In sad news for the Australian advertising industry, Mammal founder and creative director Andy Firth passed away last week after a short illness.
Firth had a stellar career in the local advertising industry moving to New Zealand in 1992 from a role at Ogilvy & Mather Direct in London. He held roles at Ogilvy & Mather Direct in Auckland, Ogilvy & Mather Wellington, Leo Burnett Sydney and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.
More recently, he spent five years as creative director at Loud before co-founding Mammal with art director Gary Cunliffe in 2009.
In a post on its website, the Mammal team paid tribute to Firth which included words from from a Facebook post he made several years earlier. It is posted in full below:
“Yet again, I hear on the radio this morning about the unfortunate death of some young man who was ‘well-liked’, ‘a popular member of the local footy team’, ‘always smiling’. I’m sure he was and his demise is sad. However, I can’t help wondering why it’s always ‘nice’ people that seem to bite the dust. If I die an early death and the media comes knocking on your door, can you please say something like ‘He was ok mostly, and occasionally amusing, but not always well-liked by everyone, often a grumpy, crude, opinionated f***er that was difficult to work with, drank too much and seemed to have difficulty with commitment in relationships’, or whatever springs to mind. Just once it would be refreshing to hear a realistic obituary.”
The team also noted they “will be proud to continue the tradition he began: of questioning and interrogating, of doing more with less, and of having a laugh whatever the situation.
“He was a valued colleague, a firm friend, a talented advertising creative and a great bloke. Many, many people will miss him – and the team at Mammal can certainly be counted among them,” it read.
Vale Andy.
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