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Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide
Keith Reinhard is chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide, which ranks among the world’s largest and most creative advertising agency networks with 200 offices in 90 countries. DDB has won more awards at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes than any other agency network. As a working creative man, Reinhard was responsible for McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today” and for the Big Mac tongue twister, “Two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions-on a sesame seed bun.” He also penned State Farm’s long running theme, “Just Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There.”
In 1986 Reinhard was one of the architects of the advertising industry’s first and only three-way merger, creating Omnicom, which today ranks as the world’s largest advertising and marketing services holding company. Concurrent with the creation of Omnicom, he accomplished the merger of Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide, first known as DDB Needham Worldwide and now DDB Worldwide.
Advertising Age has referred to Reinhard, a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame, as the advertising industry’s “soft-spoken visionary” and in 1999 named him one of the top 100 influentials in advertising history. Many of the media and compensation concepts first enunciated by him are now common practices in the industry.
From 2002 to 2010 Keith served as president of Business for Diplomatic Action, Inc. (BDA), a not-for-profit organization he founded to enlist the U.S. business community in actions aimed at improving the standing of America in the world. During its eight years of operation, BDA created and implemented a number of programs credited with building new bridges of understanding and respect between the United States and the world. In 2010 BDA was selected by the U.S. Department of State to administer President Obama’s “New Beginning” program that brought young entrepreneurs from 30 countries to the U.S. for three weeks of business training.
Keith has contributed generously of his time and talents to a broad range of initiatives. He serves on the boards of Sesame Workshop and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is a past chairman of Union Theological Seminary in New York and past chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Keith is on the faculty and board of advisors of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership in Berlin, Germany. He is a member of the steering committee of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and serves on the advisory boards of The National Council on International Visitors, The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California, and the Johns Hopkins Prostate Cancer Center.
Keith is the father of seven children. He and his wife, Rose-Lee, live in Manhattan.
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