BBDO
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Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn is an advertising agency formed by merging of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten Co. in 1928.
Overview
BBDO is one of three global networks (BBDO, TBWA, DDB) of agencies in Omnicom's portfolio, with 345 offices in 76 countries.
BBDO Worldwide has been named the "Most Awarded Agency Network in the World" by The Gunn Report 2003.
BBDO was named Agency of the Year in 2005 by ADWEEK, Advertising Age, and Campaign Magazine.
Founders
- Bruce Fairchild Barton
- Roy Sarles Durstine
- Alex Faickney Osborn
- George Batten
History facts
- 1891 George Batten, 37, opens his one-room advertising agency, the Batten Co., at 38 Park Row, New York, with no clients and one employee.
- 1894 Batten's is the first agency to install in-house printing. He advocates the use of plain, simple type, which he says, "stands out like a Quaker on Broadway."
- 1906 The agency, now with 50 employees, moves to the Metropolitan Annex building on East 24th Street, occupying the entire 11th floor - 5,000 square feet.
- 1912 Hammermill Paper Co. awards its account to Batten. Today the company is BBDO's oldest client.
- 1917 Armstrong Cork Company awards its account to Batten. It is now BBDO's second-oldest client.
- 1918 George Batten dies at 64, and William H. Johns becomes president of the Batten Co.
- 1919 The Barton & Durstine Co. agency opens January 1 at 25 W 45th St., with Bruce Barton as president and Roy Durstine as secretary- treasurer. In August, Alex Osborn joins the agency, renamed Barton, Durstine & Osborn.
- 1920 General Electric becomes BDO client.
- 1923 Both BDO and the Batten Co. move to a new building at 383 Madison Avenue. BDO leases an entire floor, while the Batten Co., with 246 employees, takes a floor and a half.
- 1923 The Harvard Advertising Awards are founded by Edward Bok of the Ladies' Home Journal and the Harvard Business School. BDO wins more awards than any other agency in the seven years that the award is presented.
- 1924 BDO ranks as the fourth-largest U.S. agency.
- 1925 BDO airs its first radio program an hour show for Atwater Kent radios for which the agency had obtained the exclusive right to broadcast Metropolitan Opera stars. Two years later, BDO becomes the first agency to establish a radio department.
- 1927 John Caples, who later will become the world's authority on copy testing, joins BDO. In his 1931 book, "Tested Advertising Methods," he declared that the average American is 13 years old mentally, and that a copywriter should "use words you would expect to find in a fifth-grade reader." He also strongly advised against humor.
- 1928 On September 21, the Batten Co. and BDO announce a merger to form Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Bruce Barton is made chairman of the board, with William H. Johns, president of the Batten Co., becomes president of the new agency. Durstine is made vice president and general manager. The new agency, with branch offices Chicago, Boston, and Buffalo, has over 600 employees. It will occupy 383 Madison for 59 years until it relocates to its current address, 1285 Avenue of the Americas.
- 1934 Kate Smith begins her first commercially sponsored radio show for BBDO client La Palina cigars.
- 1935 DuPont hires BBDO to change the company's image from a World War I munitions manufacturer to a peace time manufacturer. The agency introduces the slogan “Better Things for Better Living … Through Chemistry.” The words “through chemistry” were removed in the 1980s. The slogan was replaced in 1999 with "The miracles of science."
- 1935 BBDO launches the first "Hit Parade" radio show. "Soon" was the No. 1 song.
- 1937 Bruce Barton is appointed to an unexpired term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is elected a year later.
- 1939 Roy Durstine resigns after three years as president, and opens his own agency. BBDO is reorganized under the leadership of Alex Osborn.
- 1939 Lever Bros. becomes a BBDO client.
- 1940 After losing his campaign for the Senate, Bruce Barton returns as president of BBDO.
- 1940 Alex Osborn introduces "brainstorming," a technique to generate ideas, to the agency.
- 1946 Ben Duffy, who started in the agency's mailroom and rose to head the media department, becomes president. Under his watch billings quadruple from $50 million to $200 million in ten years. He steps down in 1957 due to illness.
- 1957 Charlie Brower, who was hired as a copywriter with the Batten Co. just before the merger with BDO, becomes president.
- 1960 On March 16, Chrysler moves its Dodge Truck and Car Divisions, with billings of $21 million, to BBDO. On April 6, BBDO wins the $17 million Pepsi account after a pitch against seven other agencies.
Brands
- Atmosphere BBDO
- BBDO Detroit
- S/R Alliance
- Proximity Worldwide
- BBDO Consulting
- BBDO New York
- BBDO West
Trivia
Fred Allen quipped on his radio show that the agency's name "sounded like a steamer trunk falling down a flight of stairs." (This quote has also been attributed to Jack Benny.)In the 1933 comedy "Hard to Handle", James Cagney says, "Well, so long, boys. I'm lunching with Bruce Barton of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn."
In the 1961 Doris Day-Rock Hudson film "Lover Come Back," the pair play rival advertising executives; Hudson's character works at 383 Madison Avenue--BBDO's address--and is shown entering the building's lobby.
A character in the 1961 Broadway musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" is named Benjamin Burton Daniel Ovington, and referred to by his initials, "BBDO." Naturally he becomes the head of advertising.
In the 1998 film "The Truman Show," Jim Carey works at a company named Omnicom.
In the 2000 Helen Hunt-Mel Gibson film "What Women Want," Hunt's character leaves top agency "BBD&O" to work at fictional Sloane/Curtis.
External Links
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