CCO Jeff Benjamin Out at JWT

By Patrick Coffee 

Jeff BenjaminWe can officially confirm a series of tips we received this morning: chief creative officer Jeff Benjamin will soon be former CCO at JWT.

Despite the claims of several tipsters, the agency’s press release holds that Benjamin will leave to launch “a new creative venture” (though we get no specifics on that project).

One source says that Benjamin, who joined JWT from CP+B in 2012, was “very out of place” at the agency from the start. Contrary to prevailing stereotypes, he was more “an indie agency guy than a Mad Man”, and his non-traditional way of doing things (which often included working unusually long hours and calling fellow creatives at odd times) did not sit well with upper management.

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Finally, the source says that managers may have taken issue with what they saw as Benjamin’s inability to bring in new business beyond Puma.

The press release simply states that Benjamin “will be leaving the agency to start a new creative venture”. It also notes, obliquely, that recently-appointed CCO Matt Eastwood “will be actively involved in the New York office in the coming months.”

Make of that what you will.

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