Draft Worldwide
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Advertising |
| Genre | Advertising agency |
| Founded | 1873 (as Lord & Thomas) |
| Headquarters | New York, Chicago |
|
Number of locations
|
90 countries |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Carter Murray Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Harries Vice Chairman Emeritus & Executive Advisor, Global Creative Neil Miller COO Susan Credle CCO |
| Services | Marketing communications |
|
Number of employees
|
8,600 |
| Parent | Interpublic Group of Companies |
| Website | www.fcb.com |
Foote, Cone & Belding, a.k.a. FCB, is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was merged in 2006 with Draft Worldwide, adopting the name Draftfcb. In 2014 the company went back to its roots and rebranded itself as simply FCB. The Interpublic Group is one of the big four agency holdings conglomerates, the others being Publicis, WPP, and Omnicom.
Founded as Lord & Thomas in Chicago in 1873, FCB is the third-oldest advertising agency in the U.S that's still around today. Albert Lasker, a founding figure of modern advertising, went to work for the firm as a clerk in 1898, working his way up until he purchased it in 1912. Chicago, along with New York, was the center of the nation's advertising industry, and Lasker, known as the "father of modern advertising", made Chicago his base from 1898-1942. When the agency acquired the Sunkist Growers, Incorporated account, the citrus industry was in a slump with an excess of produce. Lasker helped increase the consumption of oranges by creating a new market with his “Drink an orange” ads. Lasker's use of radio, particularly with his campaigns for Palmolive soap, Pepsodent toothpaste, Kotex feminine hygiene products, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, not only revolutionized the advertising industry but also significantly changed popular culture.
In 1942, Lasker sold Lord & Thomas to its three top managers, Emerson H. Foote in New York City, Fairfax Cone in Chicago, and Don Belding in California, who renamed it.
Foote, Cone & Belding became the first major agency to go public. In 1963, the agency began to offer stock and went public. FCB began to expand in Europe that year.
The ‘70s and ‘80s saw the beginning of partnerships with Mazda, RJR Nabisco, AT&T, Coors Brewing Company, Payless ShoeSource, Mattel and many more. The agency introduced The California Dancing Raisins and the characters quickly became pop icons.
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Wikipedia