Two advertising legends have died. David Kennedy, co-founder of the world’s largest independent advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, died on October 10 at the age of 82. John McGarry, co-founder of McGarryBowen, died on October 8 at the age of 81.
“We began as a ship of fools and I believe that’s why we’ve succeeded. We were naive, we were stupid, but sometimes stupid can work for you. When you start believing your own historic wisdom you’re not stupid anymore, you’re dead.” [Dan Wieden, It’s Nice That, 2015]
Wieden+Kennedy paid tribute to its founding partner last week by renaming itself Kennedy+Wieden online and on its social channels with the statement, Your legacy and spirit will live on forever in our hearts and our work.
Kennedy’s (above right) first job was far from the world of advertising and creativity. He was a welder’s assistant in the Oklahoma and Colorado oil fields.
At university, he began studying geology but moved across to fine art and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1962. He then moved to Chicago, where he worked as an art director for Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett, Needham and Benton & Bowles. After moving to Portland, Oregon, and taking up a job at McCann-Erickson, he met Dan Wieden while working on the Nike account.
In 1982, the pair founded Wieden+Kennedy, taking Nike with them. The agency was housed in a basement room without a telephone. All their calls were made through a nearby payphone. Nike was not a global mega-company but it supported the agency. Nike and Wieden+ Kennedy grew together, the agency becoming famous for its creativity.
Kennedy retired formally in 1993 but returned often to its Portland offices to produce work for the American Indian College Fund, a pro bono client. His final work for the organisation debuted this week.
Kennedy returned to art and welding during his retirement, working in sculpture with bronze, steel and copper. An exhibition of his work was shown in the lobby of W+K’s Pearl District office in 2018.
John McGarry’s (above left) death followed a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
He began his advertising career at Young and Rubicam in the mid-1960s and moved quickly up the ranks to become its president. After the agency went public in 1998, McGarry decided to start up his own firm. He pulled together, Y&R staffers Stewart Owen and Stan Stefanski, and freelance creative director, Gordon Bowen, to co-found mcgarrybowen in 2002 with Verizon as its launch client.
The agency was acquired by Dentsu in 2008. In 2012, McGarry moved from chairman and chief executive officer into an executive advisor function for Dentsu Group. He held this position for about two years before stepping down. In May 2020, Dentsu Aegis Network merged mcgarrybowen with Dentsu agencies outside Japan to form dentsumcgarrybowen.
