Love the business. It’s the motto of L.T.B. Productions founder Wayne Fenske and the bottom line of the message the eponymously-acronymed company is putting out anew to the ad community. The company is undertaking a reorientation to re-emphasize the core philosophy of ad veteran Fenske and to better serve an evolving industry. Reduce and restructure are key principles in the efforts, which will feature a retooling of staff, including new directors. Thus far, ltb has signed New York-based Michael Ulick.

The company is working toward some new u.s. affiliations, including some with companies having no prior Canadian representation. Attaining a diverse roster while servicing the emerging niches including comedy dialogue and, most importantly, fostering longevity are the keys to the restructuring efforts. A snappy update of the company’s logo will accompany the moves.

-Living the business

After 30 years in an industry, either one’s cerebral cortex has softened sufficiently to allow one to live in glassy-eyed complacency oblivious to the daily inferno, or one has gained true fulfillment and happiness, feeding off the life-sustaining energy of perhaps the most dynamic, challenging and socially relevant business there is.

For Rick Tuer, needless to say, the latter applies as he heads toward the 30th anniversary of his first day in the bi’ness.

As he recounts the events of the passing years, Tuer exhibits the enthusiasm of a person who appreciates the essential characteristics of the ad industry and is an unabashed proponent of Canadian ad talent.

Tuer began 30 years ago Feb. 4 in the mailroom at Bates Canada, a fresh recruit from the business program at Ryerson. In those days, he says, mail guys wore ties and jackets and the job was a bona fide in for newcomers with a can-do attitude. ‘It was a heck of a way to get an education,’ says Tuer.

It was a sparse ad landscape back then, he says, with far fewer directors (all local) to choose from and a handful of production companies, like Rabko Films, serving the agency world.

Tuer describes the evolution of the industry as a roller-coaster ride and says the whole process has become more business-like.

‘When I started, few people knew the intricacies of the whole production process,’ he says. ‘Now everyone is much more knowledgeable and the process more complex, with more preproduction involved.’

He says following the go-go ’80s, much time and energy was spent on reining in exploding costs and predicts slow and steady growth for the industry, which, he says, is being increasingly recognized internationally.

Tuer emphasizes the quality of Canadian talent and the importance of keeping them busy. ‘We have to be careful to support our industry,’ he says. ‘It’s great to have so many directors and cameramen available to us, but we must employ our local people as well or end up with no industry whatsoever.’

-Coop flies the coop

The cherubic countenance of producer Jason Cooper will no longer grace the halls of bbdo as the youngest of the Cooper ad clan has departed the agency. Cooper had been an editorial and production presence at bbdo for six years, working primarily in the latter years on the Chrysler account.

The departure is somewhat of an end to an era, the Cooper years, which saw the advertising business, and the Chrysler account, taken up by two generations of the family.

Expect Cooper to resurface in the industry in the near future.

-Apple Box Framed

A man who demonstrates perfectly the name-as-destiny principle, Vancouver-based Fred Frame, formerly with Circle Productions, has signed with Apple Box Productions for North American representation.

-The judges are

Shine off those Gold Cards, the judging panel for the 1997 Bessies has been chosen.

Ammirati & Puris Lintas creative director Brad Riddoch has announced the selection of eight luminaries to decide who gets what. They are: Vickers & Benson president Terry Bell, who will serve as vice-chair; Randy Diplock, bbdo associate creative director; David Kelso, creative director at Durnan Communications; Leo Burnett art director Elspeth Lynn; Radke Films director Martin Shewchuk; Palmer Jarvis associate creative director Allan Russell; Roche Macauley & Partners’ senior art director Deborah Pranger and Terry Kavanagh, producer at Bates Canada.

Entry deadline for Bessies material is Jan. 31. Judging will take place in March and awards will be handed out May 15 at the usual spot.