David McCall, creator of Schoohouse Rock, died April 18th in a car accidentnear Kukes, Albania, along with his wife, Penny, and RefugeesInternational's European representative Yvette Pierpaoli and the car'sAlbanian driver. The McCalls were en route from Tirana to Kukes, theprimary reception point for Kosovar refugees. They were on a mission forRefugees International, the Washington, D.C.-based organization on whoseboard Mr. and Mrs. McCall served. Part of the mission was to exploreproviding region-wide help through radio broadcasts to refugees seeking tolocate family members. The accident was the result of bad weather andtreacherous road conditions. Mr. McCall, 71, was a partner in the NewYork-based communications consulting and advertising firm, Shepardson Stern+ Kaminsky. He was a renowned figure in the advertising world, having beenthe chief copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather and the co-founder of his ownagency, McCaffrey & McCall. Mr. McCall began his advertising career in themailroom of Young & Rubicam after leaving Yale University in 1951. FromY&R, he joined Ogilvy & Mather, where he spent ten years, eventuallysucceeding founder David Ogilvy as the agency's chief copywriter. Duringhis tenure at O&M, Mr. McCall developed campaigns for such clients asSears, Hathaway shirts and Maxwell House coffee. For Maxwell House, hewrote the line, ``Coffee that tastes as good as it smells.'' In 1961, Mr.McCall left O&M to co-found the advertising agency McCaffrey & McCall, Inc.The agency's clients included Exxon, Tiffany, Hiram Walker, J.C. Penney,The Hartford Insurance Company, Mercedes-Benz and Norelco. Among the manycampaigns the agency developed was the name change from Esso to Exxon. Healso created the television commercial featuring Santa Claus sleddingdownhill on a Norelco electric shaver. In 1973, he created SCHOOLHOUSEROCK, a series of 3-minute animated educational segments that originallyaired on the ABC television network during Saturday and Sunday morningcartoons from 1973 to 1985, and again in 1993. McCall originally presentedthe SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK idea to Michael Eisner, who at the time was serving asABC's vice president for children's television programming. The series wonfour Emmy Awards.
