The 1980’s were a record decade of growth and spending in the advertising industry and Chiat/Day was no exception. In 1981, Chiat personally oversaw the opening of the Chiat/Day office in New York City. The move was a logical one for Chiat, who wanted to grow the agency on a national scale as well as retain two clients who were demanding service on the East Coast. (Dougherty, 1981, p. D15.) By the end of the decade, Chiat/Day had acquired or opened offices in Australia, New Zealand, Toronto, San Francisco and London. Having achieved his dream of turning Chiat/Day into an international operation, Chiat promoted longtime employee Bob Wolf to the position of CEO and took a long-deserved six-month sabbatical from his duties. The move was seen as Chiat turning over the reins to the next generation of leaders. Lee Clow retained his title of Worldwide Creative Director and Chiat, for the meantime, faded into the background.

Unfortunately, the early 1990’s were not a time to be experimenting with business on an international scale. The country was in the midst of a recession and businesses were continually shaving back their advertising budgets. Chiat/Day itself was millions of dollars in debt to banks as a result of Chiat’s attempts to build an international network of agencies. Jay Chiat had always prided his ability to keep Chiat/Day independent despite the flurry of agency takeovers and buyouts during the late eighties and early nineties. He believed in being the acquirer, not the acquired. However, mounting debt and pressure from management forced Jay Chiat to sell Chiat/Day to the global advertising giant Omnicom in 1995. The agency was joined with TBWA, known for their work with Absolut Vodka, and renamed TBWA/Chiat/Day. The agency could no longer be a group of pirates. They had to join the Navy.