Background
Thomas D'Arcy Brophy was born on October 18, 1893 in Butte, Montana, the son of Patrick Jerome Brophy and Margaret D'Arcy. His father, a merchant, was fuel administrator for Montana during World War I.
Thomas D'Arcy Brophy was born on October 18, 1893 in Butte, Montana, the son of Patrick Jerome Brophy and Margaret D'Arcy. His father, a merchant, was fuel administrator for Montana during World War I.
Young Brophy graduated with a B. A. from Gonzaga College in Spokane, Wash. , in 1912 and with a B. S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916.
Trained as an architect, Thomas Brophy retained close ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), serving on its board of visitors even after entering the advertising industry.
During World War I Brophy was an artillery instructor at Fort Monroe, Virginia, rising to the rank of major before his discharge in 1919. Brophy then joined the South Atlantic Maritime Corporation and in 1921 became a marketing manager for Anaconda Copper Company.
Brophy joined the advertising firm of Kenyon and Eckhardt in New York City in 1931. Within two years he was a vice-president.
He returned to Kenyon and Eckhardt in 1935, took up the Chase and Sanborn coffee account, and persuaded ventriloquist Edgar Bergen to deliver the on-the-air commercial for his sponsor's product. The novelty caught on and it became one of the most successful sales tools of radio and television. Although he enjoyed great success as an advertising account executive and by 1937 had become president of Kenyon and Eckhardt, Brophy claimed that the 1933 accident had given him a particular set of values.
In 1940, Brophy helped establish the Advertising Council, a public-relations group for advertising agencies. The following year, with the United States mobilizing for war, Walter Hoving, president of Lord and Taylor's department store, approached Brophy about the newly formed United Service Organizations. The USO, designed to assist servicemen, needed $13 million, and Brophy assumed the position of advertising chairman.
USO chairman Thomas E. Dewey enthusiastically endorsed Brophy's suggestion that the USO be marketed by the same sales techniques used to sell household products. Brophy then enlisted the services of the Advertising Council.
In 1947 Brophy was elected chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The "4As" had been concerned that advertising would decline after the war, when consumer goods once again became abundant. Brophy allayed the fears of the advertisers, stressing that there was no sign that ad placements were falling off.
Also in 1947 Brophy formed the American Heritage Foundation. Its first significant accomplishment was the outfitting of a special train with American historical documents. Called the Freedom Train, it was sent around the country to enable persons in many cities to view the artifacts. Brophy might be accused of a certain conflict of interest on this occasion, however, as the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was a leading Kenyon and Eckhardt account during this period and part of its track was used on the train's route. In 1949 Brophy became chairman of Kenyon and Eckhardt and retreated somewhat from the public eye.
He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, not far from his retirement home in Pawling, New York.
He had developed a sense of public service and a belief that advertising could become a factor in the improvement of the public welfare. Brophy also theorized that well-known personalities would deliver the most effective ads.
Quotations:
While recuperating from the extensive plastic surgery, Brophy listened to radio broadcasts and studied the commercials. "Radio wasn't familiar in those days, " he explained later, "and we were all feeling our way--like the early days of television. " Early radio had been geared primarily to the hard sell, with announcers reading from station-prepared scripts. A particularly unfelicitous commercial proclaimed, "There's no spit in a Primo cigar. "
His view, as he expressed was that "advertising has the public's eye and ear. As a consequence, advertising people must ask themselves when looking at an advertisement not only 'Will it sell?' but also 'Does it serve?' "
On August 23, 1933, Brophy was driving home from a sales meeting when his car was hit in the gas tank by a truck and burst into flames. Engulfed in fire, he walked slowly to the side of the road and rolled in a ditch until the flames were extinguished. He then flagged down a surprised motorist who took him to the hospital. He underwent extensive plastic surgery in Jersey City, Baltimore, and New York City. For nearly eighteen months, as doctors tried to reconstruct his eyelids, he was blind.
On October 9, 1923, Thomas D'Arcy Brophy married Jessie Stewart Mulligan; they had three children. In July 1945 Brophy lost his only son in the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea.
On July 29, 1967, Brophy took his two young grandsons to the supermarket. He parked his car in the lot, leaving the children alone in the vehicle. It started to roll; Brophy tried to reach the driver's side of the car but he was pinned between the car and a parked truck.