Johnstone and Cushing was an American

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...

that specialized in

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

-style

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

s that used many prominent

cartoonists A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary ...

and

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

ists of the time. Until its dissolution in 1962, the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based company provided ads for such companies as

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by C. W. Post, Charles William (C. W.) Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, a ...

, Nestle, and

RC Cola RC Cola (short for Royal Crown Cola) is a carbonated cola beverage owned in the United States by Keurig Dr Pepper and internationally by RC Global Beverages, Inc. History In 1901, the Cole-Hampton-Hatcher Grocery Store was established in Col ...

, drawn by artists including

Milton Caniff Milton Arthur Paul Caniff (; February 28, 1907 – April 3, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for the ''Terry and the Pirates'' and ''Steve Canyon'' comic strips. Biography Caniff was born in Hillsboro, Ohio. He was an Eagle Scout and a re ...

, Albert Dorne, Lou Fine,

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a Creator ownership, creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and re ...

and

Alex Kotsky Alex Kotzky (September 11, 1923 – September 26, 1996) was a cartoonist best known for his three decades of work on the comic strip ''Apartment 3-G'', originally distributed by Publishers Syndicate. Biography Early life and education Born in ...

. The agency's co-founder, Tom Johnstone, had become acquainted with numerous cartoonists while employed earlier by the newspaper the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

''. Tom Johnstone and Samuel Dewy Cushing met in the year 1930. They developed a friendship after meeting at a Broadway show called ''Artists and Models'', where Johnstone was part of the production and Cushing was one of the investors of the show. Sam Cushing saw the success with Johnstone's art agency, so he suggested that his son Jack Cushing see Johnstone for a job. Johnstone soon made Jack Cushing a partner, and Johnstone and Cushing was established.

References

Advertising agencies of the United States Business services companies established in 1936 Companies based in New York City Mass media companies established in 1936 Mass media companies disestablished in 1962 1936 establishments in New York City 1962 disestablishments in New York (state) {{advertising-stub