Charles Austin, Marietta advertising exec, had way with words

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Over lunch in the early 1970s, Charles Austin told the president of Rich's department store that his company's advertising campaign was garbage.

Then like a snake charmer, the advertising executive mesmerized Dick Rich with a plan to fix it.

"He would grab something and start drawing it out ... on a white tablecloth," his son Michael Austin said. "You'd see the whole plan: copy, design, strategy. He was a very good salesperson in that he could illustrate in words and art what he wanted you to know."

That rare combination of copywriting, illustration and salesmanship made Mr. Austin a force to reckon with in an advertising career that spanned more than three decades. In addition to Rich's, Mr. Austin crafted campaigns for Delta Air Lines and Anheuser-Busch.

But he wasn't just known in advertising circles. In the late '50s, he became a press agent in Hollywood for notable stars such as Debbie Reynolds, John Wayne, Pat Boone and Zsa Zsa Gabor, according to the family.

Known for being outspoken and direct, he once got into a spat with Gabor, most likely over a commitment the Hungarian actress had made without checking with him, Michael Austin said. After the tiff, Mr. Austin hopped in his 1955 Cadillac and sped away from her Los Angeles house, plowing over an ornamental pillar in her driveway, his son said.

"He backed up and knocked that thing right over," Michael Austin said. "She was so mad at him."

Charles Fred "Budd" Austin, 78, of Marietta and Talking Rock died Nov. 26 of cancer-and liver-related complications at Unihealth Post-Acute Care nursing home in Austell. A private funeral service will be in late December at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Villa Rica. R.T. Patterson Funeral Home and Cremation Services is in charge of arrangements.

Born in 1931, he was raised in Wenatchee, Wash. After he graduated high school, he became a court reporter in the Navy for four years before heading to journalism school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In the early 1960s, he worked for United Press International as a reporter and then in public relations for the Ice Capades. In 1963, he became a feature writer for Peninsula Living magazine in San Mateo.

"He wrote special articles," said his former wife, Malline Austin. "He wrote an article about a guy who was almost killed by a shark, back in the days when you didn't hear stories about that."

Mr. Austin moved to Atlanta in 1967, launching his advertising career with Georgia Power and the firm Liller, Neal, Battle and Lindsey. Then for 19 years, he and his son Michael were principals of the agency Strong! Advertising, so named by Mr. Austin.

Michael Austin said his father was an idea man, and sometimes those ideas came ahead of their time. Such was the case in the early 1970s, when he pushed free-standing food kiosks in malls and was told "you'll never find food in a mall," his son said.

Marcus Shirley, a client of his for eight years, said Mr. Austin's creative genius was in drawing ideas out of people. In developing a slogan for Mr. Shirley's realty services company, for instance, Mr. Austin peppered him with questions. The slogan "And that's the bottom line" emerged.

"He would make you come up with these strokes of genius when it was him driving it," Mr. Shirley said.

Ms. Austin said her former husband of 10 years always had a way with words, even when it came to his own death. "He worded everything in his own way," she said. "He said, ‘I want to be phased out.'"

Additional survivors include sons Rex Austin of Nashville and Richie Austin of Alpharetta and eight grandchildren.