When Was The Last Time You Did Anything Really Really Useful?

Few people, especially ad people, get to use their skills this way:

“I was trying to think what I could do,” Kay recalled Monday. “One thing I know how to do is advertising.”

On 9/12, Kay was in his Manhattan office, asking himself the same question he and his colleagues did at the start of a big Honda campaign or when conceiving a Xerox commercial for the Super Bowl.

. . .

He recalled a famous phrase from World War II.

“‘Loose lips sink ships’ spread across the country,” he said. “If I could come up with a 21st century version of that …”

He again considered what would be the best message in this new war.

“What really do I want to say?” he asked himself. “I want to say, ‘People, be alert.'”

As always, the idea just popped into his head. He wrote it down on one of the 3X5 cards he keeps handy for when inspiration strikes.

“IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.”

. . .

His agency had done business with the MTA, and he figured this would be a perfect way to spread the message. He picked up the phone.

“Very shortly thereafter it was in the subway and buses and trains,” he said.

The phrase kept spreading over the years, generating 159 million mentions on Google, imprinting itself on the psyches of even more individuals.

Those individuals included Orton, who was selling T-shirts on W. 45th St. Saturday evening when he saw something in the form of a suspiciously parked SUV emitting acrid smoke. He immediately said something to the mounted cop he saw nearby, Police Officer Wayne Rhatigan.