The Real McG

Why DEVO hired an ad agency to promote new album

The band took pitches from several agencies, including Mother, whose clients include Target, Dell and the Virgin FreeFest, and Wieden+Kennedy, which is now using a concept that Devo turned down for the Diesel clothing brand. Of all the ideas, Gerald Casale says, “Mother’s pitch was just superior in every way. They nailed it.”

“An ad agency’s agenda is getting things in front of people that they might miss. They have to sell one car out of 50 that are coming out that season, and there’s no room for failure,” singer Mark Mothersbaugh says. “Record companies have this whole other trajectory. They shoot all this stuff against the wall to see what sticks, and if they get one success out of a hundred bands, they high-five each other. But this is our only album, so we said, ‘What can we do to stack the deck in our favor?’ “

DEVO: How to get ahead in advertising