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https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/130025/wayne-cranford-pioneering-arkansas-ad-man-dies-at-87

Wayne Cranford, Pioneering Arkansas Ad Man, Dies at 87
by Kyle Massey
Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020 4:10 pm 3 min read

Wayne Cranford, an advertising pioneer who brought Madison Avenue creative approaches to Arkansas and provided the “C” in the name of prominent Little Rock agency CJRW, died Saturday in hospice.

He was 87 and had been in failing health, according to his son Ross Cranford, one of three boys who followed their father into the ad industry. Ross and brothers Chris and Jay founded Cranford Co. just down Main Street from their father’s old firm. Wayne Cranford served as a senior adviser to Cranford Co. till his death.
Cranford founded Cranford Johnson with promising art graduate Jim Johnson in 1961, the perfect marriage of a “word guy,” the tall and writerly Cranford, with an “image guy,” Johnson. Nearly 60 years later, both men are in the American Advertising Federation's Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame, and Cranford was inducted in 2012 to the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

“He was professional to the utmost degree, and he built a fabulous agency,” said Brenda Scisson, who worked for Cranford for 22 years, eventually as a vice president and director of public relations. “It was said that anything of any importance in Arkansas would have Wayne Cranford and his agency as part of it. He was a giant in the industry here, with an unbelievably successful run in the ad agency business, but he also mentored and trained so many of us.”

After a brief career as a newspaperman, Cranford formed Cranford Johnson, which grew into a 100-employee powerhouse in Southern marketing, and the partnership grew into a lifelong friendship.

“He was always a friend, but also like an older brother,” Johnson told Arkansas Business in a telephone interview Saturday. “He looked at advertising in Little Rock, and said ‘I think we can do a lot better.’”

First National Bank of Little Rock was Cranford Johnson’s first major client, Johnson said, followed by Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. “It was amazing for two young guys like us,” Johnson said. “Somebody said it was like two kids playing at their daddy’s desk. But he became a very capable leader and was always a kind man. He truly believed that good ad work didn’t have to come out of New York, and he proved that you could do some pretty impressive creative in Little Rock, Arkansas. He really changed my life for the better.”

By the 1970s, Cranford Johnson was thriving and Johnson was working on his most famous creation, the “Arkansas” logo that has appeared for a generation on license plates and all manner of state promotional items. By 2012, CJRW was billing $87 million a year.

Cranford’s firm was the first Arkansas agency granted membership in the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Scisson said, and it “practically had a lock on major business, government and political accounts.”

Clients included Bill Clinton, Arkansas Power & Light, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, former U.S. Sens. Dale Bumpers and David Pryor, “and everyone from governors on down,” as Scisson put it.

“We did a lot of good work for state Parks & Tourism, and we had a lot of fun,” Johnson said.

Cranford was chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts from 1994 to 2001, and he served as chairman of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion Commission and on the boards of both the Arkansas Arts Center and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

"Almost 60 years ago, Wayne Cranford co-founded what is now CJRW on the belief that excellence in advertising was not exclusive to Madison Avenue,” CJRW Chairman Darin Gray said in a statement to Arkansas Business. “He was truly a pioneer in our industry and his presence will be greatly missed.”

Born on New Years Day 1933 in Bald Knob (White County), Cranford was an avid reader and valedictorian of his high school class before studying English and Journalism at Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas.

Johnson called him “one of the smartest men I knew.”

Shelby Woods, another former partner whose name provided the “W” in CJRW, said Cranford “may have been the most gracious man” he’d ever known. “He taught me that every written word is important no matter in what context it would be used. He was a brilliant writer. I will always consider it an honor and privilege to have been fortunate to work with him for so many years.”

Cranford is survived by his sons and by his wife of many years, Frances Anderson Cranford.

“I just think he changed the game here,” said his old friend and partner, Johnson. “But most of all, he was a kind, forward-thinking and optimistic man.”