STEVEN ACKER HAS ENJOYED TWO ILLUSTRIOUS, AND iNTERTWINING CAREERS: ADVERTISING AND MUSIC.
From the 1950s through the late 1970s, few areas of the country boasted a more exciting popular music scene than Northeast Ohio and Southwest Pennsylvania. Many of the most celebrated rock stars of the era spent their formative years there.
One of the most popular area bands throughout the 70s was Youngstown, Ohio’s LAW, featuring 21-year old Steven Acker on guitar and vocals. Acker was the band’s guitarist and principal songwriter. On the strength of his songs and the band’s amazing live shows, LAW was discovered and signed to MCA Records by Roger Daltrey of the Who. The band opened one leg of The Who’s 1976 Summer Tour. Despite universal acclaim for its powerful performances, sharing stages across the nation with virtually every major act of the era, LAW failed to find a consistent place on radio playlists. With three white and two black members, they played what one critic labeled “Rock and Soul Music.” Too much rock for soul, and too much soul for rock and roll.
After three albums on MCA, Aker moved to Mississippi in 1978 to re-join his family, where he commenced a long career as an advertising creative director and record producer. Later in Nashville, he directed ad campaigns and produced jingles for national clients like McDonald’s, Bridgestone Tires, Sara Lee Foods, and Johnston & Murphy Shoes.
In 1987 Acker created the Dollar General Stores Adult Literacy Program, for which President Reagan presented his Presidential Award for Private Initiatives and the Saturday Evening Post honored with its 1988 Benjamin Franklin Award. In 1992, Acker’s original program evolved into the present-day Dollar General Literacy Foundation. To date, more than 10 million Dollar General customers have earned their GED Certificates and/or learned to read as a result of Dollar General’s educational efforts.
In 2007, Acker re-entered the music business when he was signed to SST Studios in New York City as a staff writer and producer. In that capacity, he wrote and produced songs for several NYC recording artists and produced new hit fight songs for several major universities under the banner of University Jams. Following the destruction of the recording studio by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 he resumed his advertising and writing career. He has since published two books and edited a dozen more, including the #1 Amazon best-seller, “Hard Days, Hard Nights” by legendary concert promoter, Pat DiCesare.
As an advertising and marketing professional, Acker boasts an unprecedented range of skills, from writing to graphic design to social media planning to web marketing and email campaigns to, of course, commercial music. His advertising and music work can be seen and heard on numerous websites, including www.ackercreative.com