The Original Mad Men

Art & Copy is a slick documentary about the genius ad men and women who created such iconic campaigns as "Got Milk?", Apple’s "Think Different", and Nike's "Just Do It."

"Sundance gets a lot of grief about getting too commercial and selling out," director Doug Pray said in introducing the film. "I just want to warn you guys--there's ads in my movie."

As fate would have it, I was sitting next to one of the "stars" of the film, advertising and design genius George Lois. He's not only the creator of legendary Esquire magazine covers featuring the likes of Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali, he's also the man behind a campaign that turned Tommy Hilfiger into a celebrity overnight. And he's one of the sharpest and most irreverent talkers in the film.

Among the ads shown in Art & Copy was the famous, treacly "Morning in America" commercial that worked so well for Ronald Reagan—the creation of the late Hal Riney (who was interviewed before he died). Just as the movie ended, Lois started telling me that he had called Riney after that ad came out and said...

But at that moment, Lois was called on stage to take his bows and answer questions. He and the other ad men talked about the contribution that artists made in creating materials that promoted Obama--and how all right-thinking artists are really lefties.

The lady in the row behind me tried to explain to her young teen daughter who Redford is.

That made me all the more curious to hear what Lois had told Riney about that Morning in America ad. Meanwhile, Robert Redford had turned up on stage to congratulate the filmmaker and to say hello to his old friend George, making Lois that much harder to chase.

Though momentarily distracted (and depressed) as the lady in the row behind me tried to explain to her young teen daughter who Redford is, I was so determined to hear the end of the story that I marched up to the stage and tapped Lois on the shoulder. So what did he tell Riney about that Reagan ad?

"I said, `Great job, but I hate you, you motherfucker.'"

Kim Masters covers the business of entertainment for NPR News. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.