After Ally’s departure, A&G’s situation continued to digress.  Travelers Insurance left in 1985, and Polaroid and MCI left in 1986.  A&G merged with Marketing Corporation of America (MCA).  From this point, many changes in structure and culture were made that did not fit with A&G.  Many accounts came and went very quickly, Federal Express left shortly after the merger, and with it went the agency’s top three creative people Messner, Vetere, and Berger.  Within the next few years, the agency suffered the loss of their clients Polaroid, MCI, Frye Boots, Timberland, Sun Banks, Travelers Corp., Bristol-Myers’ Datril, and Ciba-Geigy’s Accutrim. [11].  Saab was left as the A&G/MCA’s largest account, but in 1988 Saab dismissed the agency, with Mr. Ally’s advice.  The meeting in which the agency attempted to maintain Saab’s account was the last time Ally and Gargano spoke for 12 years. 

It was an unfortunate schism between the two, for they once had a friendship based on common backgrounds, and a common appreciation for music, art, film, and a “contempt for mindless advertising, abusive authority, arrogant clients, and an overwhelming desire to change the business” and Gargano “loved [Ally] like a brother’[13].

Many of the employees who were left after the merger regret the loss of Carl Ally in early 1985.  Ally’s “departure left a management void that the agency could not fill,” said one executive at A&G/MCA.  “I’d like to go downstairs and put black tape over Ally’s name. . . .[MCA] doesn’t know what Carl did for this place and what he did for advertising.  There’s no Ally at this agency right now” [11].  A&G/MCA closed their doors in 1995.