Letters

Ad Shops: From Catch-Alls to Specialists

If Mike Shine and Ed Cotton from Butler, Shine & Stern think the ad agency is headed for extinction [Art & Commerce, May 7], maybe they should look a bit further back into its history to report its demise.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the big agencies did all the work Shine and Cotton describe, not just the big ads for the networks and major magazines like Life. Every copywriter and art director was expected to be proficient in creating direct mail, point-of-purchase, trade show materials, customer giveaways—whatever the client needed or the marketing strategy dictated.