Things that make you go ‘Arrrrgh!’

In case you’re unaware, today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, an annual holiday started in 1995 by John “Ol’ Chumbucket” Baur and Mark “Cap’n Slappy” Summers, two guys who later wrote a whole book called Pirattitude! about how to talk, plunder and swashbuckle like a pirate. Considering the occasion, we thought we would ask the people at TBWA\Chiat\Day (whose skull-and-crossbones logo is shown here) what they think about the day and whether they are doing anything special, beyond saying “Shiver me timbers” whenever the client says something silly. “At our place, [the pirate motif] comes from our original captain, Jay Chiat, who said that it’s more fun to be the pirates than the Navy,” says Rob Schwartz, ecd in Playa del Rey, Calif. But alas, there’s nothing special planned for this afternoon. “We’ve been pirates from day one, so technically every day celebrates being a pirate,” Schwartz says. “Our Jolly Roger is always flying.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

September 19, 2005 | Permalink