Craig Markus, chief creative officer at Proof Advertising, died on August 8 after several weeks in a New York hospital battling Guillain-Barré syndrome. His age was not reported.
Markus’ creative career spanned Ogilvy as an art director, Deutsch NY as a creative director, Cramer-Krasselt NY as an executive creative director, and McCann New York. At the latter he served as an ECD as well as creative lead of that agency’s youth/young adult marketing division, TAG, which helped launch Microsoft’s Xbox.
Over the course of his career, Markus was creative lead for global brands including Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Nike and Levi’s. He also was the founder of branding studio Rage, Grace & Partners.
Bryan Christian, president of Austin, Tex.-based Proof, shared in a social media post, “Craig brought a joyful and passionate spirit to work each day. He was a great boss to his teams, a great co-worker to all at Proof and a great friend and mentor for me.”
Markus and Christian reunited at Proof. They first worked together at McCann. As ECD at McCann, Markus had a hand in helping win the U.S. Army account, for which the lauded “Army Strong” campaign was created.
Markus had degrees in communication from UCLA, and in design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. He also held an MBA from Steinbeis University’s Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Markus is survived by, among others, two adult sons, Dean and Luke.
