He worked as a copywriter at several advertising agencies throughout the 1970s, including Honig-Cooper & Harrington, Ketchum Advertising, and Bozell & Jacobs, where he created the first Atari campaign, “Doreen, Come On Home.” From 1976 through 1979, Black did freelance work under the moniker, Robert Allan Black Productions, for the founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell.