Clipland

Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn is an advertising agency formed by merging of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten Co. in 1928.

BBDO is one of three global networks (BBDO, TBWA, DDB) of agencies in Omnicom's portfolio, with 345 offices in 76 countries. BBDO Worldwide has been named the "Most Awarded Agency Network in the World" by The Gunn Report 2003. BBDO was named Agency of the Year in 2005 by ADWEEK, Advertising Age, and Campaign Magazine.

Founders

• George Batten
• Bruce Fairchild Barton
• Roy Sarles Durstine
• Alex Faickney Osborn

During the years of Alex Osborn's association with the BBDO, it became one of the leading advertising agencies in the United States, with a total of 52 offices throughout the world. Its annual billing increased from $1 million in 1919 to $20 million in 1939, when Osborn became executive vice-president, and to $207 million in 1957.

Trivia Fred Allen quipped on his radio show that the agency's name "sounded like a steamer trunk falling down a flight of stairs."

Allen's quote has also been attributed to Jack Benny. In a 1947 radio episode of The Jack Benny Show, Benny spends the entire show calling the Los Angeles offices of BBD&O, who handle advertising for his show -- with the result that "Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn" is repeated over and over throughout the episode by the female BBD&O switchboard operator who answers Benny's calls.

In the 1933 comedy Hard to Handle, James Cagney says, "Well, so long, boys. I'm lunching with Bruce Barton of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn."

In the 1961 Doris Day-Rock Hudson film Lover Come Back, the pair play rival advertising executives; Hudson's character works at 383 Madison Avenue—BBDO's address—and is shown entering the building's lobby.

A character in the 1967 film How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is named Benjamin Burton Daniel Ovington, and referred to by his initials, "BBDO." Naturally he becomes the head of advertising.

In the 1998 film The Truman Show, Jim Carey works at a company named Omnicom (BBDO's parent company).

In the 2000 Helen Hunt-Mel Gibson film What Women Want, Hunt's character leaves top agency "BBD&O" to work at fictional Sloane/Curtis.

Links <a href='http://www.bbdo.com/'>official BBDO website</a>