Ad legend Andy Rice, 72, who died on Tuesday after a period of ill health following surgery, will be remembered for his incredible mind, gentle manner, sharp tongue, cool demeanour, tall stature — standing head and shoulders above the rest — and his blistering sense of humour.

Also, a hapless soccer team, whose motto was: “Form is temporary, class is eternal”. More on that later.

Celebrated as South Africa’s foremost advertising commentator and a long-time contributor to The Money Show on 702 where Rice hosted the Heroes & Zeroes and But Does It Work? ad features, Rice cut his teeth in FMCG marketing before moving to advertising, where he headed strategy at Ogilvy Johannesburg. 

He co-founded Yellowwood Brand Architects in 1997, the leading strategy consultancy that was later incorporated into the TBWA/Omnicom group. 

He was a regular judge at the Loeries, Apex and Cannes Lions, and the jury chair for the Association for Communications and Advertising’s (ACA’s) Apex Awards, a position he held for more than a decade. In 2017, he was bestowed a Lifetime Achievement Award at the AdFocus Awards.

Rice’s influence on advertising extended well beyond our borders: he was the first adman from South Africa on the Creative Effectiveness judging panel at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Gillian Rightford, the CEO of Adtherapy and the newly appointed interim executive director of the ACA, knew Rice since the early 1990s — first through his work in the industry, then as a strategist. “We’ve been close and had a lovely working relationship alongside each other all these years.”

Rightford described Rice as a gentle, funny, kind, nurturing person, with razor-sharp intelligence and a way with words. “He was brutally honest, but in a very gentle, very humble, very kind and approachable way.”

The Jupiter Drawing Room founder Graham Warsop described Rice as the finest of his generation of admen.

“Andy was so wonderfully entertaining, a very bright guy. Very intelligent, very articulate. And he made his points in an understated way. He was pretty unique like that.”

Rice was a “one-off”: on his business card, he described himself as “head and shoulders above the rest” — a classic understatement because he stood about 1.98m tall, Warsop said.

Wonderfully idiosyncratic

Despite his stature in the industry — or because of it — Rice would never decline a request to do something, help someone or contribute to something; he was always there, available and ready and willing to help people and industry bodies. 

He was also wonderfully idiosyncratic: Warsop said Rice once organised a football game for his team and invited Warsop and his brother to play — only later did they discover it was at Wembley Stadium in London.

“We had to fly to London with him and his soccer team,” Warsop said. “We ended up following him out of the tunnel at Wembley and on to the hallowed Wembley turf for a 90-minute game…

“At the end of the game, we all walked up the steps and were awarded medals by an exact lookalike queen.”

James Barty, the co-founder of King James, knew Rice for decades, saying he was a gentleman, first and foremost, both in his professional and personal life.

“He had a knack for making you feel incredibly welcome in every conversation. He was always willing to share his perspective and his views and I guess that’s why he got to present so many of the radio shows that he then anchored over many years.

“I guess in some senses, he democratised advertising. He brought advertising into some everyday commentary. He was able to give perspective about what made great creativity, what made great advertising work, and the efficacy of advertising: a passionate man,” Barty said.

Money Show host Bruce Whitfield remembered Rice as a wordsmith able to deliver “eviscerating” criticism without the target even being aware of the scale of it at the time.

Refilwe Maluleke, the managing director of Yellowwood, told Whitfield that Rice was “wonderfully enigmatic”.

“It is a sad day for us at Yellowwood — and for the entire TBWA Group, to have lost someone who made such a phenomenal contribution to not only the industry but of course also to Yellowwood by founding the business and establishing something that has existed for 27 years and continues to thrive.”

Brand builder Heidi Brauer recalled, in a LinkedIn post titled Andy Rice and the Pen Test:

“It’s impossible to remember when I met Andy Rice, it feels like I’ve just always known him. We chatted towards the end of last year, and if I think back now, I wish I could have told him this, but I think and hope he knew the impact he had on all of us…

“Years ago when I was at kulula, we’d done a cool campaign with KingJames and Andy called me up to say he loved it and wanted to talk about it on his Wednesday (?) radio show. I was beyond thrilled and excited, until he told me he only had time for a 30 second clip and let’s go live…now 😮

“It was then that I learned (literally in a matter of seconds!) that if I couldn’t compellingly describe my campaign or a concept for a campaign in 30 seconds, it likely needed work or wasn’t good enough.

“And so, ‘The Andy Rice Pen Test’ was born. Pen? Well, we needed to simulate an interview and my red pen holder (or any pen) was my stand in microphone 🎤 . So for the last many years, any time we felt we were neeeeeearly there with an idea, I’d hold up my red pen holder and we’d do the Andy Rice Pen Test. I’ve probably driven dozens of marketers and agency partners mental with this “30 seconds or bust” 🎤test 🫣🥰😬🤩.

“Andy was one in a zillion billion gajillion and more, and his sharp mind, wit, wisdom, generosity and gentleness will be missed and also hopefully an inspiration for us left missing him.”

Rice leaves his wife, Bev Russell, and two sons. DM