relations as a perfect means for earning a living which allowed me to independently make big impacts for others and their companies by using all of my talents. I still dream of being a filmmaker and a novelist, and sometimes, I get especially excited about the characters and other ‘materials’ coming my way each day as I handle my clients in the worlds of film and TV production and advertising.
Indeed, reading the Letter from the Publisher in the January edition of Lürzer’s Archive makes me realize that, if I would have been exposed to Walter Lürzer earlier in my career, I might have moved to Salzburg in the hopes of landing a job with him. The January ’07 opening letter finds Walter in Patna, a city in India, extolling the broad creativity of the Indian people. In his narrative, he describes traveling India with a copy of Lürzer’s Archive — the magazine he has published since 1984 to collect the world’s best new print campaigns and TV commercials — and meeting fans everywhere he goes.
The man as adventurer seems to belong in a novel from Hemingway, Conrad, Hesse, Hamsun or T.E. Lawrence — and also, analyzing his published observations, among the world’s great philosophers. “In a word,” he writes, “Indians do indeed possess the gift of soon being able to take over a leading role in international advertising, and might, in fact, soon be scaring the living daylights out of us limp Westerners. If China is the workbench of the world, India might soon be its research laboratory plus administrative office.”
Thank you for the inspiration, Mr. Lürzer, and for sharing the wealth of your experiences, and your spirit. Knowing that you are a part of my industry is yet another wonderful surprise.
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