Take the Money and Run

By OOH TODAY believes all voices, not just the loudest, must be heard Last updated May 15, 2023

OOH …Here’s One Thing

by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company

It’s Mother’s Day so I will keep it brief. Actually by the time you receive this it will no longer be Mother’s Day, but hey for all the incredible feats that mothers pull off on the daily, we should be on our knees honoring them every day of the year (and given our deficiencies as men, they should take the money and run).

Every once in a while someone from my distant past makes it to the news and I wonder whether the outdoor world in general realizes he or she actually got his/her start in slinging ads on signs. No I am not referring to Ted Turner. I am talking about Dan Snyder here. You can read the whole wiki here, but here is the key paragraph:

Daniel Snyder – Wikipedia (yes you should read the whole thing)

“In 1989, Snyder and his sister Michele founded Snyder Communications, an advertising company with seed money from their father.^[3] They concentrated on wallboards in doctors’ offices and colleges. They combined the advertisements with the distribution of product samples, such as soaps and packages of medicine, to differentiate themselves from their competitors.^[3] Snyder continued to expand its activities to different aspects of outsourced marketing.^[3] In 1992, the company expanded into telemarketing with a focus on the immigrant market. Revenues rose from $2.7 million in 1991 to $9 million in 1993.^[3]“

Snyder ended up putting a lot of divergent pieces together (some of which was outdoor) to build the marketing services juggernaut, taking it public at the age of 32 and then flipping it to Havas for over $2B. Talk about a heist!

Fantastic Johnsen, but once again what’s the point? Well the point is, if you saw the news a few weeks back Dan Snyder sold his beloved Washington Redskins (whoops Commanders) to Josh Harris for…wait for it…just over $6B. Not bad for a guy who torched Mort Zuckerman’s money early in his career and then went into the wallboard business. (Josh Harris btw is the cofounder of Apollo (anyone remember Leon Black who walked on water until he attended one of Jeffrey Epstein’s Soiree). In case you are wondering, Snyder purchased the “skins” shortly after he sold out to Havas (which is now Vivendi btw) for $800MM using a lot of OPM and rolling a bunch of his own crisp, fresh dough into it. While he has been flush for a while, this sale puts his net worth into a different stratosphere. As the old saying goes: “Money makes babies as long as you pick the right spouse.” So I will say it one more time. “Not bad for a simple outdoor guy!”

I dare you to tell me that you do not like Steve Miller’s guitar work on that song.

PSS. Don’t think this guy Snyder can be considered an “outdoor” guy?

“In 2004, Snyder brokered a deal with the National Park Service to remove old growth trees from the 200 feet (61 m) of national parkland behind his home to grant him a better view of the Potomac River, on the condition that Snyder would replace the trees with 600 native saplings. Lenn Harley, a real estate broker who was not involved in Snyder’s purchase of the estate but was familiar with the area, estimated that the relatively unobstructed view of the river and its surroundings that resulted from Snyder’s clearing could add $500,000 to $1 million to his $10 million home’s value.[56] The clearcutting was started without approval from Montgomery County, Maryland, and without environmental assessments, as required by law. As a result, Snyder was fined $100 by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in December 2004. Snyder’s neighbors also filed complaints regarding his clearcutting of scenic and historic easements behind his home.[57]”

Now do you agree?