Adman Pat McGrath Dies at 79
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Patrick McGrath, founder and CEO of ad agency Jordan Case & McGrath, passed away Saturday at age 79 from complications related to prostate cancer.
Before founding his agency that that served such blue-chip marketers as Procter & Gamble and Nestle, Mr. McGrath worked at Benton & Bowles. In 1969, he branched off to join legendary Volkswagen art director Helmut Krone and Gene Case at Case & Krone. The agency later became Jordan Case McGrath. A suite at the Plaza Hotel functioned as the agency’s office in its early years, when it represented accounts such as beverage flavor Angostura bitters; politician Bob Wagner, who was New York City’s mayor from 1954 to 1965; and Francis Sargent, governor of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1975.
Mr. McGrath was known to be outspoken. A 1970 Ad Age editorial was dedicated entirely to criticizing his dismissive comments on the brand management system. He told Ad Age in 1972 that a powerful visual idea was missing in 75% of ads, and the cigarette category was a disaster because ads for Newport, L&M and Winston completely lacked visual ideas. “It would make no difference what name you use in the ad,” he said. “They’re a shocking waste of large sums of money.”
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