J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merged J. Walter Thompson with fellow agency Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson. In October 2023, WPP announced yet another merger in which Wunderman Thompson, along with another group agency VMLY&R, would cease to exist and create a new combined entity named VML. This is to be effective January 1, 2024.
J. Walter Thompson
J. Walter Thompson Co. advertisement, 1903
James Walter Thompson was the founder of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and a pioneer of many advertising techniques.
Thompson in 1910
1868 portrait
The cover of Souvenir of Cranford (1894) by architect Frank T. Lent, depicting Thompson's opera house in Cranford, New Jersey