The 109-year-old agency has a long-standing history in the Detroit metropolitan area and the advertising industry. In 1911, Frank Campbell and Henry Ewald merged their individual Detroit companies to form Campbell Ewald, beginning with just six employees. Campbell, a veteran of the Spanish–American War, left the business in 1917 to work in relief in war ravaged France, and subsequently lived a life of adventure until his death in Oregon, when he was crushed by a boulder at age 72. Henry Ewald was left to run the agency.