Geers Gross was a British advertising agency founded in 1964 by Americans Bob Geers and Bob Gross after working together in the London office of Benton & Bowles.[1] Gross was a copywriter from New York and Geers was an art director from Missouri.[3]

Geers Gross
IndustryAdvertising agency
FoundedSeptember 30, 1964 (1964-09-30)[1]
Founders
Headquarters,
Area served
United Kingdom
United States

Geers Gross devised several cartoon characters for UK television advertisements including "Fred the Flourgrader" for Homepride flour,[4][5] the Country Life buttermen[6] and the anthropomorphic credit card "Access your flexible friend".[7]

In 1977, the agency opened an office in New York.[8] This ran until 1987, when the US operations of Geers Gross were bought by Interpublic and merged into McCann-Erickson.[9]

Geers left the agency in 1974 to devote time to painting and travel, but returned in 1986 as creative head.

Following the death of Bob Gross in 1991, the agency was acquired by and merged into Publicis.[10]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d "Publicis London (UK)". AdBrands.net. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Geers Gross Advertising Limited". DueDil. DueDil Ltd. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  3. ^ Dougherty, Philip H. (5 February 1981). "Yankee comes home". New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Homepride collectables confirm cult status of Fred. (News) (Kerry Foods Ltd.)". Incentive Today. 1 Oct 2004. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
  5. ^ Latham, Valerie (31 Oct 1991). "Homepride's Fred rises to the occasion as Publis takes the reins". Marketing. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
  6. ^ "Virtual Group wins brief to relaunch Country Life butter". Marketing Week. Centaur Media plc. 12 June 1997. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  7. ^ "The Access Credit Card: Flexible Friend TV Adverts". www.accesscreditcard.info. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  8. ^ Dougherty, Philip H. (13 November 1986). "Advertising; A Founder Is Back At Geers Gross". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  9. ^ Dougherty, Philip H. (3 November 1987). "Interpublic To Buy Gross". New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  10. ^ "The Networkers: Rick Bendel". Campaign. Haymarket Media Group Ltd. 3 September 2004. Retrieved 23 October 2019.