George Gribbin was one of the most notable copywriters in the U.S. advertising history. Mr. Gribbin created his own writing style when print advertisements were becoming more graphic and involved less copywriting since 1930s. And his commitment to word crafting followed him throughout his career to the preservation of dignity in advertising industry.

    George Gribbin was born in 1907 in Nashville, Michigan. He went to the journalism school at the University of Wisconsin. However, he transferred to Stanford University to study English. After graduated as Phi Beta Kappa in 1929, he went back to Detroit and tried to seek a job in newspaper. He longedto be a newspaperman since high school, but he didn't get into the field finally.

    Even though Mr. Gribbin was considered highly educated at that time, he wasn't that successful when seeking for his first job. He couldn't even get past the receptionist when he went to Campbell-Ewald, an advertising agency in Detroit. He then landed his first job at J.L. Hudson, a department store in Detroit. This job confirmed that his dream of being a newspaper man would never been fulfilled. However, Mr. Gribbin still presented his great writing ability when working as a copywriter for the department store. He moved to New York afterwards and worked for Bamberger in Newark, and Macy in New York.

    In 1935, Gribbin joined Young and Rubicam and started to get involved in a variety of fields in advertising business, ranging from copywriting to top management. He started as a copywriter and got promoted to the rank of copy supervisor in 1942. He did go serve in the army from 1942 to 1945 during the World War II. After that, he went back to Young and Rubicam and became the vice president for radio and television . He was promoted to be the agency copy director for print and television in 1954. In 1956, he became the senior vice president, was named president in 1958, chief executive officer in 1962, and chairman in 1963. When Mr. Gribbin became the president of Young and Rubicam, it was the third largest agency in the U.S. with a total billing of more than $230 million and about 60 companies as clients. At that time, Y&R had too many clients that it decided to reject the clients for which billing was less than $300,000.

   In an interview, Mr. Gribbin said to a newspaper reporter that, "Billings are important, but Young and Rubicam's goal is to sell the maximum goods for the clients we serve." (Madden, Cooper & Cole 1994, p.177 ). In an interview, Mr. Gribbin said that he was influenced by many advertising predecessors, such as Roy Whittier, Raymond Rubicam, Sid Ward and Ted Patrick. Mr. Gribbin recognized Raymond Rubicam as a great teacher of his. He mentioned how Rubicam taught him to be thorough when dealing with advertising: "You were apt to re-do an ad after discussing it with Rubicam anywhere from three, four, up to 15 to 20 times before he would say it was good enough (Higgins 1987, pp.57-58)." Mr. Gribbin indicated that Rubicam had made thoroughness become Y&R's second nature when dealing with advertising.

    It is beyond dispute that Mr. Gribbin had done successfully as an advertising practitioner. But he still insisted on going back to campus and pursued academic accomplishment after he retired in 1965. He got a master's degree in humanities at Manhattanville College. Even after retirement, Mr. Gribbin still served as a consultant to Young and Rubicam. In 1977, he was named as dean of the Young and Rubicam's creative workshop and started his tremendous influence on advertising industry. By conducting seminars across the U.S. and around the world, Mr. Gribbin aggressively boosted the morale of local offices and led to Young and Rubicam's expansion abroad. It is said that his visits and research into the markets of Argentina, Brazil, and Japan had jump-started the offices in each of those countries.

    Mr. Gribbin died in 1981 when traveling in Portugal with his wife. At that time, he was 74 years old and had spent over 50 years in advertising business.