Guest Tribute in Honor of Gil Weil

A guest tribute from former ANA President Dewitt Helm in honor of Gilbert Harry Weil

Gil Harry Weil was General Counsel to the ANA for forty-nine years, until his death in April 2002 at the age of 89. The relationship spanned many decades, encountering every challenge and regulatory threat to advertising throughout the years.

For sixty-five years, Gil participated in and helped lead the fight in every one of the major battles that confronted advertisers and advertising, including numerous SAG/AFTRA contract negotiations; the FTC’s Analgesic, Nutritional Labeling and other trade regulation rulemaking (TRR) wars of the fifties and the sixties; the children’s advertising issues that led to formation of the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), its Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) and the National Advertising Review Council (NARC); and numerous state and federal threats to impose taxes on advertising including, most notably, the Florida and federal battles of late 1987 and 1988. 

Gil was a recognized authority on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and championed it in his practice, in testimony before Congress and state legislatures, in lectures and in contributions to professional publications. Few marketers realize that First Amendment free speech protection was extended to commercial advertising only in 1976 when the Supreme Court invalidated Virginia’s ban on price advertising for prescription drugs.  This was accomplished in large measure through Gil’s advocacy and defense of advertisers and advertising.  Gil crafted positions and arguments, filed briefs, tried cases, filed appeals and testified at the Federal and State levels with all three branches of government.  His counsel was always finely crafted and well delivered.

Having graduated from New York University in 1933, Gil worked as a law clerk while he pursued the Jurisprudence Degree he received from NYU in 1937. He was admitted to the bar in New York the same year.  He served as a reserve officer in the United States Navy in the Pacific during World War II.  Over the years, he was admitted to practice before many federal District courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as before the United States Supreme Court in 1964. He is a biographee in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law, as well as Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.

His memory and insightfulness were matters of record.  No one spoke or wrote quite like Gil Weil.  Words were the tools of his trade, and it was his practice not to waste them. Adjectives and adverbs were employed sparingly. Sentences were crisp and pithy.  An adversary once was heard to observe, “Gil Weil gets through the fluff and feathers and down to the nitty gritty faster than anyone I know.”

Gil was not a social activist or one for seeking the spotlight, preferring, rather, to focus his efforts and energy in pursuit of the causes he championed on behalf of his clients. His desire to “give back” to the society was expressed in the form of philanthropy to humanitarian and social causes; a fact not well-known.  His philosophy can be summed up with, “First you seek to fill a man’s belly, and only then do you seek to fill his mind.”

We remember Gil Weil fondly and hope he is nominated into the AAF Hall of Fame.

Comments

[out of the closet]

I am disappointed that NBC and the ANA have decided to air "The Book of Daniel." NBC plans to air this controversial series featuring a troubled Episcopal priest and other dysfunctional characters.

The network will air The Book of Daniel on Fridays this spring, about an Episcopal priest named Daniel Webster who talks with a "manifestation" of Jesus. The Webster family includes a 23-year-old homosexual, Republican son; a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer; and an adopted son involved in an indecent relationship with the bishop's daughter.

Please explain how groups like yours insist on toleration and respect for other groups, no matter how outside the scope of decency, but disregard Christians who believe in Biblical principles.

I am a reasonable person and understand my beliefs are a private decision, but I cannot expect to "closet" my beliefs when those who hold differing views are becoming more and more brazen, and the entertainment industry appears to be championing their brazen disregard for decency. I don't claim that all who purport Christian views live by them, but please show respect to those who do by accepting that none of us are all we wish we could be. The contempt for the traditional has done anything but enhance public or private behavioral standards.

Please inform advertisers that they will be subject to boycott if they choose to air this program.

If money is the only language that the people making these decisions understand, then that is the tool we must use to stop these threats against traditional values.

[Peter F. Eder]

Gil's recognition is long overdue. Hopefully, the third time around as a nominee for the AAF Hall of Fame will result in this most desrved, most valued to our profession addition.

Perhaps our Pantheon of "heroes" needs some expansion. In late November the New York Times noted the death of Leo Bogart. Not a word appeared in our trade press. Yet, Leo Bogart in his work for the ARF, in his leadership in newspaper research, conducted research and wrote papers and monographs that have stood the test of time - and are still valued today as gold standard.

A quick suggestion - perhaps like MLB and its Cooperstown Hall of Fame, our profession should have a senior committee whose purpose would beto "elect" those most valuable players whose public acclaim has eluded them in death.

There certainly would be no better place to start than with Gil Weil.