The Netherlands knows him from commercials such as the Walk-in Fridge or supermarket manager Harry Piekema. His many, many friends know Jorn Kruijsen as a jovial, friendly big bear, who produced a lot of sound, and also a love for life.
Jorn Kruijsen was great in every possible way. In his way of working, enjoying life, and how he entered a room to begin with. One meter ninety tall, a sturdy build and a voice that often announced itself from afar.
“If he entered somewhere, everyone noticed within a few seconds,” says his brother Otto Kruijsen. “Jorn was very good at making noise.”
“He filled every space,” says his wife Mariëlle Nap. “There was always something coming in.”
He wasn’t called The Great Bear for nothing. “Or The Big Teddy Bear,” says his partner Jeroen van de Sande. “He was also a very cuddly person.”
Last Thursday, Kruijsen, creative director and partner at advertising agency Alfred, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 51.
Rolling with laughter
Kruijsen was born in 1972 in the OLVG in Amsterdam, but grew up in Amstelveen. His single mother had three sons. Eric, Otto and Jorn, the youngest.
He studied at the art academy in Kampen and Utrecht, but quickly made a meteoric career in the advertising world in Amsterdam. At DMB&B, an agency that no longer exists, Kruijsen and Van de Sande were put in one room, both still juniors. They just had to work together.
“Within two hours we were rolling with laughter on the floor,” says Van de Sande. What followed: a deep friendship and close collaboration of 26 years, at several agencies, but always as a duo. They made a total of about five hundred advertising films and won an innumerable series of Golden Lamps and Lions in Cannes, and one Golden Loeki.
During their many brainstorming sessions through the Amsterdamse Bos, Kruijsen liked to say: “Nice, but is it a Lamp?”
Heineken ad Walk-in Fridge viral
Advertising had to be fun, entertaining, funny. That was his mission. Heineken’s Walk-in Fridge was only intended for the Dutch market, but it went viral and was eventually released in about 45 countries. Snoop Dogg made his own version, with a closet full of weed.
The list is endless: the Pearle campaign with Ton Kas and Dick van den Toorn, Albert Heijn with branch manager Harry Piekema, Unox, McDonald’s, Royal Club, Amstel, Texels and recently the fighting knights of Affligem who became monks.
Another nice story from advertising history: Kruijsen met his wife on the set of Mora twenty years ago. Nap: “He was very stubborn; he only drove on the left side of the road. But he was also very romantic and loving, always with flowers and notes. He had a big heart.”
As he loved his work, he loved life. Everything had to be grand and compelling. “He was very black and white,” says Nap. “He really loved food and drink, but if he had to exercise, he would also go to the gym in the Soho House for an hour and a half every day, and put a cubic meter of vegetables in the blender.”
Van de Sande: “Everything he did, he did with a straight leg. Full in. Everything or nothing. With double mayo.”
Lots of painkillers
Cancer was diagnosed over a year ago. The disease was irreversible. Nap: “He didn’t want to be sick. He just wasn’t ready yet.”
Kruijsen died three days after his son Jimmy’s tenth birthday. Brother Otto: “With a lot of painkillers, really on character, he made sure that Jimmy had a normal birthday as much as possible. That also says everything about Jorn.”
Kruijsen will be commemorated in a private circle on Thursday.
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