Peter Stringham, the man who brought two markedly different cultures together to form Canada’s largest agency, has left BBDO Canada to become chairman and ceo of Y&R North America.
He has been replaced by Mike Fysh who has been with bbdo since 1990, most recently as president of BBDO Retail.
Other management changes include the promotion of Stephen Creet and Michael McLaughlin to co-chief creative officers of BBDO Canada.
Stringham is now based in New York and will be responsible for y&r offices in New York, Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco as well as the Canadian operation.
He says while y&r has had a great new-business record over the last few years, it could use help building consistency in the creative product.
‘Their [y&r’s] weakness, historically, is undoubtedly the creative product. They have made real strides to improve itÉto the point they had some wins at Cannes the last couple of years – but it’s not really consistent.
‘I believe that’s a big part of the reason they’re bringing me in, to move the product up to the point where it’s competitive with anybody.’
Stringham was president of Baker Lovick/BBDO when it merged with McKim Advertising in 1992; he was then named president and ceo of the new agency, McKim Baker Lovick/ BBDO (now BBDO Canada).
