"Top 100 Advertising People in the 20th Century"[1]
Allen G. Rosenshine[2] (born March 14, 1939) is an American advertising executive who previously served as chairman and chief executive officer (1985-1986, 1989–2006) ofBatten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO). He was also the founding chairman (1986-1989) of theOmnicom Group, the second largest advertising agency in the world.[3][4]
Rosenshine graduated fromColumbia College in 1959.[1] He joined BBDO in 1965 as acopywriter and became the BBDO New York creative director in 1975. In 1980, he became president of the New York agency and in 1985, he was named chief executive officer of BBDO Worldwide.[5] In April 1986, He spearheaded what is dubbed as advertising's "Big Bang,"[6] a merger that created theOmnicom Group, the world's largest three-network conglomerate consisting of BBDO (Ranked No. 6) and a mergedNeedham Harper Worldwide (No. 16) andDoyle Dane Bernbach (No. 12).[7][8] He served as chairman of the Omnicom Group for three years before famously "firing himself" and returning to BBDO as chairman and chief executive officer.[9]
During his tenure as chairman of Omnicom, its billings grew nearly 30 percent from $4.9 billion to $6.3 billion by early 1989.[5] Under his management, BBDO's billings increased from $3 billion to more than $24 billion.[10] Under his leadership, BBDO was selected "Agency of the Year" in 1982, 1984, 1993, 2000, 2001 and 2005 by various industry publications such asAd Age andAdweek.[5][11][12][13][14]
