BETTER ALIVE THAN DEAD

Goldsmith/Jeffrey has started to use an unusual forum – television – to sell an unusual client – itself. In a black-and-white spot that broke last week in spot TV on ABC’s Nightline, the camera pans a graveyard. One by one, the birth and death dates of some of advertising’s deceased luminaries, including Raymond Rubicam and J. Walter Thompson, appear on the screen as funeral music plays. A voiceover at the conclusion (actually the voice of G/J partner Gary Goldsmith) says: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to work with an agency where the name on the door is not just a name on the door?’ Amid the current rash of spinoff shops formed by big, global agencies, said Goldsmith last week, ‘It seemed like an appropriate time and an appropriate message.’
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)