Griffin-Bacal Advertising

Griffin-Bacal Advertising

Industry	Advertising
Founded	1978; 47 years ago (1978)
Founder	Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal
Defunct	2001; 24 years ago (2001)
Fate	Merged by Omnicom with Moss/Dragoti
Headquarters	New York City
Key people	Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal
Parent	DDB Worldwide (1994–2001)
Subsidiaries	Sunbow Productions (1980–1998)

Griffin-Bacal Advertising was a global advertising agency founded in 1978 by Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal. One of their first clients was Hasbro, which employed their services for coming up with advertising campaigns for several of their toy lines such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Transformers. At the company's peak, it was the 67th largest advertising company in the world.^[1][2][3]

In 1994, Griffin-Bacal was bought by DDB Worldwide, but Hasbro ceased employing their services in 2000.^[4] This resulted in Griffin-Bacal laying off two thirds of staff.^[5] Following these events and the retirement of Tom Griffin and Joe Bacal, DDB's parent company Omnicom decided to merge Griffin-Bacal with Moss/Dragoti in 2001.^[6]

Griffin-Bacal's co-founder Joe Bacal died in Manhattan, New York City, on October 24, 2019.^[7]

References

1. Elliott, Stuart (1991-08-22). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Griffin Bacal Is Diversifying With New Marketing Unit". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
2. Dougherty, Philip H. (1984-11-16). "ADVERTISING; Griffin Bacal Receives More From Hasbro". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
3. Elliott, Stuart (1994-06-13). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Once again, the strong become stronger as an industry behemoth acquires a mid-sized rival". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
4. "After Hasbro, What Now For Griffin Bacal?". AD Week. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
5. "Griffin Bacal cuts two thirds of staff". Brand Republic. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
6. "Onmicom Consolidates Two Shops". All Business. Retrieved 2010-08-25.
7. "JULES BACAL Obituary (2019) - New York, NY - New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-08-15.