Jack & Ted

One of the highlights of my career was working on Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. Sure, it's an incredible brand. Yet the people at Brown-Forman and colleagues at Arnold... they were the true highlight. I reconnected with one of those amazing people today, American original Sherrie Moore .

Not surprisingly, a certain name came up during our conversation. You can't talk about Jack Daniel's without talking about Ted Simmons. For almost 50 years, Ted was the brand voice behind Jack Daniel's advertising. He set the gold standard for authenticity in marketing before that was ever a thing. (Fun fact: Ted was a consultant to the writers of Mad Men to help capture the halcyon years of advertising.)

In no small part, the people at the distillery and who live in Lynchburg all help define the brand that has become Jack Daniel's. No one makes overalls look as good as the barrelmen, and no one captured the ethos of the brand and the place like Ted.

Sherrie was kind enough to share a poem that Ted wrote about Lynchburg back in the 60s. Not a lot has changed, and yes, there really is a place like Lynchburg.

Lynchburg, Tennessee.

A town.

But more than a town.

More than its buildings, its roads

and its soil.

To those of us who live outside it, it is the

solace and solemnitude of a long-remembered past.

A reminder of simpler days and simpler

living.

A re-discovery of truth, of trust and

of things worthwhile.

Lynchburg is a memory.

An image in man's mind. Of how things

were and ought to be.

Offering much of what men seek but

all too rarely find in the rush of their

day-to-day worlds.

Lynchburg is a way of life; beckoning, beautiful,

irresistible and unique.