The shock of Tony Cullingham passing very unexpectedly and way too soon, has been a devastating loss that’s been felt deeply across the agency, and the industry as a whole.

Following an emotional process that considered what the Barn looks like without Tony, and whether it would be possible to continue without his stewardship, BBH is honouring Tony’s legacy with a renewed commitment to the Barn, and its mission to help unlock creative minds and get diverse talent jobs in top agencies.

Helen Rhodes, ECD, BBH: “At first, continuing the Barn without Tony seemed impossible. He was the Barn in many ways. What he brought to those students was immeasurable. He’d had 32 years of doing it at Watford and fuelling the industry with diverse creative talent. He was a unique character and teacher, an absolute force of nature. There wasn’t anyone like him.

“But after giving it some thought, and the news of his passing sinking in, we realised that Tony would have wanted us to keep going. The reason we started the Barn was to expand the pool of brilliant, diverse talent entering our industry, and the need for that is just as strong today as ever.

“More importantly, the last email Tony sent me was to tell me about the 10 candidates, or lambs as he called them, that he had chosen for the course. He was so excited about them, and he couldn’t wait to get started. We think the best thing we can do to honour Tony is to do everything in our power to give them the opportunity that he had chosen them for.”

BBH has appointed creative director Nick Gill to lead the Barn over the next year. A brilliant creative with 38 years experience delivering award-winning campaigns, Gill led BBH from a creative standpoint for 10 years, and understands what went into the Barn to make it a success. Most of all, he was close to Tony, and he cares about nurturing up-and-coming creative talent as much as Tony did.

As a writer and creative director Nick was responsible for some of BBH’s most awarded work, including Axe ‘Getting dressed’, Vodafone ‘Mayfly’ and ‘Time theft’ and Barnardos’ ‘Believe in children’ campaign. Nick took over the running of BBH’s creative department in 2008 and his ECD leadership spanned nearly ten years. During this time, the agency won two ‘Campaign Agency of the year’ awards, and ‘Agency of the year’ three years out of four at British Arrows.

Rhodes continues: “Tony believed in bringing different people into the industry. He believed in unlocking creative minds. Most importantly, he believed in getting young people jobs. This was our priority for the Barn then, and it remains our priority now.”

For this year, the Barn will be a 7-month fully paid creative placement with a focus on setting students up to secure jobs at the best agencies in the industry.

There has also been an outpouring of love, support and offers of help. The team at BBH is leaning into that as much as possible and for this year, will be partnering with those agencies, mentors and friends who have offered their help and supported and taught alongside Tony during his Barn and Watford days.

Nick Gill, creative director and leader of the Barn: “Tony was irreplaceable. He had also recommended his next set of Barn students to Helen and for all the shock and deep sadness everyone was feeling, this was something that needed to be addressed. Tony would have wanted those students to have their chance and would have hated the thought that his passing precluded them from this opportunity. We owe it to the students to make this work.

“I’ve been at BBH close to 25 years. During that time I ran the creative department for nearly 10 years, and part of my agenda was to massively over-index in young creative talent. I loved bringing in young people who didn’t know the rules and weren’t bogged down by pragmatism and compromise. In my experience, experience isn’t always a good thing. Many of those creatives have gone on to achieve great things and I hope to achieve more of the same success with this year's Barn intake. Despite the devastating circumstances, I’ll be throwing myself into this. First, because when I do something, I like to do it well. And second, because I will be doing it in my friend Tony’s name.”