Mitch Blum

I was saddened today to hear of the passing of Paul Silverman, founding creative director of Mullen.

I didn’t know Paul very well. Our paths crossed back in ’98 or ’99 at Mullen and we worked on a few things together. At the time I was an Account Supervisor and he was the head of creative so we obviously didn’t have a close personal relationship. Early on in my tenure I was fortunate enough to go on a shoot with Paul so I got to spend some quality time with him.

Even though we didn’t have a close relationship, Paul was one of my advertising role models. I enjoyed every moment we spent together. I found him to be smart, witty and charismatic. He dispelled every negative stereotype of the “ad guy.” I wanted to be an ad guy like Paul Silverman.

In the business world people tend to stress the importance of mentors – people that take an active role in shaping and grooming their juniors. What we don’t talk much about is the importance of role models – people that lead by example and provide their peers and juniors with an example of how to conduct themselves professionally.

I may never turn out to be an ad guy quite like Paul Silverman, but I hope that I can still be a role model for others like Paul was for me. There’s definitely some work that I need to do to get there, but it’s an admirable goal.

He was an admirable man.

I was lucky enough to run into Paul in the kitchen at Soundtrack this past winter. It was great to reconnect and we spoke for awhile, mostly about Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox. We were happy to find ourselves in agreement about how great a hitter Manny was and how foolish the Sox were to dump him. In retrospect, I guess we were both wrong.

Thanks for everything Paul.

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