Leeds, P-O-P Ad Pioneer, Dead at 82

NEW YORK Richard H. Leeds, co-founder of a venerable point-of-purchase advertising agency, died on Dec. 25 of heart failure at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He was 82.

For more than 50 years, Leeds was an innovative influence in the p-o-p ad industry, pioneering the use of sophisticated mechanical and electrical displays. Thomson-Leeds, which he founded in 1952 with Chester L. Thomson, became a preeminent agency specializing in in-store communications, now an $18 billion field of advertising.