Goodby, Silverstein, & Partners (GS&P) is a major California-based advertising agency. The company has created advertisements for some of America’s largest companies including Hewlett-Packard Company, Nike, EBay,  and Budweiser. ^{[1] [2]} Most notably, the agency devised the widely known “Got Milk” advertising slogan for the California Milk Processor Board. ^[3]

In addition to its corporate work, GS&P has been very active in support of liberal politicians. GS&P created advertisements in support of the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. ^{[4] [5]} The agency also created a number of controversial advertisements attacking Republican national candidates John McCain,^[6]  Sarah Palin,^[7] and Mitt Romney.^[8] The company and its founders vociferously opposed the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump stating their belief that he “should not and cannot” be president of the United States.^[9]

The agency has also used its resources to push a number of liberal advocacy campaigns. GS&P partnered with Rock the Vote to create a series of advertisements mocking conservative environmental policies,^[10] national defense proposals,^[11] and social values. ^[12] The agency has also run advertisement campaigns in support of liberal environmental theories.^[13]

Through the GS&P “Do Good” corporate platform, the company runs a number of liberal advocacy campaigns in partnership with large corporations. Included among these campaigns is the “Unacceptable Acceptance Letters” campaign, which suggested high school students might be raped while at college,^[14] an advocacy campaign for the gun control organization Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,^[15] and a campaign for Stacy’s pita chips supporting the Women’s March.^[16]

History

In the early 1980s, Jeffrey Goodby, Rich Silverstein, and Andy Berlin, three colleagues then working at Ogilvy and Mather, collaborated on a freelance project for Amazin’ Software, which they recommended be renamed Electronic Arts (EA).^[17]

In 1983, the trio founded their own advertising agency, Goodby, Berlin, and Silverstein in San Francisco with Electronic Arts as their initial client. ^{[18] [19]} Other early clients included the Oakland Invaders U.S. Football League team and the San Francisco Examiner.^[20] Over the years, the agency continued to expand, working with clients such as Royal Viking Cruise Line, Sega, and Isuzu Motors.^[21]

In 1992 Andy Berlin left the firm to head his own agency, Berlin Cameron.^[22] Goodby, Berlin, and Silverstein was renamed Goodby, Silverstein, and Partners (GS&P). ^[23] Also in 1992, the Omnicom Group purchased full ownership of GS&P, keeping Goodby and Silverstein in charge of the company. ^[24]

In 1994, GS&P developed the widely recognizable “Got Milk?” campaign for the California Milk Processor Board. ^[25] Other major clients have included Hewlett-Packard Company, ETrade, Porsche, Nike, EBay, Sirius Satellite Radio, and TiVo,^[26]  Budweiser, Unilever, Cracker Jack, Intel, The Wall Street Journal, and the Winter Olympics.^[27]

Goodby, Silverstein was named Advertising Age’s “U.S. Agency of the Year” twice, in 1989 and 2000. ^[28] Advertisement Week named GS&P its “agency of the decade” in the 2000s. In 2010 the CLIO advertising awards show gave both Goodby and Silverstein lifetime achievement awards.^[29]

In 1993 GS&P had less than 100 employees and hadearned less than $100 million in billings. However, after the agency devised the “Got Milk” campaign the company grew rapidly and by 1997 the companies billings were up to $400 million.^[30] As of 2015, the agency hadover 600 employees and approximately $2 billion in billings.^[31]

Decline and Rebound

In 2012, GS&P announced that it would fire up to 200 of the firm’s employees after the agency lost two large clients, Hewlett-Packard and Spring.^[32] Then in 2015, GS&P close its New York office and terminated the employees working in it.^[33]

However, in 2017, GS&P brought in $1 billion in new business and $87 million in new revenues from a number of high-profile new clients including Liberty Mutual and Brand Pepsi. As a result, Advertisement Age labeled the firm “2018 Comeback Agency of the Year.” ^[34]

Political Advertising

GS&P has produced a number of political advertisements supporting Democratic candidates and attacking Republicans.

2008 General Election

In 2007, GS&P produced a series of posters that criticized the events that occurred and the individuals involved during President George W. Bush’s tenure. In detailing these posters, Rich Silverstein proclaimed, “Haven’t we had enough? Democrats ‘08.”^[35]

In 2008, GS&P produced an advertisement for Progressive Future supporting Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.^[36] The agency’s staff also created a series of web advertisements attacking Republican presidential candidate John McCain. ^{[37] [38]} Other advertisements in the series attacked Karl Rove and implied that they wanted to “gag” Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. ^{[39] [40]}

2012 General Election

In 2012, GS&P produced a highly controversial advertisement attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The used children singing a song to blame their parents for creating a nightmarish future by voting for Romney.^[41][42]

2016 General Election

In 2016, Hillary Clinton hired GS&P to create some of her campaign materials.^[43] Conversely, the agency was “all in against” Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and created a number of advertisements attacking him.^[44] Goodby and Silverstein created another advertisement that criticized candidate Donald Trump’s antics noting that the president is not an entertainer or a clown. In their explanation of that advertisement Jeffrey Goodby said, that Donald Trump “should not and cannot” be president of the United States.^[45] GS&P also created a “personalized anti-Trump advertisement generator” which encouraged people to refuse to vote for Trump and to make their sentiments known. ^[46]

Advocacy Advertising

GS&P has a long history of creating liberal advocacy advertisements. In 1987, the agency created a provocative poster for Amnesty International opposing the death penalty.^[47]

From 2014 through 2016, GS&P partnered with liberal youth voter engagement group Rock the Vote for the #CareLikeCrazy campaign, which used advertisements detailing extremist far-right statements mixed with other extremist negative sentiments to urge young people towards voting.^[48] In one advertisement a man listed off a combination of both misogynistic views and negative sentiments towards liberal feminist viewpoints equating the two sentiments as a means to inspire feminists to vote.^[49] Other GS&P-produced #CareLikeCrazy advertisements mocked people opposed to environmentalism,^[50] supporters of the military, opponents of taxpayer-funded college tuition,^[51] and voters who support protections against voter fraud.^[52]

In 2017, GS&P in partnership with professional skier Julian Carr, ran the #AirMyGlobalWarmingAdvertisement Kickstarter campaign, which sought $5.5 million in crowd-funding so that the company could air an advertisement during the 2018 Super Bowl touting environmentalist climate change policies and opposing domestic energy production. The advertisement teaser also implicitly criticized President Trump’s decision to opt out of the Paris Accords environmentalist treaty.^[53] The campaign failed in its supposed objective, raising a mere $53,000 in pledges—two orders of magnitude fewer than it needed.^[54]

In 2018 GS&P’s chief creative officer, Margaret Johnson, was chosen to lead the review and optimization of the Advertisement Council’s 40 national public service campaigns.^[55]

Through its Do Good platform, GS&P has created a number of social advocacy campaigns that generate social media interest. Many of these campaigns have been run in coordination with the Advertisement Council. GS&P created the “Unacceptable Acceptance Letters” campaign, which welcomed high school students to college with letters telling that the odds suggested they might be raped while at school.^[56] Johnson was also involved in the controversial—a Variety writer called it “a loaded piece of agitprop”^[57]—campus sexual assault film The Hunting Ground,^[58] which was distributed by a company controlled by alleged sexual predator Harvey Weinstein.^[59]

In 2016, GS&P also created a “provocative film” where a high-end supermarket increased the price of every item by 500% to sensationalize life on low wages.^[60] In 2017, the agency created television, radio, print, and digital advertisements seeking for the #IAmWitness campaign to prevent cyber bullying.^[61]  The agency also created the Doritos Rainbows campaign, which supported the It Gets Better Project.^[62]

Other GS&P Do Good campaigns include a gun control advocacy campaign for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,^[63] a campaign for Stacy’s pita chips supporting the National Women’s March.^[64]