I never met Pat Fallon, who’s died aged 70, or knew that much about his famed Minneapolis agency Fallon McElligott. Fallon, in the UK, was a notable shooting star of course: giving us Sony’s ‘Balls’ and Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ before disappearing into the maw of Saatchi & Saatchi.
But, never fear, George is here. George Parker reproduces this memo from Pat Fallon contemporary Goodby Silverstein’s Jeff Goodby in Adscam, showing, as they say, true respect.
A FITTING TRIBUTE!
Jeff Goodby sent this memo out to every employee at GS+P…
Pat Fallon, whose agency we have on occasion been insanely stupidly jealous of, has died at 70. It is lost in the mists of the past, but Fallon’s agency was founded a year before ours (we started the same year as Wieden + Kennedy). They concerned us much more than Wieden did. Early on, Fallon figured out that winning awards could make an agency in Minneapolis into a national force. Under Pat, Tom McElligott recruited local barber shops and even the Episcopalian church into the cause, writing ringing print ads that woke up the industry. For The Wall Street Journal, he penned one of the best tag lines only briefly used: “The Daily Diary of The American Dream.” And Fallon’s agency created Rolling Stone’s “Perception/Reality” campaign, which you should look up, if you don’t know it. Fallon McElligott Rice was Ad Age’s Agency of the Year before either we or Wieden got the honor. It made us crazy.
A sad day on the prairie, as someone commented on Twitter.
And also this launch house ad.