New York - Saatchi & Saatchi New York has announced that Gerry Graf has joined the New York office as Chief Creative Officer. He will partner with Mary Baglivo, CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi New York; CEO & Chair Americas. Baglivo and Graf report to Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts and Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Bob Isherwood. Graf was previously Executive Creative Director at TBWAChiatDay New York and is currently the most awarded Creative Director in the world (according to rankings published by Creativity Magazine - August 2007).
"Gerry Graf started his advertising career at Saatchi & Saatchi New York and wrote his first ad for Tide," notes Roberts. "It's a real pleasure to welcome him back."
Isherwood adds: "I believe Gerry Graf is one of the few creative directors in the world with the courage to take on what we have in New York (world's #1 creatively at Cannes and Clios) and take it to a new level - particularly in film and digital."
Graf comments: "Sounds like fun!"
About Gerry Graf
Graf is one of the most entertaining and effective writers in the advertising business today. His dead on wit and ability to find the underlying humor in any brief makes him one of the most tenacious and passionate advocates of break through work in the industry. He can take anything and create great work.
Most recently Executive Creative Director at TBWA/Chiat Day, his work for Sprint and MARS (Skittles, Starburst, Combos and Snickers) garnered recognition in every prestigious award show on the planet. In August 2007, he was named the world's most awarded creative director by Creativity Magazine.
Graf has always been a writer at heart writing comedy sketches in college but started his career as a stockbroker after earning a degree from the University of Notre Dame. Once he realized that the ad industry offered him the opportunity to use his writing skills, he pursued a junior internship program at Saatchi and Saatchi before landing his first job at Wells Rich Greene.
In 1994 he joined BBDO where his ability to create effective advertising began to flourish and he helped create Snickers "Not going anywhere for a while?" campaign.
Between jobs at BBDO, Graf joined Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco. At GS&P his clients included Nike, Budweiser, and Isuzu. He also created the "It's time for E*Trade" campaign. One spot, "Monkey", was named one of the top five Super Bowl commercials of all time by USA Today.
Following GS&P, Graf returned to BBDO New York as executive creative director at BBDO. His accounts included FedEx, Guinness, Red Stripe beer, and Harp Lager. He has also created campaigns for Doritos and was part of the team that created the "New York Miracle" campaign for Mayor Giuliani following the 9/11 tragedy.
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