T h e 4 0 ' s / T h e 5 0 ' s Corbett in 1955 when Frank J. Corbett, after working for manufacturers in the East and in California, moved to the agency side of the business. Consumer agencies attracted to the pharmaceutical business in the mid-1950's were Benton & Bowles, Charles W Hoyt (Merck), Fuller & Smith & Ross (Lilly), Doremus-Eshleman (SKF), Ruthruff & Ryan (Lederle), and BBDO (Merck). A shortage of knowledgeable copywriters, art directors, research and account personnel allowed for a concentration of industry billing at the older agencies, particularly McAdams and Frohlich. These two agencies, never truly rivals based on the friendship of Dr. Sackler and Frohlich, were in a dominant position. With "ethical drug" expertise in such demand and with relationships with their clients so strong, each was able to handle competitive products with no objection from the manufacturers. For example, Frohlich began working for two directly competitive antihistamines in 1949—Chlor-Trimeton (Schering) and Benadryl (Parke-Davis)—and successfully maintained this arrangement into the 1960's. N ew A gencies Emerge As product lines grew and the sales stakes mounted, the business being generated by the burgeoning pharmaceutical industry overran the older and newly founded agencies. The inevitable proliferation of additional agencies began drawing on the talent pool that had been maturing at companies and at the older agencies. In New York, a dramatic event set an example for others to follow—the formation of Burdick, Becker and Fitzsimmons in 1957. Becker had been an ad manager at Squibb; Fitzsimmons came from the Chicago Rx scene; but the significant defection from the older agencies was Dean Burdick who had been one of the top executives at McAdams. Although the three-way partnership lasted only a year, with Fitzsimmons leaving to set up his own agency, a pattern had been established. The "ground floor" agencies would become training grounds for new agencies which, in turn, would train a new crop of competitors in what had become a sizable, well-funded advertising specialty. John Kallir left McAdams and with Warren Ross and Jerry Philips, who had also heen at McAdams, founded Kallir Philips Ross in 1962, the same year Frank Corbett 2 9
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