Back in 2001, David Lubars led one of the most influential ad campaigns of this century. BMW Films’ “The Hire,” was a series of short films released in 2001 and 2002, starring Clive Owen, with cameos by Madonna, James Brown, Don Cheadle, and Gary Oldman. Different award-winning directors helmed each spot, including Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, Wong Kar-wai, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, and John Frankenheimer. It changed the perception of what an ad could be—no longer just an interruptive distraction, it was now a legitimate piece of entertainment. It also boosted BMW sales by 17%. 

Soon after BMW Films collected any and every award known to the industry, Lubars jumped from Fallon Minneapolis to BBDO New York, where he eventually climbed his way to BBDO America chairman and BBDO Worldwide chief creative officer. Over the past two decades, Lubars has overseen iconic ad work for such brands as HBO, AT&T, P&G, Snickers, Lowes, and plenty more.

Now, he’s announcing his retirement.

After working in advertising for 43 years, the 65-year-old says it’s time to slow down a bit. “It’s kind of exhausting, you know?” says Lubars. “So I guess I’m tired. And to do it well, you’ve got to run super hard. My knees are sore, I don’t want to run, I want to walk. And anybody in the industry knows it’s not a walking industry.” 

It will be a gradual, strolling exit, though, with Lubars eventually stepping down by the end of the year, almost 20 years to the month since New York magazine touted his arrival. Back then, Lubars was the young exec coming to inject new energy into one of America’s most iconic ad agencies. Now, Lubars is the veteran, stepping away and handing the keys over to another new energy hire, new chief creative officer Chris Beresford-Hill, who joined from Ogilvy in December. 

The “Big Idea” remains

When Lubars joined BBDO in 2004, the ad industry was still in the throes of coming to terms with the first digital revolution. The BMW Films work certainly pointed a way forward. So much so that it sparked the now-robust ad genre of branded entertainment.

NY mag writer Mark Gimein opened his 2004 profile with a scene of Lubars on the phone with a client about how half of America will have broadband by 2006 (“That’s a fact, not some futuristic bullshit”) and how the ad agencies that didn’t understand risked “getting flushed down the twentieth-century toilet.” 

When I ask Lubars what the 2024 version of that conversation is, of course the current fascination with all things AI comes up, but it quickly turns toward what actually hasn’t changed. The media may be more fragmented than ever, the tools and platforms ever-evolving, but the pursuit of a big idea is still as relevant as ever.

“The ultimate goal, and this is kind of a weird metaphor, is to get married to your audience,” he says. “Like a marriage, you trust each other, you spend your lives together, you do things for each other. That’s what great brands do. They give as well as receive. And then you keep the relationship fresh with new interesting, fun things. That’s a timeless thing that has to always be there, and that’s what a big idea gets you.”

Beyond BMW Films, the most notable work on Lubars’ watch has been HBO’s 2007 Voyeur. Created with digital agency Big Spaceship and director Jake Scott, the multimedia project included a life-size projection on the side of a Manhattan apartment building, creating the illusion that viewers could see inside. The films also appeared online, allowing users to peek in and see the stories in each apartment on demand.  

Another was Snickers’ now long-running “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign, which launched in 2010 with a Super Bowl ad starring Betty White. The brand has claimed the work increased Snickers sales by more than 15% in its first year alone. 

Beresford-Hill, who first started at BBDO in 2010 and after lead creative at both TBWA and Ogilvy, compares Lubars’ approach with advertising to Steven Spielberg’s approach with film. “He makes things that are high art, but that also have mass appeal,” says Beresford-Hill. “No one else has consistently bridged art and populism like he has. Today, the industry is split—it’s indie films at the award shows, and Daddy Daycare 2 during commercial breaks. David reminds me, we should be coming to work every day making E.T.“

Greg Hahn, cofounder and chief creative officer of Mischief @ No Fixed Address, worked with Lubars for more than two decades across both Fallon and BBDO. “David’s impact is not just the work he did, but the effect he has on people and the places he led,” says Hahn. “To turn around, or leave your mark, on one iconic storied agency is a life achievement. David has done it twice, with Fallon and BBDO. The number of people who got better under his watch and learned from his style of leadership is hard to measure.” 

Time to move on

Lubars acknowledges that these are indeed exciting times, full of the type of challenges and opportunities that have driven him for his entire career. But he also knows that, after more than three decades in this business, it isn’t quite enough to keep him in the game.

Over the past year, signs that he was ready appeared. Throughout his career, during every vacation he and his wife ever took, he would annoy the hell out of her by constantly calling in to work to check on things, and just itching to get back as any holiday neared its end. “And then the last couple of vacations, I was itchy to stay on vacation,” he says. “So these little things begin to give you cues, and you don’t want to start to lose the passion because you can’t make great work unless there’s passion. Without passion, you can quickly go from great to good, and good is the enemy of great.”

He pauses, hearing yet another tagline, this time for his own retirement.

“I never wanted to turn good.”