Ron Anderson and Tom McElligott at The Players Club in New York City. (©1992 by Reuven Kopitchinski)

You could really credit the growth of the Minneapolis ad community to two men. Ron Anderson and Tom McElligott. In 1976, Minneapolis wasn’t that hot and most of the award-winning stuff was written by these two.

For a long time everyone was jealous…mixed jealousy and awe. They became the rabbits the hounds chased. And by doing that, they brought up the level of the entire community.

Their original breakthrough ads? The City of Omaha (tourism) and some public service things for their church.

By the time they split up, they were doing some incredible work for Poppin’ Fresh restaurants, which is the only TV campaign I know of that won top honors in every single award show on the face of the earth.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Luke Sullivan was a copywriter at Bozell & Jacobs in Minneapolis. This homage to the godfather of Minneapolis advertising and his most famous student first appeared in the Oct/Nov 1984 edition of Pencil Pointers, a bi-monthly newsletter published by the One Club for Art & Copy, Inc.