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November 03, 2009

An Era Ends as Cliff Freeman & Partners closes

If you're a Gen Xer ad creative, then, like me, as you read the news yesterday about the passing of heralded agency Cliff Freeman & Partners, you most likely felt a terrible pang of loss over this agency and the work it created.

Because, you see, when Cliff & Co were in their heyday, I was in my truly formative years in our business. I was soaking advertising up and was striving to learn everything I could about who was doing what, where they were and how they were doing the kind of work I could only dream of.

When I first learned about Cliff & Co, I had no idea how they could come up with the stuff they came up with and really had no idea how they got it out of the agency, let alone past the client. Then I learned a little something about the man who had his name on the door.

It started in the 80s with Wendys (Cliff worked on this before starting the agency) and led to the amazing run with Pizza Pizza, and even kept going into the late 90s with lots of dot com work. Back when we started at SHS, JJ and I watched the Outpost.com stuff over and over again. As Paul Diamond would say, "Fuh-nee."

Now I know that lots of stories out there are citing the fact that Cliff & Co struggled to reinvent themselves out of a great TV agency into a great -- digital or whatever we need to call ourselves today -- agency. I get that. But the power of the brands and the work that they created back is undeniable.

All that's left to say is "Thank you. Thank you."

Holy crap, I totally forgot about this one!

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Comments

Does anybody know who now owns copyright on Cliff Freeman and Partners adverts - and how to contact them?

Thanks.

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