How it started
History
The agency was founded on April 15, 1983 as Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein by Jeff Goodby, Andy Berlin and Rich Silverstein. Andy Berlin left in 1992 and the agency was renamed. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is now part of the Omnicom Group, Inc., an advertising holding company. The agency is based in San Francisco, California. In 2015, after 32 years, Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby announced they were passing on the reigns of the creative department to Margaret Johnson, Executive Creative Director and Eric Kallman, Executive Creative Director. Margaret and Eric were also named to Adweek's Creative 100 list in 2015. Derek Robson was the President and Managing Partner from 2005 to 2023. Leslie Barrett served as President from 2023 to 2025, after being a Managing Partner for 23 years at the company. In September 2025, the agency appointed Sarah Thompson as its first chief executive officer.
The firm supported the California Milk Processors Board and GSP initiated the Got Milk? campaign in 1993. For Elizabeth Arden, GSP created Britney's fantasy reality to promote her Curious fragrance.
As an offshoot of the popular Budweiser Frogs campaign, GSP introduced the Budweiser Lizards, Frank and Louie, during the 1998 Super Bowl with the spot entitled, "Bad Day to be a Frog," in which the frogs were electrocuted by the jealous lizards.
Inspired by the famous Budweiser Clydesdales, the "Born a Donkey" commercial came from the perspective of a donkey who always wanted to be a Clydesdale. The spot was nominated in the Outstanding Commercial category for the 2004 Creative Arts Emmys.
The agency has been nominated for a total of four Emmy's in the Outstanding Commercial category. In addition to "Born a Donkey" they received nominations for Saturn's "Door Music" in 2004, for Sprint/Nextel's "Wedding" in 2009, and for Adobe's "Dream On" in 2015.
From Wikipedia’s article on Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2