DEATH BY NAME

How do you decapacitate two industry giants in one fell swoop? It’s simple, you send an email.
Then announce a new acronym and brandish a hyperbolic press release.
It’s bigger, and it’s the future, says the press release. It’s cutting edge, says the press release.
But what do we say?
There’s a lot of stuff on social media. The usual gobbledygook on the demise of a legacy, the few who applaud and of course analysts and veterans who saw it coming. Emotion, anger, cynicism and buckets of nostalgia.
But hey, nostalgia is overrated.
So why does it feel personal? Why do I feel gutted, why does it feel like my best friend just died?
Because he did.
If you answered Thompsons, to the question, ‘Where do you work?’ Then this was much before JWT,
and you were in the Unilever school of brand building. I remember the corporate office at Thompson. The suits literally wore suits. And ties.
They spoke a different language; they were arguably snobby, but that’s because they knew their stuff. They were the best.
I have sat wide-eyed in meetings as a production person listening to Thompson legends speak. Mesmerized by the discipline and science of brand building that no textbook could ever teach.
So, when I was a rookie writer and the biggest school of advertising said join us, I did.
I stayed for 23 years. It’s longer than most marriages.
In an industry that changes brand loyalty like underwear, what kept us afloat? I guess that’s when agency culture and legacy come in.
We felt we belonged, through good times and bad, and yes, there were periods of both. There were stories of heroism and folklore, depending on which office you worked in, battles won, and victory celebrations.
We didn’t walk, we had a strut. We felt invincible because we were. We were not afraid. We could call a spade a shovel and dare to dream because it was permissible.
Somebody asked me why I never quit. And it was simply because there was so much to learn every single day.
From amazing bosses to colleagues to partners and teams, we embraced an award culture where we proved that yes, we built brands, and we could roar at Cannes as well.
I never left JWT, it will always be a big part of me forever.
Oh, but hang on. It’s dead.