FCB Chicago history

Hopkins penned the most influential book ever written about advertising— Scientific Advertising (1923).

Advertising Age, the best advertising trade magazine in the world, was started in the Windy City in 1930.

So in 1934 Foote opened up his own firm, Yeomans & Foote, only to find the competition within the industry too intense for the small company to survive.

Burnett started the agency in 1935, mortgaging his house in the midst of the Great Depression.

Cone left Getchell and returned to Lord & Thomas in 1936 as manager of the agency's San Francisco office.

Foote accepted the job, but when Getchell died in 1938 the firm was dissolved and Foote was once again seeking employment.

He remained on the West Coast until 1941 when Albert Lasker asked him to move to New York to help out with a new campaign for Lucky Strikes.

A January 4, 1943, Time magazine article commented that, "To the advertising world it was almost as if Tiffany had announced that from now on it would be known as Jones, Smith & Johnson."

By 1946 the new firm of Foote, Cone & Belding had answered its critics and had proven itself the suitable heir of Lord & Thomas.

In 1948 George Hill died.

In 1951 the company lost the Pepsodent account to McCann-Erickson, leaving FCB without the two accounts (Pepsodent and American Tobacco) that had been the bedrock of Lord & Thomas' business.

1957: Belding retires from the agency.

In the winter of 1959 the last Edsel crossed the assembly line.

By 1969 the company was responsible for $110 million worth of advertising time on television.

In June 1977 Fairfax Cone died.

By 1980, advertising was among the largest industries in Chicago, with 8,000 employees in over 500 agencies and $6 billion in revenues.

The year 1984 was especially lucrative because Levi Strauss and a number of other major clients substantially increased their advertising budgets to meet the demand created by the Los Angeles Olympics.

The fiscal strain of this expansion was felt in 1985 and made even worse by the fact that many clients, preparing for a more sluggish economy and a drop in sales following the Olympics, reduced expenditures for advertisements.

In 1989 the agency claimed $3.2 billion annual billings and maintained offices in over 40 countries.

The Interpublic Group of Companies came to its rescue and completed its $2.1 billion acquisition in 2001.

FCB named to Ad Age’s 2019 A-List and FCB/SIX earns Data/Analytics Agency of the Year.