THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; New Agency Acquires Big Software Account
Schell/Mullaney Advertising, a tiny new agency founded in part by alumni of the J. Walter Thompson Company, has lured the account of the big computer software company Computer Associates International away from Thompson.
Before Jan. 1, Brian Mullaney was the creative director in charge of the Computer Associates account at Thompson. He left to form his new agency with Michael Schell, an art director at Hill, Holliday in New York, and Frances McDonald, a Thompson account executive.
Mr. Mullaney said he did not intend to take the Computer Associates account with him. The switch, he said, arose when he ran into Charles B. Wang, the chairman of Computer Associates, in St. Martin several days after Schell/Mullaney was formed.
In a memorandum to the agency’s staff, James R. Heekin, executive vice president and general manager of Thompson, New York, called the loss of the account, which reportedly billed $7 million, ”a most regrettable situation and one which I can assure you will never happen again.”
But Mr. Mullaney, who said the account would bill between $12 million and $15 million, called the acquisition ”one of those fairy tale stories.”