Brazil's most awarded ad agency closed without paying its employees

Every creative agency that rides a few big accounts faces the Fischer question: what happens when the clients leave? The story of Brazil's most decorated ad agency becoming unable to pay its own staff is the warning every agency founder should read.

Eduardo Fischer and Roberto Justus founded Fischer & Justus in São Paulo in 1981. They were the golden boys of Brazilian advertising — young, creative, and connected. Within four years, they sold the agency to Young & Rubicam and became Fischer, Justus, Young & Rubicam. In 1989, the duo left Y&R and created Grupo Total, a network of regional agencies across Brazil. The Fischer name became one of the most recognisable in Latin American advertising.

The agency's defining moment came in 1991 when it won the Brahma beer account. Fischer América created the iconic "Brahma, a número 1" campaign for the 1994 World Cup, which turned a regional beer into a national brand. The agency went on to handle Schincariol (Nova Schin, with Zeca Pagodinho as its pitchman), Kaiser, Vivo, Ponto Frio, AllStar, and LG. It won dozens of creative awards and was elected Advertising Agency of the Year multiple times. In 2009, it was named one of the world's leading independent agencies by thenetworkone and Campaign Magazine.

Roberto Justus left the partnership in 1998. The agency then became Fischer América under Eduardo Fischer alone. Over the following decade, the agency lost major accounts one by one. Brahma moved its business after InBev's global consolidation. Other clients followed as global networks consolidated their agency rosters. The agency could not replace the lost revenue or adapt to the digital transformation that was reshaping advertising. By 2018, the agency had no physical office and its social media had gone silent.

In late 2018, a group of 120 former employees went public. They had stopped receiving salaries and benefits. Fischer América had moved to an unknown address without notifying its staff. The agency was reduced to three small government clients — Sabesp, CSN, and Embracon — served by a handful of employees working from home. Eduardo Fischer did not respond. The agency closed in 2019. As of 2026, more than 42 former employees were still pursuing unpaid wages through the courts, with writs issued against Fischer's personal assets.

Kept the brand alive on three small government clients while 120 employees went unpaid, leaving 42 lawsuits and personal writs against Fischer.

Fischer América depended on a few large accounts — Brahma, Schincariol, Vivo — and lost them as global ad consolidation moved business to international networks.

Roberto Justus was the business brain. When he left in 1998, the agency lost the strategist who drove its growth. Eduardo Fischer was a creative star, not a manager.

The agency failed to adapt to digital advertising. Built on TV and print creativity, it was left behind as younger agencies took the digital budgets.

Eduardo Fischer ran the agency as a personal fiefdom. Rather than restructure or close with dignity, he kept the brand alive until employees went unpaid.

A creative agency riding a few big accounts can collapse when those accounts leave. Fischer América was legendary in the 1990s and invisible by 2019.

Fischer América's brand was destroyed by its failure to pay employees. Eduardo Fischer remained a public figure in Brazilian advertising and was hired in May 2026 as the campaign marketer for Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential run. In 2020, former partner Roberto Justus reflected publicly on the agency's legacy and its inglorious end. The story is told in Brazilian ad circles as the cautionary tale of a creative powerhouse that did not see the industry change until it was too late.