Neil French, adman who reshaped Asian advertising, passes away at 81

Neil French, one of advertising's most influential and provocative creative minds, has died at the age of 81. He passed away on November 20, 2025, in Majorca, Spain, where he had lived in retirement for nearly two decades.

Known to many as the ‘godfather of advertising’ in Asia, French leaves behind a body of work that transformed how the region's creative industry saw itself, and how the world saw it.

French's path into the industry was anything but conventional. Born in Birmingham, England, in 1944, he was expelled from school at 16 and went on to live what seemed like several lives before picking up a copywriter's pen. He collected debts. In the 1970s, he managed the British heavy metal band Judas Priest. These were not the typical credentials of an advertising executive.

Later in 1982, French arrived in Singapore for a freelance job at Ogilvy & Mather. It was supposed to be temporary. Instead, it became the start of a two-decade run that would probably reshape Asian advertising.

Working across Ogilvy, Batey Ads, and The Ball Partnership through the 1980s and 1990s, French developed a reputation for minimalist, long-copy print ads that demanded attention. He won more than 500 awards over his career, but the numbers only tell part of the story. His ads became teaching material. They became industry shorthand. When people talked about ‘a Neil French-type ad,’ everyone knew what that meant: bold, confident, and refusing to be ignored.

Among his most celebrated works, a 1987 campaign for Chivas Regal could be one of them. The ad featured an unlabelled whiskey bottle and a single, perfectly calibrated line: ‘If you don't recognise it, you're probably not ready for it.’ It captured something essential about French's approach, a confidence that bordered on arrogance, but backed up by craft.

His Kaminomoto Hair Tonic advertisement, showing a billiard ball sprouting a full head of hair, demonstrated his gift for visual wit and clarity.

But perhaps no campaign better illustrated French's instincts than the XO Beer project of 1993. Commissioned to prove the effectiveness of print advertising, French created a campaign for a beer that did not exist. He wrote the ads. He designed fake packaging. He broke every rule of beer advertising: no pouring shots, no frosted glasses, no beautiful women. The campaign ran in The Straits Times as an April Fool's stunt.

It worked too well. People began walking into bars and asking for XO Beer. The fictitious brew won three awards, including Best of the Best at the Asian Advertising Awards. A microbrewery eventually produced a real version. The campaign is still studied in advertising schools around the world.

By 1995, French had returned to Ogilvy as Regional Creative Director for Asia. Within three years, he was appointed Worldwide Creative Director. In 2003, he took on the same role across WPP Group, overseeing creative work at Ogilvy, JWT, and Young & Rubicam, some of the largest agencies in the world.

He retired in 2005 and moved to Majorca, though he never fully stepped away from the industry. In 2006, he co-founded The World Press Awards with Barbara Levy, a competition dedicated solely to excellence in print advertising. He published a memoir, Sorry for the Lobsters, in 2011.

French collected honours throughout his career: the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, induction into the AWARD Hall of Fame and Campaign Brief's The Work Hall of Fame, the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and the Lotus Legend Award at ADFEST in 2015.

But his legacy was not without controversy. His 2005 resignation from WPP followed remarks at an industry event in Toronto, where he suggested women in advertising tended to leave to pursue family responsibilities, comments that drew accusations of sexism and prompted some audience members to walk out.

He was also a defender of ‘scam ads’, campaigns created primarily for awards rather than clients, arguing they showcased pure creativity. The stance divided the industry.

Despite the controversies, French was widely credited with elevating Asian advertising onto the global stage. He taught a generation of creative directors, copywriters, and art directors to reject bland briefs and demand better thinking. His ads were among the first from Asia to appear in international annuals.

Neil French changed advertising. The industry will be telling stories about him for decades to come.