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Thanks to Kracker for the new design posted 04.03.09 23:21

This new design that Kracker put together for me was so sweeeeeet, I felt that I had to post something.

So, I'm going to post something that really surprised and upset me.

J. Walter. Thompson is closing their Chicago office. They had been there for about 118 years. I guess they never got over the loss of their big account Kraft Foods.

JWT Chicago was once one of the largest offices in the world's largest ad agencies. From what I read, the company is "investing resources in more successful offices in Atlanta and Toronto."

JWT Chicago was once one of the greatest ad agencies in the nation. In 1917 it set up what is believed to be the first test kitchen in an agency. Its 1919 comic-strip ads for Aunt Jemima were the first of their kind. And it was the first agency to produce variety programs for radio (for Fleischmann's in 1929) and TV (for Libby's in 1930).

They wrote classic jingles for Oscar Mayer, including "My bologna has a first name," and it sold Kellogg's Rice Krispies with "Snap, Crackle and Pop." In the 1970s, it famously dubbed 7UP "The Uncola." In the 1970s and '80s, the office was raking in estimated billings in the range of $500 million to $1 billion.

Why did it fail? Bad luck, bad management, bad relationship with it's NYC headquarters. They lost Miller Brewing in 2003, lost Federated Stores in 2007, then Kraft foods in 2007. That was big. So, they went from 800 employees to 50 in about 2 years.

The times, they are a-changing.