JWT’s Jeremy Bullmore dies at 93.
It may be the holiday season but it’s also the time, sadly, that many people check out.
Jeremy Bullmore, long-serving creative director and then chairman of JWT in its great days, has died at 93. He went on to be director of WPP, doing much to give a warmer, more welcoming aspect to Sir Martin Sorrell’s construct although Bullmore, rigorously intellectual in all things, was no soft touch.
He’ll be much missed and it really is the passing of an era in UK adland in which the business the was dominated by larger than life figures. We won’t tempt fate by naming the survivors here.
There are some other notable departures too. Novelist fay Weldon, who wrote “go to work on an egg” for Ogilvy has died at 91, James Garrett, who did much to usher in the great age of British commercials and whose company worked often with Bullmore’s JWT, has died at 94.
Per Pederson, a former Grey Worldwide CCO and founder of independent agency network by The Network has died at the alarmingly young age of 58.
Former Pederson colleague Nils Leonard said: “Per wanted creativity to win. Behind any individual piece of work, job title or jury role was a real belief in the best of our industry, an unshakable passion. He will be remembered for far more than his vocation but for his loyalty to the creative cause, he cared greatly, and as a result so did we all.”
WPP set up a Jeremy Bullmore archive at Wunderman Thompson last year. WPP CEO Mark Read said: “No time spent with Jeremy was ever wasted. If you went to see him in his office, he would – without fail – make you think, make you laugh, and make you challenge whatever assumption you had gone in with. We will miss him terribly. Not only those who knew him personally, but his army of loyal readers who devoured every perfectly chosen word in his consistently brilliant columns, articles, speeches and essays.”
Bullmore’s family have requested donations to Shelter for those who wish to commemorate him.
Met Jeremy many times when I worked at JWT, back in the day. Always worthwhile occasions, always left you with something to chew on. There aren’t many of that generation left. Will I be the last? Time for my breakfast beer. Cheers/George