Emerson Foote, 85, Who Headed Large Advertising Agencies, Dies
By WOLFGANG SAXON
Published: July 8, 1992

Emerson Foote, the outspoken co-founder of the Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency and former chairman of McCann-Erickson Inc., died on Sunday at a convalescent home in Carmel, N.Y. He was 85 years old and a longtime Carmel resident.

His family said he had been stricken with appendicitis and died of postoperative complications.

The two agencies he led rank among the biggest in the world today, and Mr. Foote, tall and distinguished-looking, stood as one of the giants of the industry. He became known to the general public for his acerbic views of tobacco advertising, which eventually prompted him to leave advertising. He was a former chain-smoker and was a director of the American Cancer Society.

Mr. Foote resigned as chairman of McCann-Erickson in 1964, saying he was opposed to handling cigarette accounts. He was then a member of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke and endorsed the Surgeon General's report that linked cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

He ridiculed protestations that billions spent on promotions had nothing to do with people taking up the habit. "I am always amused," Mr. Foote said, "by the suggestion that advertising, a function that has been shown to increase consumption of virtually every other product, somehow miraculously fails to work for tobacco products."

A native of Sheffield, Ala., Emerson Foote attended public schools and spent the first 10 years of his working life at a savings and loan association, an automobile distributorship and a life-insurance company. In 1931, he joined an advertising agency in San Francisco.

He made his mark after moving to New York in 1938 to work for Lord & Thomas, a firm run by the legendary Albert D. Lasker, known as "the father of modern advertising." Mr. Foote started out as an assistant account executive for Lucky Strike cigarettes and, promoted to vice president, soon was put in charge of the entire account.

Mr. Lasker retired in 1942 and sold the firm to his three top managers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles -- Emerson Foote, Fairfax Cone and Don Belding. The present chairman of Foote, Cone & Belding Communications in Chicago, Bruce Mason, yesterday called Mr. Foote "the last of our founding titans" and a "man of high integrity and principle." Resigned Tobacco Account

Mr. Foote was president of the agency in 1948 when he stirred the industry by resigning the American Tobacco account, then worth $12 million in bookings, or about a fifth of the agency's total. He retired as president two years later, citing health reasons.

But he joined McCann-Erickson as executive vice president in 1952. He served as president from 1960 to 1963 and as chairman from 1962 to 1964.

Mr. Foote's wife of 47 years, the former Sabina Fromhold, died in 1985. He is survived by a son, James A., of Old Greenwich, Conn.; three daughters, Anne Rockwell, also of Old Greenwich, Katherine Foote of Carmel, and Jennifer Foote of Manhattan; five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.