Markets

Alex Bogusky's Big Payday: The Real Reason Earth's Trendiest Adman Is Leaving the Business

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: July 1, 2010 / 3:08 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

The real reason media magnet Alex Bogusky is leaving advertising is because he just received a massive earnout fee from MDC Partners (MDCA), making him stupendously wealthy, and because he has begun to annoy his own clients, principally Burger King (BK).

Most of the coverage of Bogusky's departure focuses on his legacy and moving on to the next chapter in his life blah blah blah. The real story is buried in MDC's recent 10-Q filing with the SEC. It says:

In December 2009, the Company paid an additional $38,974 pursuant to the CPB purchase agreement originally entered into in November 2008 with the founders of Crispin Porter & Bogusky LLC ("CPB").

That number is in the thousands, so in essence Bogusky just got his share of $39 million a few months ago. (In December 2009 Jon Bond and the founders of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners shared a $14.8 million earnout payment, which followed a $16 million payment the year before, according to MDC's annual 10-K filing.) You'd be looking to retire at 46, too, if you got that kind of money.

At the same time, Bogusky has been undiplomatically annoying Burger King, his agency's key client. He recently criticised BK for advertising to children. BK was also annoyed at his diet book, he alluded to Fast Company:

Miles [Nadal, CEO of MDC] started getting phone calls from some clients that didn't like things that I had said.

So, with a giant slice of $39 million sluicing through his checking account, Bogusky has apparently decided -- along with Bond -- that he literally doesn't have to work on Miles' farm no more.

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