With a history dating to 1873, Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), later Foote, Cone & Belding Worldwide, is one of the oldest providers of advertising and marketing services. The history of Foote, Cone & Belding began with the founding of a Chicago advertising agency in 1873 by Daniel M. Lord. In 1882 Ambrose L. Thomas joined the firm which then became known as Lord & Thomas. In 1898 the firm hired Albert D. Lasker; in 1912 Lasker became the sole owner of Lord & Thomas. He would eventually become known as the “Father of Modern Advertising.” Lasker, along with John E. Kennedy and Claude Hopkins, revolutionized the advertising industry and developed numerous concepts that eventually became the established principles of advertising. Lasker also built his agency into one of the largest and most successful firms in the world.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the most important accounts at Lord & Thomas were the Pepsodent division of Palmolive, the largest-selling toothpaste on the market, and the American Tobacco Company. Lucky Strike cigarettes, the principal product of the American Tobacco Company, provided nearly one-fourth of the Lord & Thomas business.
Lasker's relationships with his clients in which he had played the role of a valued personal consultant declined during the 1930s. As a result, he retired in 1942 and turned the business over to his top three executives: Emerson Foote, the general manager in New York; Fairfax Cone of Chicago; and Don Belding, the director of the Los Angeles office. Many people in the industry did not believe that the new firm, now known as Foote, Cone and Belding (FCB), would survive. However, the company was able to retain nearly all of the old Lord & Thomas customers, of which the American Tobacco account was the most important. FCB also won a number of lucrative new accounts, including Toni home hair products, Hiram Walker whiskey, and Marshall Field and Company.
By 1946 the new firm had become a worthy heir to the Lord & Thomas reputation, but in that year the publication of The Hucksters, a fictionalized account of the less reputable side of the advertising business became a best-selling novel. Because it was written by Frederic Wakeman, a former FCB copywriter, it was widely believed that The Hucksters depicted conditions at Foote, Cone & Belding. The two main characters included an unscrupulous businessman and an advertising account executive willing to lie in order to sell his client's merchandise. It was generally believed that the businessman was George W. Hill of the American Tobacco Company and that the advertising man was Emerson Foote. The book caused a controversy from which it took three years for FCB to recover.
After Hill died in 1948, the management of American Tobacco passed to Vincent Riggio. Because of his poor personal relationship with Riggio, Emerson Foote recommended that the American Tobacco account, fully one-fourth of the FCB business, be terminated. Later convinced that his action was wrong, Foote suffered a nervous breakdown, sold his FCB stock, and resigned.
During the late 1940s, Foote, Cone & Belding secured a number of advertising contracts such as Dial Soap that would eventually become important, long-standing accounts. It was also instrumental in putting the “Hallmark Playhouse,” predecessor of the “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” on television. Throughout the 1950s, Foote, Cone & Belding gained new clients and provided new advertising services, particularly in the areas of radio and television. The firm had previously employed Bob Hope as spokesman for Pepsodent and Arthur Godfrey for its Toni and Frigidaire accounts; during the 1950s it added Red Skelton and George Gobel as spokesmen for Johnson's Wax and Dial Soap. Foote, Cone & Belding also created ad campaigns for other important clients such as Paper Mate pens, Clairol hair coloring, and Kool-Aid fruit drink.
In 1951, however, the company lost the Pepsodent account to the McCann-Erickson firm. Pepsodent later returned to FCB, but with a much weaker market share. Then, in 1955, General Motors withdrew the Frigidaire account. The loss of Frigidaire coincided with what at first seemed a major coup, the successful bid for a new Ford automobile line which followed some of the most competitive bidding ever witnessed in the advertising business. Instructed to name the new “E” (for experimental) car; FCB created the “Edsel.” Although FCB worked diligently to make the Edsel appealing to the American consumer, the unattractive automobile was not a success. Fortunately, the Edsel failure neither destroyed Foote, Cone & Belding, nor even hindered its growth, and the company acquired new accounts for Zenith, Dole, Contac, Fritos, Sunbeam, International Harvester, Sara Lee, Monsanto, Ralston-Purina, and Merrill Lynch.
During the 1960s the agency cemented its relationships with some of its major clients and successfully enhanced their advertising images. FCB's work for Kimberly-Clark, who had been a client of Lord & Thomas beginning in 1923, is notable. Two Kimberly-Clark products, Kleenex and Kotex, eventually became so well known that their names defined entire products. With FCB's research and marketing help, Kimberly-Clark emerged as one of the leaders in its field. FCB did similar work for Armour & Company, makers of Dial Soap, and the S.C. Johnson Company.
Nowhere was Foote, Cone & Belding's work more visible and prolific than on television. Fairfax Cone, who had originally considered advertising and television to be incompatible, brought the firm to the forefront of this area of the business. By 1969 FCB was responsible for $110 million worth of television advertising time, and Foote, Cone, & Belding clients were the sponsors of such shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, The Dean Martin Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and Ironside.
In 1957 Don Belding retired at the age of 60, and the agency came increasingly under the management of Fairfax Cone and the company chair, Robert Carney. At Carney's urging the company went public in 1962.
During the 1970s the agency expanded, purchasing other advertising firms, and spawning a host of subsidiaries. In 1972 it purchased the Hall & Levine agency (which it later sold in 1978), in 1973 it bought Whalstrom & Company; in 1975 Honig-Copper & Harrington, and in 1978 it merged with Carl Byoir & Associates. In the international arena, Impact/FCB was established in Belgium and France, Jessurun/Bauduin-FCB in Amersterdam, Lindsay Smithers-FCB in South Africa, and FCB/SPASM in Australia. When Fairfax Cone died in 1977, Foote, Cone, & Belding was an international agency with global resources and services. In 1981 Advertising Age placed ten FCB entries in the top 100 commercials, more than that of any other agency, and between 1982 and 1984 the agency acquired a record number of new accounts.
Despite this record, FCB experienced problems during the 1970s. The agency's net income declined, and in 1985 Norman Brown, the chief executive officer at FCB, was forced to fight off a takeover bid. With the aid of outside consultants, he implemented changes, but the financial difficulties continued. Finally, as part of its global competitive strategy, in 1994 Foote, Cone & Belding formed a holding company, True North Communications. This change allowed True North to diversify and create three subsidiaries: TN Media, TN Technologies, and TN Services. Despite this strategy the agency continued to experience problems, and TN lost its accounts with Citicorp, Mazda Motors, and DaimlerChrysler. In 2001 the Interpublic Group of Companies purchased True North and restored the Foote, Cone & Belding name.
