Barrie D'Rozario Murphy Mocks Bigger Agencies in Ad

Says It's in Spirit of Fun, Celebration -- and Jealousy

Posted by Rupal Parekh on 09.24.09 @ 11:00 AM

Barrie D'Rozario Murphy was elated to pick up a 2009 4A's O'Toole Award for the Best Small Agency earlier this week at a ceremony on the first night of Advertising Week in New York. But while the bubbly flowed, the Minneapolis-based shop took a moment to douse a lil' lighthearted fuel on the fiery David vs. Goliath agency debate.

Barrie D'Rozario took out a full-page ad in the New York Times yesterday that congratulates its fellow O'Toole winners, and issues them a warning, too: "Congratulations BBDO and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. We're coming after you."

The tongue-in-cheek ad, penned by agency co-founder Stuart D'Rozario, goes on to jab its larger competitors. "Honestly, we'd rather be a medium or large agency," it says. "They get to charge three times what we do for the same work ... and best of all, their agency heads get to just show up at pitches, make fancy presentations and then disappear."

Ouch.

But before all the folks over at BBDO and BBH get their feathers all ruffled, (the ever-so-aptly named) co-founder David Murphy, ho incidentally was a big agency exec over at Saatchi & Saatchi not so long ago, wants everyone to know that the ad was "all in good fun." It's just about his shop being "the new kid that comes along and pokes at the established leaders," Mr. Murphy said.

"We're simply jealous," he said. "As Bob [Barrie], Stuart and I tell people, we can't wait til we're big and fat too!"