As you write a piece on being 35 years old, you immediately start thinking about companies that are 75, or older. No doubt, in the big scheme of things you could argue 35 really isn’t that old, but it is to us. And probably to that new two-person shop that threw out its shingle at the beginning of 2009, staring a toilet-bad economy in the face.

Which, oddly, is pretty much what happened with Brothers & Co. We were founded by Paul Brothers’ Dad, the Rt. Honorable John O. Brothers, “Jay” to everybody that knew him.

Jay Brothers was a fine artist by God-given talent, a commercial artist by training and a classic “Ogilvy” adman by profession. He started what was then called “The Brothers Company” in January of 1974. For those of you not yet born, this was smack in the middle of the Arab Oil Embargo and one of the worst stock-market crashes since ... well, these days.

Jay grew the agency with snappy creative and his own personal flair for advertising. He was a classic pen-and-ink man, and would often leave client meetings not to do a job start or write a creative brief, but to lay out the campaign. Which, he’d then transfer to a flip chart and present later that week. It is truly a lost art.

In 1982, after a year as an oil and natural gas land man (even though he majored in advertising in college), Paul Brothers joined his Dad and began that interesting journey as, “the boss’ son.” In 1984 Paul walked into Jay’s office and tried to explain why the company needed to spend $32,000 for a Macintosh computer.

Over the next 15 years, the agency saw successes and failures as a father poured his years of experience into his son and a handful of new hires that, years later, would become the very foundation of the company.

In the late 1990s, Jay Brothers was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer (yes, he smoked as a young man — do not smoke!), and died three years later at the young age of 64. It is an important part of our culture today that our core leadership knew Jay Brothers. They were here in his prime, and many of them, like Paul, have his fingerprints on them still today. He was a kind-hearted, honest man that fought the good fight and ended the race strong. He is our founder, and he is missed.

A few years after Jay’s passing, Paul Brothers had an experience that forever changed our company and our business. On an extensive tour of the Walmart Home Office with Senior Vice President, Don Harris, Paul saw firsthand what many of our customers must battle to get their products on America’s shelves. It was, as they say, a defining moment.

The precepts you see in the "Our Lighthouse" section of our website grew out of that experience. As Paul often says to potential new employees as well as customers, “We don’t make anything, we don’t have stocking inventories, proprietary technologies or long-term contracts — we serve at the will of our customers. And if we do a good job, they just might have us back again tomorrow.”

So here we are, 35 years later. The economy is as bad in 2009 as it was in 1974, but our business remains strong. We stand proud, and ready, to serve.