Madboy

A thrilling and irreverent memoir about the transformation of the advertising business from the 1980s to today

Richard Kirshenbaum was born to sell. Raised in a family of Long Island strivers, this future advertising titan was just a few years old when his grandfather first taught him that a Cadillac is more than a car, and that if you can’t have a Trinitron you might as well not watch TV. He had no connections when he came to Madison Avenue, but he possessed an outrageous sense of humor that would make him a millionaire.

In 1987, at the age of twenty-six, Richard put his savings on the line to launch his own agency with partner Jonathan Bond, and within a year, had transformed it from a no-name firm into the go-to house for cutting-edge work. Kirshenbaum and Bond pioneered guerilla marketing by purchasing ad-space on fruit, spray-painting slogans on the sidewalk, and hiring actors to order the Hennessey martini in nightclubs. They were the bad boys of Madison Avenue—a firm where a skateboarding employee once bowled over an important client—but backed up their madness with results.

Packed with business insight, marketing wisdom, and a cast of characters ranging from Princess Diana to Ed McMahon, this memoir is as thrilling, as irreverent, and as delightful as Richard himself.

Richard Kirshenbaum (b. 1962) is one of the most exciting personalities in New York City advertising. With partner Jonathan Bond, he founded the Kirshenbaum Bond agency, which pioneered such innovative marketing concepts as the pop-up store, sidewalk advertising, and other forms of high-visibility guerilla marketing.

Kirshenbaum has lectured at Harvard Business School, appeared on Crain’s “40 under 40,” sat on the board of directors of the One Club for Art & Copy, and been named #2 on a list of Top 100 Entrepreneurs of the United States. His other books include Under the Radar, cowritten with Bond, and Closing the Deal, a book on relationships that has been translated into nine languages. An accomplished playwright, his work has been produced by David Mamet’s Atlantic Theater Company, and he currently writes for Us Weekly, contributing to its regular “Fashion Police” feature.