The Salt Lake office of Euro RSCG Tatham Partners will close next month, spelling the end to an agency that developed world-famous television ads for Intel Corp.
Euro RSCG Tatham Partners' Salt Lake office formerly was Dahlin Smith White, an agency that was founded in 1986 and became well-known for developing the "Intel Inside" campaign. Dahlin Smith White's Intel TV spot featured jumpsuit-clad cleanroom technicians boogying to "Play That Funky Music."
The commercials debuted during the Super Bowl in 1997 and led the company to produce hundreds of thousands of dolls based on those dancing "bunny" characters, so named for their cleanroom outfits.
"The holding company announced Sept. 18 a restructuring plan, and the closing of the Salt Lake operation is part of that restructuring," said Peggy Nahmany, global communications director of Euro RSCG. "The office will be closed by Dec. 31."
Nahmany said the office has about 40 employees and that "a large percentage" will be offered a chance to work at offices in Portland, Ore., and Chicago. The business conducted in Utah will move to other operations within the organization, she said.
"The Salt Lake City office was very focused on technology — very technology-oriented," she said. "It's been very much impacted after a number of technology clients reduced their advertising expenditures, and the dot-com boom being over, it had affected the agency."
Founded by John Dahlin, Darrell Smith and Jon White, the agency in the early 1990s was named one of the hottest advertising agencies in the West by AdWeek Magazine, based on the growth in its capitalized billings.
DSW became part of the Euro RSCG network in 1996, with Havas Advertising, the holding company of Euro RSCG, acquiring a majority interest in DSW. At the time, DSW had 134 workers and a client base featuring Bay Networks, Iomega, Netscape, Sybase and In Focus Systems, in addition to Intel.
Euro RSCG moved the Intel business to its New York office in the late 1990s.
In January 1998, Euro RSCG Dahlin Smith White switched to Euro RSCG DSW Partners. At about the same time, the company produced Super Bowl commercials for Iomega, then based in Roy. Those ads promoted the Zip drive, using humor to show how people could avoid "losing your stuff."
The company became Euro RSCG Tatham Partners in May 2002 when Euro RSCG reorganized its U.S. operations.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com