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Dodson, Craddock & Born Advertising was Pensacola’s first full service advertising agency. Mayhew "Pat" Dodson, ex-Marine Captain, founded the advertising company in 1958 as the Pat Dodson Agency, borrowing the $75 needed to buy a city license. He was joined that year by local artist Patricia Thornton Born. Their first office was located at 314 S. Baylen Street. According to Pat Born it was rumored to have once housed a well-known brothel. Initial clients included Mutual Federal Savings & Loan, First National Bank of Milton and the Bank of Jay.

One of their most famous and popular projects was the neon billboard that leads the way to Pensacola Beach. Designed by Pat Born, in the early 1960s the giant billboard features a neon billfish that lures tourists to Florida's Pensacola Beach. Recent talk of replacing the historic sign with one more up to date brought out vocal defenders who managed to save the billfish from an ignoble fate.