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Leo Burnett Recollections
Dalton O'Sullivan
November, 2001:
For most of us lucky enough to work at Leo Burnett (as I did as a writer and copy supervisor in the 1960s) there's no question: Leo was an outstanding advertising man! A remarkable man generally! And a real sweetheart!
Unlike many agency heads of the time, Leo was not puffed up with his own importance -- no fancy suits, putting on heirs, or expectancy he should be bowed down to. (In fact he was quite humble and many times looked kind of rumpled.) But God help you if you were lazy in your approach to an advertising problem dealing with one of his clients. However, if you had a well thought out idea, even if he didn't like it, he would listen -- and even change his mind when you clicked off facts and figures and showed you worked hard to get them to back the idea up. He lived and breathed advertising and he expected you to do the same.
The impressive thing about Leo was his amazing ability to understand and touch the heart of the "common man" -- the mass market. The print and TV advertising he envisioned was not necessarily fancy, but always presented the product in a direct, down- to-earth way by developing and projecting the "inherent value" (which, obviously, in terms of results) the consumer would feel good about.
Some words from Leo's book "Communications of an Advertising Man", (published in 196l):
"....In the first place I want to make it clear that I am, and expect to remain, the creative head of this agency as long as I am capable of doing so. That does not mean I expect to participate either in all the planning or in all the review of all the work that goes out of here. It does mean, however, that I reserve the right to raise hell -- to leap in and tear things apart, whenever I feel fit to do so, and expect to be in touch with and to contribute to every campaign to the limit of my time and ability."
Some outstanding memories:(br)
*Leo walking down the steps of the Prudential Building carrying two packed leather satchels full of homework to his waiting car.(br)
*Leo often eating at Stouffer's lower level lunch counter while many of his creatives (including me) were likely in the upper level restaurant swilling martinis at the bar.(br)
*Leo walking down the halls and popping into copywriter cubicles asking "Whatcha doin'? Mind if I take a look?" -- then sitting down to work with you, often pulling a blue or thick-barreled black pencil from the many in his vest pocket to incorporate some of his thoughts on the copy. (Leo would agree he was not an outstanding writer, but he was an outstanding idea man and editor.)(br)
*Leo sitting down, emptying his pockets of four or more different Philip Morris, Inc. brands on the table, then smoking cigarettes from each pack throughout the meeting.
One memory (experience) which at the time was quite unnerving: We had worked many months on a Motorola campaign to introduce a rectangular tube color TV. It was Christmas Eve. Client presentation was to be the first or second week in January. We took the campaign to Creative Review Committee. We bombed royally! The committee asked we have a new campaign by January 2. My boss (I was his copy supervisor) who had shepherded the campaign said: "It's all yours Sully, I'm off on vacation for the next couple of weeks." Well somehow, with the help of an additional writer and art director in addition to those in our group, we got together three campaigns, one of which I felt was right on. The CRC drill was, you presented, Leo would comment and then it was an open duck shoot for those around the table to agree or disagree. Leo shot us down, and so the group. My knees and my presentation had been very shaky. But after listening to a lot of off the wall comments from the table, I was steamed and asked for a rebuttal. I started by saying: "The people around this table make a lot more money than I do. My neighbors work as a policeman, a furniture factory foreman a carpenter and a plumber. Unlike you, they have to be concerned about how they spend their money and the quality and value of the products they buy and how they fit their needs. They aren't the precious few in our society who buy Stromberg-Carlson, or Capeheart, or Magnavox (high end TVs at the time). They are the mass market -- and they are Motorola's market. This campaign addresses what the average consumer is interest in. " (Or some such.) Then restated the campaign. Leo listened -- and after a long pause did his trademark mumble: "Emm... ah....emm ...ah... you're right... ahh...don't you other fellows agree? " And they did. I had (finally!) presented Leo with the kind of advertising rationale he built his agency on. All that was left to do on the campaign was some Leo Burnett style burnishing.
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Man from GLAD Recollections
Dalton J. O'Sullivan, II
January 16, 2002
The Man from Glad may not have been
the icon the Marlboro Man was. None-the-less, he helped engender a profitable
life for Union Carbide GLAD products that extended years beyond his inception
in 1963 -- even now is often remembered by many of those who saw the first
Man from GLAD TV commercials aired almost 40 years ago.
The basic aim, of course, was to
convince consumers GLAD products were a unique and convenient way to answer
the problem of protecting the holding life, purity and flavor of their
foods. The game was to find a presenter who epitomized the
product benefit. White had always been a symbol
for honesty, protection and purity which we wanted to convey presenter
to product -- so the white suit. And by drawing from the honest,
problem solving, clipped, underplayed presentation by Jack Webb on the
TV show "Dragnet," ("Just the facts, ma'am.") and that of whitish blond
film star Allan Ladd, both popular at the time, we were able to develop
a physical model for The Man from GLAD. The actor we chose had a flat presentation
that worked perfectly for us, although some film producers had rejected him for lacking fire.
So came the man with
white suit and hair, ("Man from GLAD, Man from GLAD!") rushing (in or on
one of his unique GLAD vehicles) to quickly resolve a "disaster"
for a "person or persons" with a food protection problem.
He always seemed to help!
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