Published on Show Me Mizzou April 24, 2026
At Leo Burnett Worldwide, the Chicago advertising agency that produced some of the nation’s most enduring campaigns, colleagues liked to say they could tell when Jack Smith, BA ’62, oversaw a late-night brainstorming session: The scripts came back with soy sauce splashes on them. Smith liked gathering his team at a sushi bar, spreading pages across the table and nudging ideas loose in the lively chaos. Creativity, he believed, needed room, laughter, shared sake and the occasional mess.
Smith died Jan. 27 at age 87. Before retiring in 1994, he became a defining creative force at Leo Burnett, eventually serving as group president and deputy chief creative officer. Many readers will remember his work through iconic campaigns such as United Airlines’ “Fly the Friendly Skies,” 7UP’s “Feels So Good Comin’ Down” and Heinz’s “Slow Dance.”
Smith studied communication at Mizzou and helped finance his education by playing drums with the College Cats, which he described as the first live group ever hired by the Tan-Tar-A Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks.
After decades in Chicago, he returned to Mizzou to teach strategic communication. Students often realized they’d grown up hearing his work long before they met the man behind it. He urged them to stay curious and keep the “trapdoors” of their minds open so ideas could wander in.
An adman who also wrote classic jingles, Smith lent his creativity to the university by contributing to the theme song for Mizzou's second fundraising campaign, “For All We Call Mizzou.”
Although he unsuccessfully pitched the theme song to Sheryl Crow, BS Ed ’84, he later delighted in learning she had unknowingly sung one of his jingles early in her career: “It’s a Good Time for the Great Taste of McDonald’s.”
In 2017, the Missouri School of Journalism honored Smith with the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, recognizing a career that shaped an industry, generations of students and the catchiest corners of America’s memory.
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