May 21, 2003|By June Arney | June Arney,SUN STAFF
Doner, the advertising agency that dubbed Maryland "the Land of Pleasant Living" in a memorable National Bohemian beer commercial and a local institution since 1955, announced yesterday that it will close its doors in Baltimore to consolidate operations in Detroit.
Executives at the largest independently owned ad agency in North America, with more than $1.6 billion in billings, told its 74 Baltimore employees yesterday that the Pratt Street office will close by Aug. 31. Workers were invited to relocate to Michigan.
"It's very depressing," said Alan Kalter, Doner's chairman and chief executive, who was in Baltimore yesterday. "Our business model has to change in order to grow."
Kalter said the agency once thrived with offices that functioned almost as separate agencies. But in recent years, as management was centered in Detroit, the distance between offices became an obstacle.
"In the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s, regionalism was ... a great growth strategy," Kalter said. "Now, we compete with the multinationals. The geography got in the way of the fast communication of ideas."
The closing marks the end of a gradual reduction in the power and size of the Baltimore office. At its peak, Doner's Baltimore shop employed 190 people. It was elevated to co-headquarters status with Detroit in 1968.
More recently, the Baltimore office lost its co-headquarters designation as the focus of the company's business, and jobs, gradually shifted to Detroit.
"I think the book closes on some great advertising history when Doner closes its doors," said Roger L. Gray, president and CEO of GKV Advertising and one of the many Baltimore advertising leaders who got their start at the agency. "Doner was an incubator for a lot of great talent."
With clever advertising for Colt 45 malt liquor, a stork campaign for Vlasic pickles, the tagline, "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?" and other memorable pitches, Doner lured promising talent to Baltimore for years.
"I affectionately call it the University of Advertising at Baltimore," said Herb Fried, former chairman and chief executive and now a consultant for Doner. "There are tremendous numbers of people in advertising in Baltimore who got their training at Doner and were ultimately very successful. I'm proud, and I'm sad."
Fried, who opened the first Doner office at Fayette and Howard streets as its general manager, said he was part of the decision to close the Baltimore office. Although he is retired, he retains an office at Doner's Baltimore office across from the World Trade Center.
"Certainly, it's sad," he said. "I've been here through the life of Doner in Baltimore."
Yesterday, local advertising executives shared a sense of sadness as word of the long-rumored closure spread. Doner, they said, had played a critical role in shaping Baltimore's advertising landscape.
"The management here is all ex-Doner," said Allan Charles, president and chief creative officer at Trahan Burden & Charles Inc. "We cut our teeth there. I'm sad. They were a great player in the advertising industry."
Charles, who spent five years at Doner as a writer/producer when he was in his 20s, remembers working on a Colt 45 campaign featuring Redd Foxx.
"It was the most fun I ever had. You couldn't wait to get in to work. ... I think the advertising agency community is going to be greatly diminished by their departure," he said.
"I think people have seen it coming for five or so years," said Andy Malis, president of MGH Advertising Inc., who worked at Doner from 1993 to 1995 as vice president and account supervisor. "It was the creative powerhouse in town. There was Doner and everyone else."
The only bright side to Doner's exit, Malis said, is that other agencies will reap talented employees who are unwilling to move to Detroit.
"I am sure my phone will be ringing and e-mails coming my way," Malis said.
Steve Eisner, president and chief executive of Eisner Communications Inc., said Doner's presence "always kept us on our toes."
Company founder Wilfred Broderick Doner had just been laid off from an ad agency in Detroit when he formed his own two-man shop in 1937, which became W.B. Doner & Co. He and a partner quickly built a modest regional business creating ads for burlesque houses, gas stations and beer. In 1955, Baltimore's fabled National Brewing Co. helped to vault the small agency to a new level. National owner Jerold C. Hoffberger bought a Detroit brewery that advertised with Doner and promised the entire account to the agency - if Doner would open a Baltimore office.
According to company legend it was Brod Doner who inspired National Brewing's most celebrated local campaign while flying over the Chesapeake Bay and reportedly saying: "Boy, this is the land of pleasant living."
The company claims other memorable national advertising campaigns, including accounts for FTD florists and a holiday campaign for Coca-Cola. In the early 1970s it developed an advertisement that questioned how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
But after Fried sold his stake in the company in 1998, the headquarters was consolidated in Detroit. Baltimore was focused exclusively on direct marketing and staff was cut. Three years ago, the management of the direct-marketing operation was shifted to Detroit.
"You can't be part of a company that downsizes from 190 people to 70 and not feel like someday the other shoe is going to drop," Kalter said. "But still, when it happens, it's an incredible shock."
Sun staff writer Robert Little contributed to this article.
