Lamar Owens

Ad - Versity Lamar Owens

Life in the advertising agency business is addictive. At any given moment you're either flying high after getting a new client or in the depths of despair after losing one. An ad agency principal spends 30% of his or her time trying to keep clients happy, 30% chasing new accounts and 40% attempting to stop creative people from killing each other. These were some principles Jesse Beau Horton learned from his dad Beau Lee Horton - known in the south as Bo Lee and everywhere else as just Bo. Bo had built a huge Galaxy International advertising agency before merging it with Dentsu. Jesse's mother Crystal had inherited a fortune from her parents and grandfather Jess Jackson who built the Kendall-Jackson wine empire. Jesse preferred to be called Jess like his great-grandpa. Growing up in Paso Robles California surrounded by family vineyards Jess got his first taste of an advertising agency in Santa Barbara. His dad consulted with a small Santa Barbara advertising agency Evans Hardy & Young as sort of a hobby and took Jess along to some meetings. Like all kids Jess was bombarded with ad messages daily on TV and the internet but when he discovered how advertising was created he was amazed. Scott Young was the agency creative director and spent hours talking with Jess about creativity. Jess knew long before he got a formal education that he wanted to be in advertising. Coming from one of America's wealthiest families Jess could have done anything he wanted - or nothing. His mom wanted him to eventually take over the family BoJack wine empire. His dad wanted him to go to the Air Force Academy and be a pilot like his grandfather Billy Ray Horton. Bo was also a pilot and Jess got to sit in the co-pilot's seat when they flew their private G650 jet. He liked flying and wine but neither interested him as much as advertising.