I received this note via email from Steve Denvir:

"Hi Harold, I posted this on Facebook this evening.

I just discovered my friend Graham McTavish Watt died a couple of days before Xmas.

Graham was probably the finest advertising copywriter to ever come out of this country. He and his partner Jim Burt did the Dairy Farmers of Ontario work for many years. Remember “Thank you very much, milk”?

That was just one of many.

Now before you start sending “sorry for your loss” responses, we weren’t close. We were acquaintances.

But we had intersections. My first direct superior in advertising? My mentor? He was mentored by Graham. And both of them could write copy that could make you weep. I’ve never stopped being in awe.

My last big job in advertising? Taking Graham’s role on the Milk account, 30 years after I’d started under one of his protégés. I worked with his old partner, Jim Burt, and we ended up producing the rapping dairy farmers commercial, probably the stupidest, most fun thing I’ve ever done.

Completely antithetical to the tone Graham had spent many years establishing, but I like to think he got a giggle out of it.

Graham was a self-described “feral” creative. He worked by instinct, by feel, and he trusted his gut in a way that is far too rare these days. And it showed in the quality of his work.

I’m including a blog post he wrote a number of years ago. It not only shows his joy in the language, but it also displays remarkably refreshing thinking.

RIP Graham. I wish I’d known you better and I wish I was a good enough writer to do you justice."