Jeff Goodby

Jeff Goodby

Co-Chairman/Partner at Goodby Silverstein & Partners
San Francisco, United States

About me

Jeff Goodby is co-founder and co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, the company that Adweek magazine recently chose as Agency of the Decade. GSP has also been named Agency of the Year in Advertising Age, Adweek and Creativity magazines several times each, and has also been selected as Digital Agency of the Year in Advertising Age and Business 2.0, and by The One Club. The firm is widely acclaimed for most successfully integrating traditional and digital media arts. Many of GSP’s campaigns—got milk?, the Budweiser Lizards, Hewlett-Packard’s “Invent,” the National Basketball Association’s “I Love This Game” and the E*TRADE chimpanzee, among them—are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The got milk? campaign that Goodby originated has spawned hundreds of imitators, which are now listed in several places online. In 2002 Goodby served as the president of the Cannes Advertising Festival and has been head of the prestigious Titanium Jury. He has also chaired judging for the ANDYs and The One Club. In 2010 Adweek named him, along with Rich Silverstein, as Executive of the Decade. The two of them were key players in the 2009 industry documentary Art & Copy.


Goodby grew up in Rhode Island and graduated from Harvard, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon. Three years were spent as a political reporter in Boston. He began his advertising career at J. Walter Thompson and was lucky enough to meet the legendary Hal Riney at Ogilvy & Mather, whom he still thinks of as his mentor. It was with Riney that Goodby learned his reverence for surprise, humor, craft and restraint. He continues to believe that his success is a happy confluence of his mother, a painter; his father, a Wharton graduate; and his family, a constant reminder of irony and humility. Goodby is also a director, printmaker and illustrator whose work has appeared in TIME and Mother Jones. Two commercials he directed were selected to be among the top 30 advertising films of the 1990s by The One Club of New York. The website based on his “Poemhouse” installation (poemhouse.org) in St. Helena, California, has received thousands of visitors. In 2006 he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.


Jeff lives in Oakland, California, with his family, a dog, a cat, a rabbit, three horses and probably some other things he doesn’t know about. 

Positions

Co-Chairman/Partner
San Francisco, United States
Jeff Goodby is co-founder and co-chairman of Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, the company that Adweek magazine recently chose as Agency of the Decade. GSP has also been named Agency of the Year in Advertising Age, Adweek and Creativity magazines several times each, and has also been selected as Digital Agency of the Year in Advertising Age and Business 2.0, and by The One Club. The firm is widely acclaimed for most successfully integrating traditional and digital media arts. Many of GSP’s campaigns—got milk?, the Budweiser Lizards, Hewlett-Packard’s “Invent,” the National Basketball Association’s “I Love This Game” and the E*TRADE chimpanzee, among them—are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The got milk? campaign that Goodby originated has spawned hundreds of imitators, which are now listed in several places online. In 2002 Goodby served as the president of the Cannes Advertising Festival and has been head of the prestigious Titanium Jury. He has also chaired judging for the ANDYs and The One Club. In 2010 Adweek named him, along with Rich Silverstein, as Executive of the Decade. The two of them were key players in the 2009 industry documentary Art & Copy.
Goodby grew up in Rhode Island and graduated from Harvard, where he wrote for The Harvard Lampoon. Three years were spent as a political reporter in Boston. He began his advertising career at J. Walter Thompson and was lucky enough to meet the legendary Hal Riney at Ogilvy & Mather, whom he still thinks of as his mentor. It was with Riney that Goodby learned his reverence for surprise, humor, craft and restraint. He continues to believe that his success is a happy confluence of his mother, a painter; his father, a Wharton graduate; and his family, a constant reminder of irony and humility. Goodby is also a director, printmaker and illustrator whose work has appeared in TIME and Mother Jones. Two commercials he directed were selected to be among the top 30 advertising films of the 1990s by The One Club of New York. The website based on his “Poemhouse” installation (poemhouse.org) in St. Helena, California, has received thousands of visitors. In 2006 he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
Jeff lives in Oakland, California, with his family, a dog, a cat, a rabbit, three horses and probably some other things he doesn’t know about. 
Director
London, United Kingdom
Director
Los Angeles, United States
Creative Director
Downtown Partners
Chicago, United States

Similar Talent

Dana Arnett
Founding Partner and Vice Chairman
VSA Partners
Alexander Jutkowitz
Vice Chairman, Chief Global Strategist; Managing Partner, Group SJR
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Vincent Leclabart
Chairman
AUSTRALIEGAD
Dolchai Boonyaratavej
Chairman
Dentsu One (Bangkok)
Steve Farella
Chairman
MDC Media Partners
Robert Senior
Chairman
Boys and Girls
Jim Carroll
Chairman
BBH
Stewart Shanley
Chairman
Iris

Create a free Talent profile and become a member of AdForum

Get Started