Suissa

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David Suissa

Chairman and Executive Creative Director

Suissa Miller Advertising

Age: 40

Landing the big account takes on new meaning when it literally doubles your business.

That’s what David Suissa experienced when his advertising firm, Suissa Miller Advertising, won the coveted $120 million Acura automobile account at the end of last year.

“We were the underdog nobody thought we’d get it,” says the 40-year-old Suissa. “We got it by focusing on the ideas and work and not on the schmoozing.”

Suissa’s firm is still in the midst of gearing up for the new business. The company is adding 80 employees and recently moved its offices from Main Street in Santa Monica to larger quarters in Brentwood.

While the Acura account is a crowning achievement, Suissa points out that the company (which he co-owns with Bruce Miller) has been steadily building its reputation since its founding in 1985.

Suissa’s client list includes Jenny Craig International and Jergens.

One of the firm’s latest ads created for Boston Market spoofs Calvin Klein ads with ESPN funny guy, Keith Oberman, trying to convince waifish models to “eat something.”

Even though it’s the creativity that’s garnering attention, Suissa said that his focus is on ads that sell.

“We are doing advertising that works in the marketplace it’s not creative unless it sells,” he said.

Suissa’s passion for advertising began when he was working at Procter & Gamble as a brand manager in Toronto. Suissa decided he would get into advertising because of his “short attention span.”

“It’s the perfect profession for people who aren’t sure of what to do. You get to work on 15 different businesses at once and you get to be everything mathematician, artist, lawyer, accountant,” said Suissa.

Suissa may be able to draw some of his creativity from a background that’s not exactly run of the mill.

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Suissa says his family was forced to flee the North African country because “things started to get tough for Jews living in an Arab country in the ’60s.” They settled in Montreal.

Suissa attended McGill University and eventually worked for a large advertising firm in Canada. He made his move to L.A. to work for Doyle Dane Bernbach, but eventually quit to start his own business because he “didn’t like having a boss and wanted to make more money.”

Lisa Steen Proctor

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