"I always aspired to the kind of work done in New York by Bill Bernbach," he said, "but I guess I was intimidated about coming here."

"But when they asked my opinion, I said there's no comparison: it's one person - Bill Bernbach, who for me personally changed the face of advertising."

This agency, which he founded with Mac Dane and Bill Bernbach, bears the initials of the last name of each.

In the mid 1970s, Syd was awarded the 'gold award' for design and illustration in Johannesburg South Africa by Bill Bernbach.

Those were the not-too-distant days of "Bill Bernbach, saying advertising is an art," Mr. Kroll said.

"Bill Bernbach built an agency around effective creativity," he added.

"It's a great honor for a copywriter like me to be a partner in Bill Bernbach's agency," he said in a statement.

The first and most influential trickster was an adman named Bill Bernbach, whose famous campaign for the VW Beetle began in 1960.

The late Bill Bernbach was John's father.

Bill Bernbach, as the creative spark at Doyle Dane, insisted that advertising could be effective without insulting the intelligence of consumers.