Ambassador - National Italian American Foundation

Paul Cappelli
and one of his
laborers haul
olives from
the grove.
Paul Cappelli with
daughter Casey
The ancient villa before
Cappelli’s renovations.
outlets such as Williams-Sonoma. The Villa itself is also
for rent at 4,000-6,000 euros a week; it can host up to
20 people, and features a pool, gardens, seven acres of
olive trees, “and views that go on for about 30 miles.”
Being an ad guy, Cappelli doesn’t talk in clichés. But
he offers this one up as a genuine testament to his feelings.
“I might have restored this villa’s soul, but it
restored mine, too,” he says in a rare moment devoid of
wise-cracks or swearing. “There is a feeling of absolute
peace. Sometimes I’ll just sit down and look out, and
think, ‘How did I get so lucky to end up here?’”
So back to the thread. Cappelli decided that a
life spent teaching at a Christian Brothers school
was not for him and, college degree in hand, he
started bartending in New York. Soon, he heard
about a job opening in the mailroom of ad agency
Ally & Gargano, and before long vaulted to the
worldwide ad agency BBDO. He won a Clio Award
at age 29 for a General Motors spot.
After years at agency giant McCann Erickson, in
1993, Cappelli started The Ad Store, intent on creating
a new, no-frills agency model. The successes
continued, including landing the account of a thennew
airline, Jet Blue, after cold calling its CEO, David
Neeleman, just after 9/11 and offering his services
gratis to help write an open letter to shaken travelers.
But on the home front, life wasn’t as linear.
“I got married, had three kids, then 16 years ago
got divorced,” he says, pausing, almost for effect.
“And 16 years ago, I came out of the closet.”
To be more specific, 16 years ago Cappelli
started a relationship with Texan Steven Crutchfield,
who is now 37 and works alongside Cappelli both on
Ad Store business—you can see the duo pitching on
“The Pitch”—and on Villa Cappelli affairs. Earlier
this year, they decided to move permanently to this
hilltop spot in Terlizzi, just north of Bari.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love New York,” says Cappelli.
“But you work hard there, make a lot of money, and
somehow at the end of the month, it’s all gone. Here, I
feel like if it all goes to hell, I could literally live off what
grows around me. That’s a nice feeling.”
Just after the millennium, flush with success and
some cash, Cappelli began looking for a place to buy
in Italy. Initially, he looked at places in and around
the city of his birth, Pisa, but on a trip with his kids to
visit his mother’s ancestral paese stumbled into a
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Ambassador 41