August 13, 2001
SAN FRANCISCO— Following in the footsteps of former Goodby, Silverstein & Partners staffers Tracy Wong, Eric Joiner, Bob Kerstetter and Mike Shine, Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby announced last week that after “much soul-searching” they too would be leaving the San Francisco-based Omnicom division to open their own creative boutique. Said Silverstein, “after awhile, you just have to do your own thing. This place has been great and all, but Jeff and I really think the time is right to take control of our own destimy, open our own place and see what we can do away from the safety net of a big agency.”

According to the duo, the move had been under consideration for some time. “At first, it was almost too scary to think about,” said Goodby. “But one day after a particularly idiotic client meeting we just sort of said, ‘Why not?’ We may have been drunk, I don’t know. In any case, it's worked out pretty well for a lot of our former co-workers, and the timing seems right, so we're going for it.”

For the time being, the fledgling shop, tentatively called “Silverstein & Goodby,” will be operating out of Goodby’s garage “until my wife needs her parking space back and throws us out,” he joked.

Though the agency has no official clients as of yet, Silverstein is optimistic with regard to future business opportunities. “There’s this cigar shop down the street we’ve been talking to a little bit,” he revealed, “and Jeff has a cousin down at the L.A. Times, and we think we might be able to get in on one of their theater ad assignments, which would be cool. We’ll just have to see.”

While most industry observers believe this latest GS&P spin-off agency has a “better chance than most” at succeeding, not all pundits are as optimistic. “I don’t give them a fucking snowball’s chance in hell” said veteran NY adman Andy Berlin, who several years ago left the relatively comfortable confines of Fallon/NY to similarly strike out on his own. “What do they know about bringing in new business? Jesus, it'll be like the blind leading the blind out there. They’ll be begging for their old jobs back in a month, if not sooner. Trust me on this one.”
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