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Y&R ANZ (formerly known as "George Patterson Y&R) is an Australasian advertising agency. The agency was formed in 2005 when the international advertising holding conglomerate WPP Group acquired the Australian marketing communications company, The Communications Group (TCG).

History

The George Patterson agency was founded on 1 November 1934. George Patterson had started his advertising career at the age of 18 in 1908. He left McPherson’s in 1913 and took on the job of advertising manager at a magazine in New York, before returning to Australia at the outbreak of war in 1914. In 1919, he started his first agency in a partnership with Norman Catts and Catts-Patterson became Australia’s largest agency.

One of the agency’s early clients was Palmolive. In 1921, George Patterson heard about a shipment of soap that had been destined for sale in the Far East, but the sale had fallen through. It had been diverted to Australia, and was waiting at the docks in Sydney before being sold to a wholesaler. Patterson contacted Palmolive and convinced the company that there was a market for their brand in Australia, "because the soap was already well-known through the circulation of American magazines." He offered to launch the brand, and it was a great success. Within two years a factory was under construction in Sydney, and all advertising was handled by George Patterson. The agency continues to work with Colgate-Palmolive.

The agency represented the Australian Defence Force for 13 years before they lost their contract with them in 2013 to competitors Havas.

In 2017, George Patterson Y&R (GPY&R) was rebranded to Y&R ANZ.

Mergers and acquisitions

TCG's primary advertising asset was the George Patterson agency which had dominated the Australian advertising market throughout the 2nd half of the 20th century. Known as "Patts" in the industry, the business had been George Patterson Advertising from its formation in 1934 when George Patterson demerged the Sydney and Melbourne business he had started in 1918 from Catts-Patterson; George Patterson Bates from the 1990s, when the agency's long-standing Asian affiliation with Bates Worldwide was formalised with an acquisition by Bates, then one of the two worldwide network holdings of Saatchi & Saatchi PLC; and George Patterson Partners at the time of the WPP acquisition, having been primed for sale under that name by the TCG management-buyout group since 2003.

WPP merged the Australian offices of its worldwide Young & Rubicam brand with George Patterson. WPP had acquired the worldwide Young & Rubicam brand in 2000.

Accolades

• Cannes Lions 2012 Australian Agency of the Year
• World’s Top Ten Agencies, Gunn Report 2013

Controversy

The agency attracted controversy in May 2011 after it won a contract to "clean up" the social media policy of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). As well as criticising the decision not to relegate the task to the Government, a law firm or risk management consultant, journalist Ian McPhedran reported that "Senior staff at the advertising agency promote degrading images of women and post bizarre messages on their social networking accounts." According to the article, the social networking accounts of staff, which at the time could be accessed via links on the firm's home page, featured content such as pornographic images, an image of a simulated sex act, tweets such as "Where can I buy a Kate Middleton blow-up doll?" and guides on topics such as "making your own sex toys". A spokesperson for George Patterson Y&R stated: "We do not believe that this material is in any way relevant to an assessment of the nature or quality of the professional services that GPY&R provides." An article by Mumbrella described the coverage as a “beat-up”, saying that everybody who is active on social media will leave "a footprint that out of context will make a great story". On May 21, the scandal was the top trending item on news.com.au and was described as "the most powerful Australian examples yet of agency staff's personal online behaviour being linked to their professional lives". Earlier that month, the ADF "side-stepped" allegations that they had a conflict of interest in awarding the contract to George Patterson Y&R.

References

1. Hayes, Alex (5 December 2013). "Defence Force moves to Havas from George Patterson Y&R". Mumbrella. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
2. Ryan, Rosemary (27 October 2005). "WPP Announces What Everyone Already Knew". bandt.com.au. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
3. "GPY&R Shines At Cannes 2012 - LBBOnline". Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. McPhedran, Ian (21 May 2011). "Defence review team's sex controversy". The Advertiser. Archived from the original on 21 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) McPhedran, Ian (21 May 2011). "Defence review team's sex controversy". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) McPhedran, Ian (21 May 2011). "Defence review team's sex controversy". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) McPhedran, Ian (21 May 2011). "Defence review team's sex controversy". Perth Now. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
5. Burrowes, Tim (21 May 2011). "GPY&R sex scandal story may be a beat up but it still has implications". Mumbrella. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
6. Burrowes, Tim (21 May 2011). "GPY&R staff become the story after newspaper links online comments to Skype sex scandal". Mumbrella. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Cook, Andrew (10 May 2011). "'No conflict' over Defence Force social media probe". Crikey. Archived from the original on 19 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

• Y&R ANZ (official website)

• Use dmy dates from June 2011
• Advertising agencies of Australia