Creative agency names have diverted us over the years: when they really were names over the door. London at one point boasted Beavis Shrimpling and Softly (which sounded like lots of things, not necessarily an ad agency) and Beverly Fowler Maslin Oxlade & Starkey, a contender for longest.
There was also, of course, the famed start-up Simons Palmer Denton & Clemmow which hastily added Johnson when Carl Johnson (later of Anomaly fame) hitched his star to the new shop.
The classics, though, were the Madison Avenue biggies J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett with London upstart Saatchi & Saatchi muscling its way in (Private Eye used to call them the Iceycreamio Brothers, thinking they were Italian.)
S&S is still with us (under Publicis ownership) although the brothers departed to set up M&C Saatchi. JWT and Y&R have disappeared in WPP boss Mark Read’s bonfire of the brands to become part of VML, which nobody had heard of. O&M is now WPP’s Ogilvy while Publicis Group’s Leo Burnett has rebranded worldwide to be just Leo, absorbing Publicis Conseil in many markets. Now it’sbecoming Leo in the UK too although Publicis the agency remains separate (as far as we know.)
These were mostly named after real people, usually from the vintage Mad Men post-war period. JWT claimed to be a former naval type – ‘the Commodore’ – in the late 19th century. Leo Burnett himself was one such such. Many years ago he gave a famous address to staff – ‘When to take my name off the door.’
Now they have.
In the 1970s I was an accounr hander at Beavis Shrimpling and Softly. Chris Beavis was creative director, Brian Shrimpling was managing director and Jonathan Softly, my boss, headed up account management. Shrimpling and Softly were ex-Davidson Pearce. There were two associated entities, retained for media recognition purposes: Penn Christian Media (Michael Penn, an old school gentleman account man, and David Christian, an art director), and Morrison Flounders and Charterton, of which only account man Rob Morrison remained. Fortunately the founders didn’t opt for Beavis Shrimpling Softly Penn Christian and Morrison.