Markets

Cliff Freeman to Shut Down After Series of Weird Events (and Client Losses)

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 30, 2009 / 5:15 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Cliff Freeman & Partners is to close down, reports Noreen O'Leary at Adweek. The move is not unexpected. BNET noted in February that the venerable agency's new accounts did not seem large enough to replace the ones it had lost. Those losses included Quiznos, Shoney's, Bonefish Grill and Snapple.

But it wasn't just the losses. It was the increasingly weird chain of events the shop was involved in, coupled with the inability or refusal of Cliff Freeman himself to either sell his brand or retire with dignity into consultant-hood. Those events include:

Former CEO Jeff McClelland blasting Freeman as a ruinous control freak stuck in the past and threatening the future of his own shop.
Former creative director Lee Seidenberg leaving the shop to start an advertising school that charged $350 for 10 lessons.
A Facebook page that included a message indicating that Freeman thought some clients were "stupid."
Another former CEO, Clayton Ruebensaal III, briefly started and then abandoned a Twitter account.
And when Freeman exited the MDC Partners holding company his deal was unwound for a mere $800,000.

Adweek has some excellent detail on Freeman's final days: The shop let its domain name lapse, staff are packing boxes and the CFO ankled today.

Toldya: A few days ago BNET expressed skepticism over the fact that MDC -- Freeman's former parent -- had published a "preliminary" earnings report that did not include its actual profit. That skepticism proved justified today when the company filed a 10-Q with the SEC. Profit was down 51 percent to $2.2 million on revenues of $135 million.