Guy Day Named New Vice Chairman of Keye/Donna

Chiat/Day, the biggest ad agency in Los Angeles, is about to begin competing with its namesake--Guy Day.

The Los Angeles ad firm Keye/Donna/Pearlstein has hired Day as vice chairman. Day will primarily be in charge of drumming up new business for the ad agency, which is in danger of losing its biggest client, the automotive division of U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp. In addition to Keye/Donna, Hakuhodo Advertising America, HDM and two other unnamed agencies are competing for the $10 million-plus business.

“I’m more comfortable at an agency this size than I would be at Chiat/Day today,” said the 56-year-old Day, who retired from Chiat/Day in 1986 and who just completed a yet-to-be-sold novel. “This should help balance my career as a failed novelist,” he said.

Chiat/Day is approaching $1 billion in annual billings, and Keye/Donna has billings of about $80 million.

Advertising industry executives speculate that Keye/Donna/Pearlstein is making the move to add some spark--and some needed organization--to the highly creative but recently troubled ad firm.

Besides the possibility of losing its Suzuki advertising business, the 20-year-old ad agency is also struggling to find business for its year-old New York office. Although the office opened with great fanfare, it has accumulated only $10 million in billings--which is a tiny amount in the competitive New York market.

“It has taken us longer to get organized in New York than we anticipated,” said Leonard Pearlstein, president of Keye/Donna. Pearlstein said that he will be spending more time in his agency’s New York office, and that Day will focus mostly on the Los Angeles office.

This is not the first time that Day has been called in to help a struggling agency. Back in 1982--seven years after his first retirement from Chiat/Day--the agency called him back after losing several of its largest clients. “The agency was on a bad run at the time,” Day recalled. “It was not the rosiest of times.”

Nor is this the rosiest of times at Keye/Donna. But certainly, not all has turned sour there. After a recent review, the agency hung on to the $3 million advertising business for the California State Office of Tourism. And although its New York office is struggling, Keye/Donna has still been invited to take part in some substantial account “pitches” against some of Manhattan’s biggest ad firms.

Is Keye/Donna looking for some Chiat/Day rub-off from Guy Day? “Very few people have had the level of success of Jay Chiat at Chiat/Day,” said Pearlstein, “but yes, we do think Guy has a lot of magic.”

Jay Chiat, chairman of Chiat/Day, was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment.