Benjamin Counts II was a Chicago adman credited with the famous “Cub Fan, Bud Man” advertising slogan delivered by Harry Caray in countless 1980s television commercials for Budweiser beer.
“Everybody knew it was really Ben’s concept to do that campaign,” said Mike Cheney, who co-led an agency with Counts. “Ben was just very instrumental in developing the concepts and the creative and he was just a joy to work with.”
Counts, 78, died of complications from dementia on June 20 in his Uptown home, said his wife, Rita Lanier-Counts.
Born in Chicago, Counts grew up in the South Side Grand Boulevard neighborhood and graduated from the University of Chicago Laboratory School. He studied advertising, photography and journalism at Columbia College Chicago.
Counts worked on Eugene McCarthy’s presidential campaign in 1968 and then was hired by the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, Cheney said.
Counts went on to work for several small African American ad agencies before joining the now-defunct D’Arcy MacManus & Marius agency, whose major client was Budweiser’s parent, Anheuser-Busch. For a time, he was working regularly in D’Arcy’s St. Louis office, near Anheuser-Busch’s headquarters.
While working for D’Arcy as a creative director, Counts helped devise the “Cub Fan, Bud Man” campaign, which became a popular and lasting ad campaign that dovetailed with the Cubs’ success on the field in the 1984 season.
“That campaign was almost 100% Ben,” Cheney said. “That was his big breakthrough.”
Counts later joined the Tatham-Laird & Kudner ad agency, where he met and then teamed up with Cheney. One of the accounts that the two worked on together was a campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Coast soap. Cheney recalled that one commercial they created, “Shower Scene,” was a takeoff on the Alfred Hitchcock film “Psycho” — though with a humorous ending — and it ultimately won second place in the commercial category at the 1989 Chicago International Film Festival.
In 1991, Cheney formed his own agency and Counts joined him as the firm, Coil, Counts, Ford and Cheney, won an account for Niles-based Wells Lamont gloves. Out of the gate, Counts made an impact, luring actor James Earl Jones to be the glove-maker’s commercial pitchman, starting in 1992.
At the newly created agency, Counts specialized in creating ad campaigns for hospital systems, such as helping to spearhead the launch of Advocate Health.
“With his help, we ended up getting a bunch of health care systems (as clients) around the country,” Cheney said. “We ended up becoming known as a good health care agency. Through all of this, Ben was just very instrumental in developing the concepts and the creative and he was just a joy to work with.”
Ron Coil, another partner in the firm, recalled Counts’ “excellent work” and his commitment to the creative process.
“He always wanted nothing but the best (work) for our clients,” Coil said.
In the early 1990s, Counts also worked on developing TV commercials for newly launched Empress River Casino — a challenge, as FCC regulations at the time barred gambling businesses from explicitly mentioning anything to do with the games or winning money in broadcast ads.
The firm also handled pro bono ad work for nonprofit groups like the Salvation Army, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Illinois, Planned Parenthood, the American Cancer Society, the Chicago AIDS Walk and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law.
“Some of the things that he did best on was our pro bono work,” Coil recalled. “We really were able to get to the heart of things.”
Counts retired when he and his partners in the firm decided to close the firm in April 2011.
Counts was active in local theater. In 1995, New Tuners Theatre staged a production of a play he wrote, “Christmas Caper,” which featured a lawbreaking Santa Claus.
A previous marriage ended in divorce. Apart from his wife, there were no other immediate survivors.
A memorial service is planned for later this year.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.