In I Can Get It For You Retail, Rick Padulo talks famous slogans, embarrassing moments and lessons learned over his 35 years in retail advertising
One imagines that upon viewing Apple’s “1984,” Rick Padulo might have asked: “But can we say 10% off?” And then he would have reviewed Steve Jobs’ supplier lists and probably found a way to make it happen.
Padulo loves retail advertising. Like, really loves it. He’s spent more than 35 years in the business, the last 27 running his eponymous agency in Toronto which, for a time in the ’90s, was one of the hottest retail shops going. Some of the most well-known brand platforms in Canadian retail came from his shop. “Black’s is photography,” Leon’s “Don’t pay a cent event” and Zellers’ “The lowest price is the law”—all Padulo. And now, not ready to retire, but interested in leaving a legacy, Padulo has written I Can Get It For You Retail, dedicated to his son Alex, who died in 2006.
Padulo calls the book “quirky: part personal memoir, part survival guide.”
There’s not much in the way of juicy revelations, but there are lots of warm anecdotes about his days in the business – including how he turned down the great Jacques Bouchard – and his clients who, like any good ad exec, he credits for much of his success.
He dedicates full chapters to recount the genesis of his most successful campaigns. For any reader looking for takeaways, there are plenty of them in “Rick’s Nine Commandments” and two chapters near the end, titled “I Love Retail” and “Lessons Learned.”
Padulo is more interested in the right promo offer than he is slick high-concept TV spot. He’s proud of getting really close to the business of his clients and the clients themselves, understanding their margins, their fixed and variable costs, their supply systems and even their HR issues.
While every agency president claims to care more about moving client product than winning awards, with Padulo you believe he really means it.
