TODAY'S COMMENTARY by Jack Myers #151
Thursday, December 28th 2006
Jack Myers Media Business Report
CLASSIC JACK: Memo from Leo Burnett
The commentary below was written by Jack Myers in 1991 and is re-published here as both a retrospective as well as an opportunity to assess your current approaches to a radically changing business environment.
Originally published in 1991.
In light of the challenges to traditional advertising business models, it might be worthwhile for the industry to reflect on the words of legendary Leo Burnett, who founded the advertising agency in 1935 during the great depression. Following is a definition of Burnett'sadvertising objectives, which serve as important insight into a credo that is even more relevant nearly fifty years after they were written. Following is just a small part of an eight page memo written by Burnett to his staff. By Leo Burnett
People sometimes ask us: 'What is your technique?' The answer is: We have none. We think the main trouble with advertising is that it depends too much on 'techniques.' This is another way of saying that, in our opinion, a lot of the advertising which is being printed in valuable space and going out over expensive air is 'artificialized' rather than depending on an idea, and leans on the hollow shell of a technique. It looks like the real thing on the outside; it follows the 'copy platform' to the letter; it is usually salable to the client; and often it does all right in the Starch reports; but it has no more effective content that an over-ripe watermelon. It just doesn't have the right thump. We take the position that what advertising needs is more ideas in the raw - whether those ideas are delivered in 12-pointvtype or 64-point type, in black and white or color, in 24-sheets or over the air.We think that much more money is being wasted in advertising through lack of ideas and lack of expressiveness than in any other way. Another trouble is sameness. When advertising depends for its effectiveness on a technique, you are apt to find two or three advertisers in the same issue of a magazine or newspaper, or on thes ame radio networks, employing about the same technique. It is the aim of this agency to build advertising of engaging simplicity which has power, interest and excitement. This is not a 'technique.' It is really a state of mind shared by a number of people in this shop who have a feel for fresh ideas and know them when they see them. It takes full cognizance of research and tested devices, but does not depend on them. Its freshness, its spontaneity and its effectiveness spring from an approach so elementary that most agencies and most advertisers walk right past it. This approach takes people as they are and a product as it is and writes into the headlines, the illustrations and the copy a thought which is at once newsworthy, informative and provocative. It has an earthy, human quality which most advertising lacks. It is bold and vigorous, yet with disarming words which get both attention andb elief. It has almost conversational warmth. It has a friendly overtone which makes people feel good about a product when they see it in the market place.While it aims to get right to the flesh of the reader and to appeal to his basic emotions and primitive instincts, it also has the effect of stimulating the salesman and awakening the trade. It is based on planning the sale when you plan the ad. It is built around the three elements of sincerity, believability and warmth. We try to make our advertising 'fun to look at' - exciting to look at -but never forced, and right on the subject of the product itself. We maintain that every product has inherent drama. It is often hard to find. But it is always there, and once found it is the most interesting and believable of all advertising appeals. We repeat - sincerity, believability and warmth. Most writers, when they become sincere, are merely dull. Most writers, when they try to get warm and human, succeed merely in getting cute. Our problem is how to be sincere, believable and warm but colorful and provocative at the same time, with a good, honest American ring to our words. Good advertising does not come out of the ground, out of the air or out of a machine, but out of the mind of a man or a group of men [Burnett obviously wrote this before gender sensitivity was an issue] who know the score on the conduct of a business and the sale of merchandise, who have a genuine understanding of people, and who have the creative urge and ability to say the right thing at the right time in the right way without relation to what may have been said before or the way it was said. Today, it seems to us, when the advertising needs of business are greater than ever, there is a glaring lack of fresh advertising approach geared to the psychology of the times.
Thursday, December 28th 2006
Jack Myers Media Business Report
CLASSIC JACK: Memo from Leo Burnett
The commentary below was written by Jack Myers in 1991 and is re-published here as both a retrospective as well as an opportunity to assess your current approaches to a radically changing business environment.
Originally published in 1991.
In light of the challenges to traditional advertising business models, it might be worthwhile for the industry to reflect on the words of legendary Leo Burnett, who founded the advertising agency in 1935 during the great depression. Following is a definition of Burnett'sadvertising objectives, which serve as important insight into a credo that is even more relevant nearly fifty years after they were written. Following is just a small part of an eight page memo written by Burnett to his staff. By Leo Burnett
People sometimes ask us: 'What is your technique?' The answer is: We have none. We think the main trouble with advertising is that it depends too much on 'techniques.' This is another way of saying that, in our opinion, a lot of the advertising which is being printed in valuable space and going out over expensive air is 'artificialized' rather than depending on an idea, and leans on the hollow shell of a technique. It looks like the real thing on the outside; it follows the 'copy platform' to the letter; it is usually salable to the client; and often it does all right in the Starch reports; but it has no more effective content that an over-ripe watermelon. It just doesn't have the right thump. We take the position that what advertising needs is more ideas in the raw - whether those ideas are delivered in 12-pointvtype or 64-point type, in black and white or color, in 24-sheets or over the air.We think that much more money is being wasted in advertising through lack of ideas and lack of expressiveness than in any other way. Another trouble is sameness. When advertising depends for its effectiveness on a technique, you are apt to find two or three advertisers in the same issue of a magazine or newspaper, or on thes ame radio networks, employing about the same technique. It is the aim of this agency to build advertising of engaging simplicity which has power, interest and excitement. This is not a 'technique.' It is really a state of mind shared by a number of people in this shop who have a feel for fresh ideas and know them when they see them. It takes full cognizance of research and tested devices, but does not depend on them. Its freshness, its spontaneity and its effectiveness spring from an approach so elementary that most agencies and most advertisers walk right past it. This approach takes people as they are and a product as it is and writes into the headlines, the illustrations and the copy a thought which is at once newsworthy, informative and provocative. It has an earthy, human quality which most advertising lacks. It is bold and vigorous, yet with disarming words which get both attention andb elief. It has almost conversational warmth. It has a friendly overtone which makes people feel good about a product when they see it in the market place.While it aims to get right to the flesh of the reader and to appeal to his basic emotions and primitive instincts, it also has the effect of stimulating the salesman and awakening the trade. It is based on planning the sale when you plan the ad. It is built around the three elements of sincerity, believability and warmth. We try to make our advertising 'fun to look at' - exciting to look at -but never forced, and right on the subject of the product itself. We maintain that every product has inherent drama. It is often hard to find. But it is always there, and once found it is the most interesting and believable of all advertising appeals. We repeat - sincerity, believability and warmth. Most writers, when they become sincere, are merely dull. Most writers, when they try to get warm and human, succeed merely in getting cute. Our problem is how to be sincere, believable and warm but colorful and provocative at the same time, with a good, honest American ring to our words. Good advertising does not come out of the ground, out of the air or out of a machine, but out of the mind of a man or a group of men [Burnett obviously wrote this before gender sensitivity was an issue] who know the score on the conduct of a business and the sale of merchandise, who have a genuine understanding of people, and who have the creative urge and ability to say the right thing at the right time in the right way without relation to what may have been said before or the way it was said. Today, it seems to us, when the advertising needs of business are greater than ever, there is a glaring lack of fresh advertising approach geared to the psychology of the times.
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