Continuing our ongoing series with yet another gem from the madvertising world:
What does this lion have to do with draftfcb? The answer will disturb you.
DRAFTFCB
In Short: If you liked Foote, Cone & Belding, one of the oldest ad agencies in the United States, with its roots stretching all the way back to 1873, you’ll absolutely love Draftfcb, formed by merging Foote, Cone & Belding with Draft, an agency that no one had ever heard of. For years, Foote, Cone & Belding hung its hat on the Levis account—an account they held from approximately 300 BC to around 1998. The post-Levis world has been a strange place for FCB, and led to some interesting moments, such as the vastly unpopular decision to eliminate free sodas from the agency soda machine, and the curious creation of a self-promotional ad that features lions fucking. They still do those Dockers ads though. You remember Dockers right?
Are the people who work their crazy: You read that thing about the lions fucking above right? Because that really happened.
Policy on drinking beer at the agency: Yes, but no free soda. Sorry.
Agency Nickname: Those Guys
If you want a job there: Remember, if you’re not wearing Dockers, you’re just wearing pants. Which is better than not wearing pants at all. Bottom line: wear pants to the interview.
Fun fact: The merger with Draft confused many until you consider that it brilliantly allowed FCB to bypass both Fallon and Deutsch on the list of TOP ADVERTISING AGENCIES AS LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER LIST, published in 2007.
Absolutely True Story: I had my very first internship in advertising here. My first day was largely prophetic–my boss took me to my cubicle on the 2nd floor of the SF FCB’s 7-story office, dropped me off and abandoned me there for the entire day. Too scared to leave my desk, uncertain what the rules of lunch were, and afraid of using the internet, I did nothing for 8 hours. It was torture. I was supposed to be working on the Amazon.com account, and before he abandoned me my boss said I could go check out the site, so the only thing I did all day was browse around Amazon.com and write reviews of books, movies, and CDs. This was right when Amazon first launched selling music and movies, so there weren’t many reviews. For about a month, I had written almost every non-book review on Amazon, most under aliases. That was my 15 minutes, and it was amazing. The internship, on the other hand, sucked.
Tags: draftfcb