Last night at Galapagos Art Space in New York, the long-awaited debut of the Cornelius Trunchpole documentary, Art & Corny, premiered. For over two years, Cornelius Trunchpole, famous ad man from the sixties, has been promising a comeback. And if the documentary is to be believed, the man has, indeed returned.
In the documentary, produced by contagiousLA, industry luminaries such as Lee Clow, Jeff Goodby, Steve Hayden, Gerry Graf, Barbara Lippert, Michael Wolf, J. Walter Thompson II and, yes, George Parker discuss the effect Trunchpole had on them.
And his effect was quite pervasive. Apparently, Trunchpole influenced the creation of everything from the 1984 Apple commercial to the Man Your Man Could Smell Like Old Spice work.
The meta-documentary is, in our humble opinion, a masterful piece of work. After all, how often do we see interest sustained for so long in something that is, well, totally made up? Two years. Yes, for two years, the Cornelius Trunchpole meme lived on in our little world of advertising.
And if you want to get deep with us here for a minute, Trunchpole is the representation of something every creative person is struck with every once in a great while. Inspiration. Those fleeting moments when brilliance strikes. You can’t really quite put a finger on it, much like Corneluis himself, but it can have a powerful effect on the manifestation of creativity.
Perhaps that’s who Cornelius Trunchpole truly is; the inspiration inside us all. And, perhaps, that’s why he disappeared after the Mad Men heydays of advertising only to return when, we can only hope, advertising is on the verge of some kind of rebirth.
So, yes, Cornelius, please do come back to us. Please bring us the inspiration we once had and seemingly have, for so long, lost. Please find your way inside our minds once again. Because we really, really need your inspiration.
Be sure to watch the documentary all the way to the end when, after the credits roll, George Parker honors Trunchpole as only George Parker can.
