Paintings by the late Fred Carter who served as Art Director at Mithoff Advertising Inc (now Mithoff Burton Partners) during the 1950s and 60s are currently a featured exhibit at the El Paso Museum of History located at 510 N. Santa Fe Street.  The exhibit is entitled “The Architecture of an Artist” and includes wonderful paintings of various local historical structures.  Of special interest is a colorful “streetcar” painting for an ad prepared at Mithoff Advertising for the El Paso County Board of Development and was the center spread in the Saturday Evening Post in a 1963 issue of the magazine.

The exhibit, not to be missed, runs through December 22.

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FEMAP was founded by Guadalupe De la Vega in 1973. Working faithfully with her has been well-known El Pasoan Adair Margo who serves as President of the Foundation. Over the years the FEMAP Foundation has built two hospitals and a nursing school in Juárez. The Foundation has also established numerous health, economic, and social service programs across the border in one of the poorest communities in Mexico.  Last year, the FEMAP hospitals delivered 6,000 babies and provided much needed care to over 128,000 patients. In addition, 6,000 needy children benefitted from after-school programs and 520 nursing students received schooling through FEMAP funding.

Mithoff Burton Partners was listed as a major underwriter, along with several of our good clients, for the recent 2012 FEMAP International Gala held at the El Paso Civic Center to benefit healthcare for expectant mothers and others in our Sister City of Juárez, Mexico. The theme for the elegant evening was a Venetian Masquerade and everyone dressed accordingly.

The event was a sell-out and we were very proud to be a part of such a worthwhile cause.

Mithoff Burton Partners presented the launch of El Paso’s Image Enhancement and Reputation Management Campaignat the El Paso Tourism Luncheon in the Civic and Convention Center.

CEO Bill Burton made the presentation, backed up by Heavyweight Champion of the International Metroplex, The Spirit of El Paso (in reality, our own Account Supervisor, Steffen Poessiger).

The Mayor of El Paso, John Cook, congratulated us afterwards, saying we’re just beginning the fight to protect the City’s reputation.

It was a lot of fun.
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Mithoff Burton had an unexpected visit from Mandy Zabriskie on Thursday, March 15.

Looking more like 65 than 85 years old, we were delighted to see our old friend from the good old “Mad Men” days.  Mandy served as Vice President/Account Executive for Mithoff Advertising in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.  Mandy is well known in the El Paso community not only through his work with our agency but he also served as Marketing Director for the White House Department Store, a historic downtown building that is now home to our agency offices.

Mandy received the  1970 Silver Medal Award, the highest award presented by the Advertising Federation of El Paso (then known as the Ad Club).  A duplicate of that award now hangs on our walls, along with 11 other Silver Medal awards won by various other members of our staff.  He was often seen with his good friends, including Jack Maxon, at the original Jaxon’s Restaurant on North Mesa.  (Maybe he was a silent partner or a secret chef ??)

Mandy now lives in Indianapolis and often visits his son Jimmy in Las Cruces during Indiana’s cold winter months.  We hope Mandy doesn’t wait until next winter and will come back soon.

We are proud that the agency was presented the Gold Award by the MarCom Awards for our work on the 2011 Hunt Companies Corporate Profile.

The MarCom Awards is one of the oldest, largest, and most respected competitions in the creative industry.  It is an international competition that recognizes achievement by marketing and communication professionals.  The Gold Award is presented to those entries judged to exceed the high standards of the overall industry.

The Marcom Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). It is the largest awards competition of its kind.
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Good advertising is about truth. Truth in facts, truth in comparisons, and truth in the brand promise.

It has to be that way. All else is simply noise.

So. We’re 80. What’s in that message? Why is it meaningful?

The truth is, for many, it doesn’t mean a thing, and shouldn’t.

For others, it has some meaning relevant to tenure, or accomplishment, or history.

For me, it means longevity in an industry known to have businesses with very brief shelf lives. It means perseverance in a trade where often, failure is directed solely by the whims of one, maybe two people who don’t know this business — and don’t really “get” the power of good advertising or the reason to invest in building a brand. And to me it means success in holding together the legacy of those who founded this agency and guided it to a place of respect, and integrity, and success.

I am proud of what we have done as a company, and proud that we have “history” behind our name. We are four years older than the Leo Burnett agency. We are twelve years older than Foote, Cone, and Belding, and eighteen years older than Doyle, Dane, Bernbach. We’re older than Ogilvy. We preceded the Marlboro Man, the Edsel, the “Think Small” VW campaigns, and have been in business longer than any other agency in Texas, save one, founded in Amarillo one year before us. We are one of the oldest agencies in the AAAA’s, and the oldest in Worldwide Partners. And there are not many businesses older than ours in our own city of El Paso.

There is something to be said for that.

Well, that represents a foundation that has withstood the shifts of the economy over eight decades, the whims of non-believing and unsophisticated clients, the sale and mergers of accounts, and the explosive emergence of new technologies and new mediums. Keep in mind: we are older than television, older than computers, older than printers and faxes and multi-line telephones. We’re older than video tape and CDs and DVDs and digital anything. That foundation is still with us today.

More, our longevity represents a carry forward of good advertising, for the most part for good clients. Along that line of history we have done some very good work, and helped some very good businesses. We have provided a value, and established friendships, and ultimately made partnerships that worked. We have garnered respect in this field – respect by our competitors, our clients, and by those who have worked here. That respect is still with us today.

So, being 80 matters to me. It’s more than a celebration, more than congratulations from family and friends and clients. Being 80 means that for a brief time along this historical road, I contributed something, albeit small, to that longevity and that respect. I hope all of our employees feel the same. They are a big part of Doing good work, for good clients, since 1931.

Happy Birthday, to us.

Bill Burton,
CEO