Frankel’s Wake Begets a Party
Arc Worldwide officially retired “Frankel” on April 2, erasing the last vestiges of an agency that lived by a work hard, play hard philosophy and set the standard for long-term client relationships. (McDonald’s: 34 years and counting. United: 20 years so far.)
Publicis Groupe bought Frankel in 2000, then folded it into Arc Worldwide, along with a handful of other shops. They kept “Frankel” on the doors of some offices like a subtitle, but now, after 45 years, its equity is gone. Bud Frankel doesn’t walk the halls at Arc so much, either.
So Arc formally bid “Frankel” adieu with a mock obituary in an internal memo, and some staffers staged a “wake” with drinks at a Chicago watering hole.
It’s not an unusual story. Lots of venerable names have disappeared, and not just among agencies — just ask the Marshall Field’s die-hards still picketing the “Macy’s” store on State Street. What is unusual is the loyalty that Frankelites feel towards the old shop. Even the ones that only worked there for a year. Even the ones that got fired.
The “wake” memo got forwarded to Tom Charvat, a retired Frankelite who runs an alumni site on Yahoo, called F-Troup. “The F is for Frankel; ‘troup’ means a bunch of clowns and artisans who travel the countryside,” he says. The private site has 328 members, including alums who are now senior execs at Visa, Anheuser-Busch and Kraft. Charvat protects their privacy. He keeps the site secure by interviewing new members: They have to tell him something about Frankel that outsiders wouldn’t know. “I used to ask trivia questions about Bud — what kind of pants he wore to the Christmas party (plaid), what kind of cookies he likes (Oreos) — but as time went on, more alumni didn’t really know Bud,” Charvat says.
He posted the obit memo and the comments flooded in. One said, “We don’t need no stinkin’ wake. We’re all still here.”
The “Frankel, Forever” party is on Friday, June 22 in Chicago. The venue isn’t set, but one guest is certain: Bud will be there, says Marilyn Barrett, the former Frankel copywriter who’s planning the bash.
Now, Frankel had a reputation for parties. Its holiday fete had two traditions: The Frankel Gong Show, where staffers performed (in costume) and senior execs got to gong the bad ones off the stage. (You knew American Idol came from somewhere, didn’t you?) The other tradition: Induction of the Newbies. Anyone who’d been there less than a year donned a silly hat and marched up to the front of the room to be welcomed by the old hands.
The culture thrived because Frankel was privately held, says Peter Gillis, another Frankelite. He writes on F-Troup: “There was a pervasive sense that we weren’t working for a set of directors, shareholders, or some parent holding company — we were working for Bud.
“Bud was not an hypnotic, charismatic figure … he was a smart, practical man who treated people with simple respect. …He provided a reason to belong to a community.”
And when a community outlasts its home base? That’s worth toasting.
Cheers, Frankelites.
