Jerry Gibbons, San Francisco Advertising Exec

Jerry GibbonsJerry Gibbons, who entered San Francisco’s advertising world as a  mailroom boy, rose to head several of the city’s most powerful ad agencies and led the western US office of the American Association of Advertising  Agencies, died of heart failure Jan. 7 at age 82.

The polar opposite of the slick, silver tongued adman, Mr. Gibbons was the low-key marketing strategist who would take the copywriter’s ideas, the art director’s images, the cinematographer’s film or video and sell them to the client as a campaign, then manage the account.

In recent years, he headed Gibbons ADvice that counseled owners of advertising agencies nationwide on how to be more efficient, profitable and successful in winning new accounts. It was an advisory expertise he developed over the decades in building San Francisco ad agencies and, later, assisting members of the AAAAs who wanted marketing and creative intelligence, insights and moneymaking ideas in exchange for their annual dues.

Mr. Gibbons was born in Coalinga, California. His father, James Gibbons, worked in the oil fields of Coalinga and was a caree-long manager with Tidewater Oil Co. His mother, Hazel, was a homemaker. After high school, he enrolled at San Jose State University as a psychology major, left after a year to join the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Ord, California for two years. Afterwards, he returned to San Jose State, majored in advertising, graduated, and was hired as a mail room clerk in Young and Rubicam’s San Francisco office.

He landed a job as a junior account executive with McCann-Erickson, then San Francisco’s biggest ad agency, moved to Dailey and Associates where he met Robert C. Pritikin, a young copywriter/ creative director. The two hit it off,  hatched a plan to partner up as Pritikin & Gibbons Communications,  a highly creative, risk-taking, boutique -sized  ad agency.

Pritikin & Gibbons was later sold to N.W. Ayer, America’s oldest advertising agency and Mr. Gibbons was named president. “Jerry was the perfect human being,” recalls Pritikin. ”We were business partners for years and we never had one dispute. In pitches and in dealing with clients, he was Mr. Cool and never got flustered.”

During the 1980s, Mr. Gibbons was senior vice president at Foote Cone & Belding and president and chief executive at DDB/Needham, both in San Francisco. He was later president of Lewis & Partners, another Bay Area agency and then launched his own ad firm, Gibbons & Dickens Group.

When the American Association of   Advertising Agencies was looking for a western regional executive vice president in 1992, it sought out Mr. Gibbons.

During his long career, Mr. Gibbons was actively involved in the  advertising community and beyond. He was a past president  of the San Francisco Ad Club, Society of Communications Arts and Alpha Delta Sigma. He was a former board director of the Oakland Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, National Association of Visually Handicapped, U.S. Organization of Disabled Athletes, the Advertising Agency Federation. He was chair emeritus of the Marine Mammal Center and a long time member of its board. He was a founding member of the Bay Area Advertising Relief Committee.

In 2005, he was named Admark Advertising Person of the Year by the San Francisco Advertising and Marketing Association.

Mr. Gibbons is survived by his wife of 56 years, Val, his three children -Scott Gibbons, Cristin Gibbons and Trisha Ashworth, five grandchildren Brian Gibbons, Jessica Gibbons, Alexandra Ashworth. Pierce Ashworth and Julia Ashworth and many beloved nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his younger brother Jimmy Gibbons and older brother Earle Gibbons.

A celebration of his life will be held Feb. 17, from 3-5 pm at Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco.

Donations may be made to Bay Area Advertising Relief  Committee www.baarc.com or Marine Mammal Center www.marinmammalcenter.org